Georgia school district considers property tax hike to pay for school officers after shooting

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — Officials in the Georgia school district where four people were killed in a September shooting at Apalachee High School are considering a property tax increase to pay for school-based police officers.

Barrow County Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told school board members Tuesday that the tax increase would be necessary because county government has informed the school district that it will no longer pay for sheriff’s deputies, local news outlets reported.

The school district and Barrow County Commission have been splitting the price of deputies assigned as school resource officers since 2017. That number was originally 12, rose to 16 in 2024, and then to 24 after the shooting. That would place at least two officers in the district’s high schools and at least one officer in every other school, although officials haven’t yet been able to hire 24 deputies.

County commissioners sent a letter to LeDuff last month saying county government will for now pay half only 12 salaries, and eventually stop paying any of the costs.

“What they would like to see happen is that we as a school system be responsible for funding 100% of all direct and indirect costs for all 24 officers that we are staffing now, along with future officers we might add,” LeDuff said.

The superintendent said the district will cover whatever the officers cost, calling it ”nonnegotiable.” The district has been under intense local pressure since the shooting to improve security, agreeing to install weapons detectors at its high schools and middle schools this year after months of community outcry.

“Especially in light of Sept. 4, I am deeply concerned with the Board of Commissioners’ underlying notion that 2,000-plus Barrow County school system employees and over 15,000 Barrow County students are no longer included in their definition of public safety,” Barrow County school board member Kayla Hendrix said. “Perhaps we need to ask the county commissioners who qualifies under their definition of public safety.”

Officials have said the believe a quick response by officers at Apalachee prevented more victims. The Sept. 4 shooting killed teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire. Colt Gray, then a 14-year-old freshman, has been indicted as an adult for murder and other crimes.

Barrow County commissioners wrote in their letter that voters had approved a plan to exempt some senior citizens from paying school property taxes and that the county therefore believes it is inappropriate to use property taxes collected for county government to subsidize school expenses.

“It is imperative that Barrow County government ensure that no county general fund dollars — for which there is no senior exemption — are dedicated to areas that would otherwise be funded by school taxes and the associated millage rate,” county spokesperson Brian Stewart said.

Paying the expenses for next year would cost the school district more than $1 million. The district’s proposed property tax increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 property about $20 a year.

The issue could come up at a county commission meeting next week. William Philip said he plans to go to that meeting to protest the decision.

“This is a serious issue. This has to do with our kids’ safety,” Philip said. “Bad politics. Horrible politics. A lot of parents can’t wait to go to the commissioners meeting and see.”