GREENE COUNTY
The Greene County Board of Education met in regular session Aug. 20 to discuss multiple agenda items regarding the 2026-27 school year and hear public concerns.
Earlier in the meeting, the board heard public comments from Greene County resident Tiffany Gresham, who expressed concern about school uniforms. She noted the color scheme recently changed, and she did not receive notice of the updates until after purchasing the uniforms.
“Back in December, I bought $300 worth of uniforms since I knew the colors and assumed that they would be the same this year,” Gresham said. “Now that the scheme has changed, I just wanted to ask that you all consider letting parents know by at least the second semester, because some of us try to purchase them in advance. But I can’t do anything with Navy Blue, so I bought those for nothing.”
Gresham also expressed concerns about the county’s updated school start time, saying it creates conflicts for parents with children in different age groups.
“Last year it worked out perfectly because the high schoolers were going to school after the elementary school, but now that they have to be at school basically at 7:45, there’s an issue with getting both of them to school on time,” Gresham said. “Thankfully, it now works out for me, but now I speak as a whole for those who it doesn’t work for, because as parents, we have different things going on. I think a solution or something to look at is letting parents know that time may change, maybe a few weeks before, and that would give them more time to prepare.”
GCSS Superintendent Dr. Aaryn Schmuhl responded to her comment, thanking her for expressing the concern, and noted that he and the board are considering options to give parents more time to prepare.
“I believe that for the board, those are both things that we consider there, definitely giving parents more time to plan, that makes a lot of sense, and so we will continue to get those under consideration,” Schmuhl said. “We run a shuttle for our staff members who work at the high school, for their children to go to the elementary school, so we’ve allowed siblings who need to get on that shuttle to also use it.”
In other updates, the board approved the purchase of two heavy-equipment simulators from Learning Labs Inc. for $222,690. The equipment will be purchased for the Greene College and Career Academy’s Heavy Equipment Pathway.
The board approved its annual Direct Services Agreement with Northeast Georgia RESA, with $172,764.90 to be paid from the General Fund. Northeast Georgia RESA provides direct services to special education students, including physical and occupational therapy, vision services, and services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
The board also approved the 2026 millage rate of 9.847, which will generate approximately $41,280,436.25.
“We’ve had three millage rate tax hearings and had the opportunity to discuss the impact to our budget, moving the millage rate from what we anticipated could be an increase in June to holding it here at 9.847,” Schmuhl said. “Our next item will be to approve an amendment to the budget that we approved in June, reflecting this change in the millage rate.”