School Board Rejects County Commission Request For Joint Meetings

The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday turned down a proposal from the Board of Commissioners that the two bodies meet with the public in three Town Hall sessions stretching from this month through January of 2021.

Instead, the Board of Education accepted Chair Tom Odom’s proposal that he approach the Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia about conducting a training program for the members of the two Boards.

Odom said once the Carl Vinson Institute agreed to conduct the training program he would approach Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell and ask him to get the Board of Commissioners to join the session.

Neither Odom not any other member of the Board of Education made any reference to how the public might be involved in a session with the Carl Vinson Institute, a government training unit of the University of Georgia, though the state’s open meeting law would seem to require that.

In other action on Monday, the Board of Education discussed a joint use agreement between the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners that allows the county and the school system to begin charging the other for use of recreational facilities.

The Board of Commissioners, at its meeting on Tuesday night, approved the three-year agreement, which should be back before the Board of Education for action at its regular meeting on Monday.

The Board of Commissioners said the school system will continue to have access to county recreational facilities without paying a fee, while the Board of Education plans to roll in fees starting with the second year of the contract.

For more on the story, with video records of the Board of Education and Board of Commissioners meetings, please go to Oconee County Observations.