001Good evening. Good evening and welcome to uh the Wednesday June 25th, 2025 final public hearing regarding the military. Uh this is a meeting that we listen to you the public and I am thrilled to see so many people here this evening. Uh I will remind you that we have board meetings every month and we would love to see you at every one of them. Uh uh first we'll have a presentation from Miss Kulie and then it is time to hear from you. Thank you again for being here. Thank you Mr. Moss and good good evening everyone. Before we jump into the presentation I do have a few comments that I'd like to make about our budget process if that's okay. Um, so at its core, I I see our budget as more than just dollars
002and cents and more than just a spreadsheet with numbers reflected on it. Um, our budget is a reflection of our values. Um, our strategic plan and action and the shared aspirations we have for the 36,000 students that we serve. Every dollar allocated and every dollar spent tells a story about what matters most. The budget process has been complex and it's also been collaborative. It's been about choices and it's been about tradeoffs. Um, and it's also about meeting the needs of our current circumstances while also planning for an unknown future. I fully realize that this community has entrusted me and the leadership teams with two of its most important assets, its children and its money. As it relates to the children, you have often heard me say that I am driven by the aspirations of our
003students having choicefilled lives. And this does not happen without a strong literacy foundation, a strong workforce development opportunity, a great teacher in every classroom with staff and leadership um to meet the diverse needs of our students and a school environment that is well-maintained and conducive to teaching and learning. Our bus drivers contribute to that. Our counselors, our cafeteria workers, and our pair of professionals also make that contribution. These employees in our district make the difference. They are the ones that are maximizing the potential and they are the difference between potential and mediocrity. Our budget reflects a significant investment in students this year. a highdose tutoring opportunity for a few of our schools, additional preschool classrooms, differentiated support for our most challenged schools, and our continued focus on literacy. I'm proud of those new initiatives and
004continuing initiatives. It also puts an even stronger investment in the ones who are truly making the difference in our schools, and that is our frontline employees. So improving their compensation structures has been a priority in this budget. These efforts have a price tag. That does not fall short on me. I realize they cost money. But I also believe that we will reap the rewards of a stronger workforce and students with the proficiency and skills to grow both now academically and take advantage of having a choice field life. We are on our way. Your support will continue to allow us to drive progress, fuel innovation, and ensure that every child gets what they are gets what is needed to be successful regardless of the zip code. I also would just like to leave you with two
005other tenants that are important to me and those two tenants are operational efficiency and stewardship. Um, these two tenants have been very important in my decision ma decision making as it relates to the budget and the millage rate. Um, as it relates to the dollars that the community contributes, I am committed more than ever to lead with discipline and with care as it relates to the funding that you have invested in us. I think I have given you adequate evidence to date that I am looking to streamline systems, work smarter, and make cuts that do not sacrifice student outcomes and making oper but promote operational efficiency. We have made millions of dollars in cuts and in reductions over the last two years, but I have done that strategically and responsibly without any negative consequences to
006date. As it relates to stewardship, I believe that there is adequate evidence to substantiate that I am committed to leading with integrity and transparency. I understand fully the need to work within our means. I fully acknowledge that our budget has increased in places as well. But please take into account that there are unfunded mandates from the state and we too as a school district are burdened with a the current economy and rising expenses. Please know that I will continue to examine every dollar spent and make reductions that do represent a return on investment. But I have to do that responsibly with deliberation and not just cutting to meet a target number. We chase efficiency not just for the sake of chasing efficiency but we have to do that in a way that supports the systems
007in our school district and the students that we serve. So with that said as we move forward I want to thank each board member for their guidance and input. The push in the pull has helped me tremendously in the budget development process. Immense gratitude to the staff who've been asked to drill down in their budgets in a way that they have never done before. They've taken the time to lean in and learn more about how the budget works and a willingness to make cuts. I'm also appreciative of every email, every call, every social media post, every news article, every po public comment made in our hearings and other communications. Your comments do not fall on deaf ears. I appreciate your input to the community and our families. And with that said, I'll turn it over
