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Weekend Edition - MAY 19-20,2023 | $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com
Honestly Local
1. TLiP
Camper destroyed in fire on
Candler Road in Gainesville.
REGION, 4B
Hall BOE to meet again for budget vote
Superintendent Schofield on mistake
Hall School Board Budget Hearings
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
The Hall County school board is
calling a special meeting on Mon
day, May 22, after forgetting to
adopt a preliminary budget at their
regular meeting earlier this week.
The school system announced
late last month that it would adopt
its preliminary budget on May 15,
but by the time the meeting was
over, there hadn’t been any fiscal
talk.
Superintendent Will Schofield
took the blame.
“In terms of whose fault it was
that we forgot on Monday, that’s
100% me. I’m the secretary of the
board,” Schofield said. “I dropped
the ball. We had all our documenta
tion, we were ready, we had talked
about it. We had actually gone over
exactly what we were going to
adopt a week before. It didn’t get
on the agenda. I didn’t catch it and
before you knew it the meeting was
over and I said, ‘I’ll be doggone.’”
Last year, the school board had
to delay the adoption of its bud
get and millage rate by a month
because legal advertisements in
‘I dropped the ball’
The Times weren’t large enough.
It was an unusually packed
house on Monday: a total of 69
students were given awards for
performing well in various compe
titions related to career, technical
and agricultural education.
“We got all caught up in all those
wonderful awards that we gave,”
Schofield said.
“With all the awards and stuff
we presented Monday, we didn’t
approve the preliminary budget,”
said school board chairman Criag
Herrington. “We had it there in
front of us, but it wasn’t listed on
Here is the 2023-24 budget and
millage rate adoption schedule,
which includes three public
hearings at the school district’s
central office at 711 Green St.
Preliminary budget
• 5 p.m. May 22
the agenda, so to make it offi
cial we’re going to meet Monday
afternoon at five o’clock and we’ll
approve it then.”
Schofield is recommending that
the board approve a reduction in
the millage rate, though officials
haven’t said by how much. The
final budget and millage rate will
Public hearings
• 6 p.m. June 12
• 11:30 a.m. June 26
• 6 p.m. June 26
Final budget and millage rate
adoption
• 6:30 p.m. June 26
be adopted June 26.
“Right now, it looks like it’s going
to be lower. Over the next couple
of weeks we’ll be in a better posi
tion to say, ‘We think it’ll be this,”’
Schofield said.
The current millage rate is 15.99.
■ Please see BUDGET, 4A
Knights to remember
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Johnson High graduating seniors and family members filled Free Chapel Worship Center on Thursday, May 18,
for the school’s graduation ceremony. It is the school’s 50th graduating class.
Buford man
gets 12 years
for fentanyl
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Buford man who admitted to selling fen
tanyl every week for months
was sentenced to 12 years in
federal prison, according to
authorities.
Jamerris Head, 39, pleaded
guilty to two counts of distrib
uting fentanyl and was sen
tenced Wednesday, May 17,
by U.S. District Judge Richard
W. Story.
Story recommended that
Head be allowed to serve his
sentence at a facility as close as possible to
■ Please see FENTANYL, 4A
Head
Flowery Branch
gives first OK to
zoning changes
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
A flurry of new zoning changes could take
effect when a growth moratorium in Flowery
Branch ends July 5.
The city is largely addressing codes that are
outdated and don’t address current economic
conditions, city officials said.
For example, residential zoning for single
family homes allows for bigger lots than are
being marketed today. “It’s like back in the ‘70s,
when people wanted a 1-acre lot with a house on
it,” City Manager Tonya Parrish said.
“As developments change and there’s
increases in pricing for land and materials, you
■ Please see ZONING, 5A
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