EDUCATION
The Jones County Board of Education held a called meeting last week to adopt the millage rate for 2023 property taxes and once again rolled taxes back, albeit a small amount, for the third consecutive year.
Board Chairman Ginger Bailey called the Aug. 10 meeting to order, and Superintendent Charles Lundy expressed his condolences to the family of Linton Jordan, who served as Jones County School System School Superintendent for 30 years, retiring in 1991.
Jordan, 93, died Aug. 8. Lundy said the flags at all Jones County Schools were flying half-staff in Jordan’s honor.
“Some of the decisions we make today are from the foundation he laid,” he said.
Board Member Alfred Pitts said Jordan was a man of his word.
“I heard him say several times he would do his job if no one paid him,” Pitts recalled. “This is the school system Jordan built.”
The board member said Jordan always put the students and school system first, rarely taking time off.
“When you think of what he gave to the school system; we do nothing,” Pitts added.
Bailey also expressed her sympathy at his passing.
“He touched each one of us in different ways,” she said.
Action items
The agenda of the meeting was short beginning with the primary reason it was called, the adoption of the 2023 millage rate. Lundy recommended setting the tax rate at 17.761 for M&O and 1.788 for bond debt.
That is a rollback of .204 from the 2022 rate of 17.965, and the third year the Board of Education has reduced the tax rate. The 2021 tax rate was 17.989, which was rolled back from the previous rate of 18.00.
The new tax rate was unanimously approved by board members in attendance. Dr. Nancy Nash was absent from the meeting.
Lundy recommended approval of a contract with DAIKIN Applied Georgia to purchase four 3-ton and one 4-ton air conditioners for Clifton Ridge Middle School at an estimated cost $27,311, utilizing fund from the maintenance and operation budget.
His final recommendation was the purchase of six 2024 Integrated 72 passenger CE S propane buses under state contract at an estimated cost of $816,000, utilizing funds from the 2019 Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
The two recommendations were unanimously approved, and the meeting was adjourned.
