Gordon County Schools votes to change millage rate

♦ The council also swore in a new school board member.

The Gordon County Board of Education voted on Monday night to adopt a new millage rate of 18.5 mills, rolled-back from the previous millage of 19.053 mills.

Board members voted unanimously to approve superintendent Dr. Kimberly Fraker’s recommended rate. The adoption of the new millage rate, reducing the current rate by just over half a mill, represents the lowest rate in 10 years.

The millage rate, set by the Gordon County Board of Education each year, is the tax rate used to calculate property taxes. The rate assigned is multiplied by the total taxable value of a property’s assessed value to calculate the total number of taxes used to help fund the local public school system. One mill is the equivalent of $1 per every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.

Gordon County Schools Financial Director Mendy Goble presented the proposed millage rate information at the Board of Education meeting on August 9th after discussing tax digest information collected from the Gordon County Tax Commissioners office.

Though the millage rate is set to decrease, the tax digest will allow for Gordon County Schools to see an increase in revenues. During the 2020 fiscal year, the Gordon County School System was projected to collect $16,706,664. This fiscal year,

with the lower millage rate, GCS is projected to collect $16,939,088.

All other Superintendent’s Recommendations on the night’s agenda were unanimously approved.

An item regarding applying for

state capital outlay funds, which would allow the schools to get back over $3 million, was met with excitement from the board members, with three speaking over one another to move to approve the item.

Otherwise, a change order on the Sonoraville High School’s hitting facility was approved, and the Red Bud Middle School baseball field work project was approved.

Discussion was also held regarding upcoming renovations on Ashworth Middle and Swain Elementary to improve overall safety and update the buildings to suit student needs.

The Gordon County School Board will meet again on Oct. 4, at the College and Career Academy, 305 Beamer Road. The work session begins at 6:15 p.m.