Barrow County Board of Education rolls back millage, agrees to cover SRO salaries

The Barrow County Board of Education voted 9–0 on July 24 to roll back its millage rate to 15.193 mills and to pay 100% of the direct salary-and-benefit costs for 24 approved school resource officers starting in the 2025–26 school year.

The move came after the board combined discussion of the SRO (school resource officer) contract and the millage-setting item, a change the board approved at the start of the meeting. Ms. Houston, the district finance officer, told trustees the district’s 2026 general fund budget projected $226,300,000 in expenditures and $213,000,000 in revenue using a 15.5-mill rate, producing a planned use of fund balance of $12,900,000.

“After our tentative budget was set, the Board of Commissioners let us know that they wanted to adjust the amount the Board of Education was billed for school resource officers,” Ms. Houston said, summarizing the county’s requested change and the district’s options for balancing the budget. The district said the commissioners’ requested SRO billing would add roughly 0.195 mills (bringing the advertised rate to about 15.695 mills). The finance staff also identified 21.5 vacant positions that could be frozen, saving about $1,862,000 and lowering the required millage to about 15.268.

Board members discussed the trade-offs between the advertised rates and the calculated rollback rate provided by the county. Ms. Houston told trustees…