008to Paige. Thank you, Dr. Watson. Good evening, everyone. Evening. Public hearing on the millage rate. Taxpayer bill of rights. Although the district is not seeking to raise the millage rate, any millage rate that is in excess of the roll back rate must be advertised as a tax increase, requires a press release to be issued and requires three public hearings to be held. Last week, we held two public hearings on June 17th at 11:00 a.m. and 6 pm. And this is our third hearing, which is um tonight, 6 pm. In 1999, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights with the intent to prevent what was referred to as back backdoor tax increases. The taxpayer bill of rights and rules were developed by the Georgia Department of Revenue to implement this legislation to establish
009a process that all local government jurisdictions which includes counties, cities, and boards of education must follow. This process ensures full disclosure to the public for any increases, including increases that result from value inflation. The taxpayer bill of rights was established to notify the public about inflationary increases to existing property values at the local government level. It also enhanced individual property owners rights when objecting to and appealing an increase in a property's appraised value to the county board of assessors. According to the taxpayer bill of rights, each taxing jurisdiction must roll back or reduce the millage rate each year to offset any inflationary increases in the tax digest. If the county or other governing authority elects to set their millage rate higher than the roll back rate, then they must follow certain requirements to notify the
010public that taxes are being increased. The public notification process includes three public hearings, public notices of the increase in the local newspaper and press releases. Each year, the Chattam County Board of Assessors establishes the taxable value of all property in the county and publishes the certified tax digest for each taxing jurisdiction. The board of education has two separate taxing jurisdictions and therefore receives two separate digest. One for maintenance and operations and another for bond indebtedness. Each of these two taxing jurisdictions has its own millage rate which is determined by the board. Taxable values exist for six types of property. real property, personal property, vehicles, mobile homes, timber, and heavy duty equipment. Digest values for both jurisdictions are shown on the chart. The current digest amounts and amounts for the last five years were published in
011the local paper as required by law. Sometimes when assessed property values go up, homeowners will pay more taxes even when the school district millage rate remains unchanged or is lowered. Even though the millage rate has not gone up, taxpayers may see increased cost. This is because the value of their property has increased. In the chart presented, the red line represents the millage rate. The millage rate in the example is unchanged. As the property value increases in year two, the higher tax liability is a result of increased property values. For fiscal year 2026, Savannah Chattam County Public School System recommends no change in the current millage rate of 17.481 mills. Changes in the digest value of real property, one of the six types of property, can take two forms, new construction or reassessment of existing property.
012Once the assessor establishes the taxable value of real property, they calculate the millage equivalent of any reassessments, subtract it from last year's millage rate, and the result becomes the roll back rate. The millage equivalent is determined by taking the value of reassessments divided by the total digest and multiplying the result by last year's millage rate. This calculation is shown on the slide. The tenative millage rate adopted by the board of education for maintenance and operations exceeds the roll back rate. Here you see the 17.481 mills remains the same in the two millage rates from last year to the initial tenative rate for calendar year 2025. Calculation of school taxes on a home valued at 250,000 with only the state regular homestead exemption is shown on this slide. This is an example of a property tax
013bill in which the property value increases from the prior year using the recommended millage of 17.481 mills. The total estimated tax for county school M is $2,27253. This slide shows an example of a property tax bill in which the property value does not change from the prior year using 17.481 mills. The total estimated tax for county school M is $2,97.72. This sl this slide shows an example of a property tax bill in which the property value decreases from the prior year using the recommended millage of 17.481 mills. The total estimated tax county M is $1,922.91. This concludes the presentation on the school millage rate. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Mr. So, uh, we have several people that have signed up to speak and I'm again I'm very happy to see all
