At its Thursday, May 14 meeting, the Clarke County Board of Education gave tentative approval to a fiscal year 2027 General Fund budget of $263 million based on maintaining the current school district millage rate of 18.8 mills for a fourth consecutive year.
View more information on the proposed FY27 budget.
Public Hearings
As required by state law, the school board will conduct three public hearings, starting June 1, due to the proposed millage rate being higher than the “rollback” rate — the rate that would be used to produce the same amount of taxes collected in FY2026. There is an expected increase of 4.25% for property taxes levied in 2026, and while the millage rate would remain the same under the tentative budget, that would in effect increase overall property-tax collections by .767 mills.
Each year, the assessed value for taxable property in Athens-Clarke County is recalculated, and the Board of Tax Assessors is required by law to reassess values based on fair market value. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $400,000 is approximately $115.05, and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $500,000 is approximately $153.40.
All public presentations and hearings will be held in the Vernon Payne Meeting Hall at the Clarke County School District administrative offices building, located at 595 Prince Ave., Athens. Anyone who wishes to speak may sign up in the meeting room before the meeting begins. The meeting schedule for the budget hearings and millage rate hearings is as follows:
6 p.m. Monday, June 1 – budget presentation and millage rate hearing
6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2 – millage rate hearing
6 p.m. Wednesday, June 10 – budget presentation and millage rate hearing.
All three hearings will be livestreamed and available for on-demand viewing on the CCSD YouTube channel. The board is scheduled to give final budget approval and set the millage rate at its next scheduled regular meeting on Thursday, June 11, at 7 p.m. in the Vernon Payne Meeting Hall.