On Thursday, June 12th, the Clarke County Board of Education (BOE) approved their balanced budget of $254,945,221 for the 2026 fiscal year.
Along with approving the budget, the BOE voted to maintain their current millage rate of 18.8 mills for the fourth year in a row.
The budget is about a $13.2 million increase from 2025. Over $8.5 million of the increase will go towards employee state health insurance and teacher retirement system benefits covered by the district.
The budget will also allocate $1.1 million for 17 additional school resource officer positions. 3 of the 17 new positions will be armed officers, with the remainder being unarmed and placed at each of the district’s elementary schools.
In the event of an emergency, the district has set aside about $55 million to ensure a well-ordered school year.
There will also be an expected increase of 6.46% for property taxes, raising the amount of tax collections by 1.141 mills. Based on property assessed value compared from 2024 to 2025, some property owners will receive increases, while others will not.