014of you here today. Um, I will remind you that you're here to speak only on the budget and military. This hearing is only regarding the budget and military. Okay, let's get started. Uh first, uh Freda Smith. Good evening, Chairman Moss, Dr. Watts, and members of the board. I am Freda Smith, and that's okay. It's mispronounced always. Uh, I and my husband have been living in Savannah for going on 20 years now. We are homeowners. And can y'all hear me? And um I am also a partner with Julian Miller, Martin Miller, and Jesse Petri in our commercial rental real estate uh business. We have property here in Savannah, and we have numerous properties throughout the state. So, we're quite we're no stranger to paying property taxes and understanding property taxes. So, a couple of weeks ago
015when the announcement came out of this hearing, I took it upon myself to compile to go to the state board or the school board website and compile a lot of data because there's plenty of it there that you guys have graciously put out for past and proposed budgets. put all those in a spreadsheet and I then created numerous charts that I'm hoping I can leave with you guys because I think they'll be very helpful to you. I do this often in running our businesses and so but there's so much there I'm going to make it easy on you and just ask one simple question and that is I want to ask why it is that between fiscal year 2019 and now coming up on 2026 the revenue has increased by 68% at a time when
016school enrollment has gone down by 5%. That's my big ask to understand. I think it's kind of an alarming trend, actually worse than what the federal government has done over the last seven years. So, I'm not putting pressure for you to answer the question right now. I'm going to request that you do not approve this budget and that instead you table the budget and work with the administration to take a look at uh what has caused this and help us the taxpayers understand it. not going to ask for anything else, but I'm gonna quickly leave you with um I assume you probably already are aware of this, but if not, there was a bill passed that was put forth by our local delegation uh in the legislature this past session. It's House Bill 782 named
017the Chattam County Schools Tax Relief Act. and u in November it will be on the ballot for us to vote on a referendum of whether to eliminate the CPI increases that the school board has enjoyed. Y'all obviously know about this so I'll leave it at that and I really appreciate uh you're enabling me to talk. Can I leave this information with someone? Hopefully give it to the office. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, next we have uh Miss Beth Majeroni. And uh, everyone uh, each of you have three minutes. Thank you. My name is Beth Majeroni. I'm a retired reading teacher and I've given over 30 school board speeches since the summer of 2021. I care about Savannah Cadam Public Schools. Dr. Watts, you have been a breath of fresh air since you
018were hired two years ago. I consider the school system lucky to have you. Your top strengths include your transparency, your focus on literacy as the north star, and your ability to listen. We have engaged multiple times and I've always felt heard by you. Even in those instances where we've had to agree to disagree with this budget and coupled with your two-year tenure, the school district finds itself at a crossroads as it relates to f fiscal responsibility. To illustrate the problem, note that since 2020, the school district's budget has increased cumulatively at approximately 25% over inflation along with declining enrollment. Every year, the school district comes back to us, the taxpayers, to help the system throw more money at problems that money alone won't solve. If money would have solved it, we wouldn't continue to see
019our test scores decline and our level of difficulty in recruiting teachers increase. As the superintendent, you alone at this point in your tenure have the power to change the embarrassing pattern of accepting what's been done for at least the past decade of kicking the budget can down the road. I humbly put forth a suggestion for your consideration that would fully roll back the millage rate. The community applauds your policy where vacancies weren't filled, which contributed to the district's $28 million surplus in the unreserved fund balance referenced at a previous meeting. In following the public information shared, it's also been noted that the system already has an acceptable two and a half months in their general fund. The $28 million surplus isn't needed to ensure that benchmark of security. This opens the door for the surplus
020to instead enable you as superintendent to fully roll back the millage rate to 16.826 mills. Notably, my suggestion only solves this year's issue, but it allows time for true change for the next budget cycle. I would suggest you strongly consider using a zerobased budget model versus traditional budgeting for the budget. Zerobased budgeting requires justifying every expense from scratch each budget cycle rather than adjusting prior budgets. The zerobased budget pro process helps prioritize resources, yields leaner budgets, and redirects funds to strategic priorities in real time. Thank you for considering my two suggestions which would accomplish nullifying the tax increase this year and providing a template for overhauling the budget process for next year. Good evening. Thank you. Uh next Mr. Bert Brantley. Hey, good evening. Good to see you guys. Last time I was here, uh,
021we were talking about East Bloss and we were proud to partner with you guys on that program and our chamber, uh, board voted to support that. Congratulations on the overwhelming support that the voters showed. I'm here tonight just to quickly represent our 2,300 members at the Savannah Chamber uh, and acknowledge the challenges that Superintendent Watts laid out and just remind you that our businesses are facing those exact same challenges. rising costs, rising uh supplies, rising uh salaries, all those things are the same things that our our businesses uh face every day. Uh and so uh as when we supported uh the East Blast back in the spring, we asked uh really for two things uh from the system, continued transparency around the expenditures around those. Thank you for that and look forward to continuing to
022get those reports and sharing those with our members so we see the progress on those projects and on that funding. And then secondly, consideration of roll back of the millillage uh because we our businesses are facing uh those challenges every day. So thank you for doing these public hearings. Thank you for hearing uh from both our citizens and our business as well. Thank you for the focus on early literacy. Uh we know that's uh the key. Uh thank you for your focus on attendance. Have to be there in order to to be able to read. Uh and so we are fully supportive of those efforts. will continue to stand with you uh with your staff uh and the board on addressing those real challenges uh that we face every day uh in our schools. Uh
023and so we look forward to tackling those together. Thank you for hearing us tonight. Uh and good luck. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Timothy. Cany Connie Kenny. Okay. Hello. Uh nice to talk to you and thanks for having this meeting. My name is Timothy Cany and I'm a concerned taxpaying resident of 44 years and I want to speak out against your proposal to increase property taxes. I've heard the number of students in the system is actually going down yet the and the test scores are also going down. So how can you justify raising taxes even more? I know the millage is staying the same, but the value of the house is going up. So obviously the taxes will be going up for me and I'm on a fixed income now retired. So just going to make
024life more and more difficult for me and many many other people. So I wish you would reconsider this and perhaps go to the zerobased budgeting as someone else has suggested. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Matthew Sauce. All righty. I appreciate it. And you got it on the first guest. Uh it's usually so uh sauce things all over the place. Uh just going to go ahead and get started here. President Moss, you know, esteemed members of the board. Appreciate you guys putting this together, having us here. uh seeing so many people out in the audience uh here talking about this, you know, on one side or the other. It's uh really exciting. Good to hear, good to see. Um like like uh stated uh before, my name is uh
025Matt Sauce, Matthew S. I've uh lived here 27 of my 30 years uh here in uh in Savannah on the south side. Um and I too am here to speak out against the proposal to increase property taxes through a status quo uh millage rate. Um as many other uh members have explained uh your proposal to uh keep the current mill rate uh will result in an increase in property taxes. Um people are already struggling greatly with the rising cost of living uh and you know the skyrocketing property values that we see uh by yearly through the uh assessor's office. Um many say uh that parents uh need to pull their weight with education at home. But if parents had less of a tax burden, they would be able to speak to work less and would
026be able to be at home with their family more. Uh if you increase the tax burden, parents will have to work more and we have and will have to spend less time with their kids. Um, we need a full roll back of the millage rate uh so that Chattam County residents don't see any new tax uh from the school board. In the time that I've got here, uh I'll detail exactly why this propo proposal is against the interests of the everyday Chattam resident. And this is all public information. Uh first, according to your website, uh Savannah Chattam County uh school enrollment rates are down as stated before. Uh testing scores are down as stated before, but you guys are proposing to bring our property taxes up. um less kids are in school uh than last
027year. Our student courts scores are well below the state average and uh the proposal wants us to fund more um of this through our property taxes with our own hardearned money. Um and I imagine your counterargument to this would be that the graduation rates have have sign significantly increased, but if testing scores are down, that means we've lowered the bar. Uh second, the expectation from the citizenry is that once we pass east, we wouldn't see any new taxes. Uh we've got 700 million plus dedicated over the next five years in education funding. Um on top of the proposal to increase property taxes by this board, uh the city is proposing a token roll back that will give incorporated residents a slight tax increase while the county commission the county commission is raising property taxes in
028incorporated areas exponentially. Uh third, where is this money going? Um according to a report by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, the Savannah Chattam County School Administrative Staff has increased from 26 to 136 in the past 10 years. Um like others have said, you guys should be providing tax relief, not tax increases. Uh for these reasons, I strongly urge you guys to oppose the proposal um and fully roll back the millage rate um so that we see no new taxes here in 2025. I appreciate it. Uh, and thank you so much. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Tommy Grooms. Hello. It's good to see you folks. So appreciate you having this meeting and allowing us the we the public, we the people to come address it with you. Um my name is Tommy Grooms. I'm a native Savanian
029heritage going back to 1951. I'm retired from the United States Air Force, senior citizen and a widowerower on a very fixed income. And obviously by virtue of that you could perceive what I'm going at is asking that you seriously consider not raising taxes. uh something that's going to be devastating to a lot of folks. I'm sure a lot of you here who've been around perhaps as long or almost as long as I have can attest to I live on Whit Marsh Allen to the folks on Tabby Allen who've been priced out of their homes due to the taxes rising over the years exponentially to the fact to the point where they cannot afford their homes and they've left and now so many have become short-term rentals. I know that's another issue there, but the fact
030is is also coupled in with that are the education taxes. And I want you to consider that as well because now I'm starting to see short-term rentals even on my island where I live on Whip Marsh and uh with with uh education taxes going up, it's going to affect a lot of us. I hate to see myself nor my neighbors lose our homes because we cannot afford them anymore. Uh something to really be considered. Think about if not yourselves then your parents and your family members your friends how this affects them. Think about the big picture not just board of education. Think about the big picture. We the people. That's what I have to say. Thank you. Thank you sir. Uh Rhonda Hamrech. Hi. Thank you for having us here today. My name is Rhonda
031Hamrick and I also am a concerned taxpaying citizen of 60 years also on a fixed income and uh my taxes are skyrocketing. Uh my assessment went up 62% which caused my taxes to go up quite a bit as well and at this rate very soon I could be taxed out of my house as well. So that's why uh I urge you to oppose the proposal to keep and support uh the millage rate so that we don't see any new taxes in 2025. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Uh Mr. Peter Rabbi Good evening. My name is Peter Robin. It's good to be back at one of your sham meetings where the outcome has already been decided before the meeting. I know this is not a wise crack remark. I've said here before meetings when people who
032are well-dressed, polite, wellspoken, intelligent, respectful come up here and plead a very elegant qu case for why we should not raise budgets and taxes and then you just go ahead and do it anyway. So look, attend enrollment is going down, not up. Cost to go down, not up. property values have gone up, not down. So, the millage rate should actually have gone smaller rather than raise people's taxes because even when property taxes when home values go up, people are are older, they live in those houses and they get forced out of their homes by the taxes. Just because you live in an expensive home doesn't mean you can afford it. At the same time, test scores go down, not up. And Dr. Watt, you made a very beautiful case at the beginning of the meeting.
033If it was only true, I mean, honest to goodness, you know, most Americans, the your graduating class, most of the kids don't have a clue, uneducated, especially when it comes to understanding anything about their own country. No, I know. Remember a year ago, I gave you all a petition to sign. Nobody, not never return a phone call, doctor. Never did it. So, I stopped I stopped wasting my time. But, you know what? You need to be more respectful to your community. I looked at the US Census website and the median income for Chattam County residents is under $35,000. So, Dr. Watts, you're paying paid literally 10 times the rate of earnings of the people you serve. 10 times. How is that fair? You know, if you want to cut expense, you need to cut expenses.
034Not raise, not get more money. Cut expenses. Sell some properties. Cut expenses. Be more respectful to the people who come here to talk to you. Don't raise taxes on people who can't afford it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Martin Miller, Dr. Mos, ladies and gentlemen of the board, thank you so much for having this meeting. I appreciate you listening to the people. Uh I uh signed up because I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to speak. If I needed to, I think every point that I would have made has been made. I I do encourage you uh to please look and take into consideration the information that Freda has has put before you. She has she didn't tell you this, but she has spent hours and hours and hours digging into the
035information uh that you put on the website to bring out questions that that show you what the normal human being would want to know. the questions are are not answered in in in the information that that you put in the in the in the on the website because it's it's it's it's pretty it's pretty difficult to read pages and pages and pages of what is done by professionals for professionals. But the questions that she's put out before you are the questions that the normal person wants to know. Why have taxes gone? Why are taxes going up? You understand that the millage rate is is is constant, but why are dollars being spent more dollars being spent when enrollment is going down? She's got information in there that shows you uh how much it costs per
036the information that you put in your in your website, how much it costs to educate a one child in a year. I think I would encourage you to please take that information into consideration before you make a final decision. Thank you again for having us here, for inviting these people to speak to you. uh it it's important for people to be able to come and talk to boards who have control of of the monies that you do. So, thank you for your work. Thank you, sir. And finally, um, Ramsey Clay, chairman, how are you? Martin's right. It's interesting that um I wrote you that many of you if you've known since you were I know your parents and fathers and you were little girls even there's many people here that I know and I've watched
037all of you because my wife said you have to go. I mean I said I'm going and I can't even imagine the amount of time and who's in this room. So, we're here to shed some light and there are two main issues and I really wanted to look at this from a macro view. I'm I do I've been here since 1979. I was a very young man and I've made my career and affordable housing, places to live and jobs. Jenkins, many of the high schools, we had work programs and the teachers would allow the students, you know, there were people, we used to call Dodge City or wherever, you know, the the west side in the Victorian district. There's Hazard County on the east side. So many many students, young people wanted to do something
038and get into the work environment. So I worked study. So there was program there were programs. There aren't any anymore. I don't see them. Um but I did on the macro look there's two things I just want to address. One of them are numbers scorecards and I did a little study not of Savannah Chadam but of other schools and other tuition averages. Um we are at 18,500 666 million and some change for 36,000 students. Easy number to come by. other private schools that start out with about5 or $6,000 through K4 and then it gets up to about 14 or 15,000. These are quality schools and Chadam County are quality schools. Um or 13,000 an average. If you take St. Andrews and BC, I'm going I'm going to do a spreadsheet. I I don't have all
039my data together yet, but I'm going to I'd like to bring it forward as a citizen. We have gotten tax increases for our and I can tell you Martin and Freda can tell you from 50% just take numbers say $100,000 in two years is $150,000. So with a tax digest like that I've got one warehouse that went up 500% in one year. So our tenant is going to move. He's going to go to another county. We've got warehouses in Liberty and Brian and now Bulock. And part of that the issue of when you look at a tax bill from a neighboring county versus Chadam, the amount of revenue, the amount of money you're working with, almost $700 million every single year is an enormous amount of opportunity. And one of the things that I was
040thinking about back to the macros. So we got this tuition aside per student. Um is real estate Savannah High for we all were there at the groundbreaking. We all were crying and everything but it's three or 400. It's underutilized that building you know I saw I saw lots of buildings Ramona Riley I mean all the ones so many of the schools uh that the school board looked at identified and closed and said we can't afford this. There are buildings you can't afford anymore. And it's not I watch you. It's a tempest in a teacup. You're struggling. You're fighting. You've got a tide of enrollment down and costs up. It It's They're never going to meet again. And I've seen many people in here look at something and go, "Well, I didn't see this until this
041morning or this is not a competitive bid. We have to bid competitively." I'm just asking you to look at it in a larger picture and oversee your assets and make your demand fit your assets and then that'll be a good starting point. Thank you, Mr. Kady. I won't be able to use any of this, but thank you. No. And do you have something you can leave with this? No, I I will though. Okay. I I was going to come tomorrow night as well. So, I've got a couple spreadsheets. Absolutely. We don't have a meeting tomorrow night. Oh, I thought there was another one tomorrow. Oh, well, I'm glad I came tonight. I can reach out to you. I will do that as a reach out. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Clay. All right.
042Uh, I will now that is everyone. I will now accept a motion to adjourn. adjourn the hearing. Yes, that's it's been moved and seconded. All in favor? All right. Uh five minutes. We need five minutes. Just a couple minutes just