GAINESVILLE – “I’m disappointed for the families that are involved,” Hall County School Superintendent Will Schofield said following Monday night’s Board of Education work session.
At issue: the long-standing “Tax Sharing Agreement” negotiated between Hall County and Gainesville City Schools a dozen years ago is scheduled to expire in October, and according to Schofield its effect on families whose property has since been annexed into the city will be wide reaching.
Hall County and the City of Gainesville have separate school systems. (Schofield said there are 21 counties in Georgia that have a similar situation with independent city school systems.) “Twelve years ago the two boards sat down…and crafted a Tax Sharing Agreement which basically said…when the city annexes a piece of property…we’ll cut you a check at the end of the year for whatever those school taxes are…and any students involved can stay in the schools that they attend…if they want to they can attend Gainesville City Schools, but let’s not change these peoples’ world as the city annexes property.”
School board member Craig Herrington, who participated in the recent negotiations between the two school entities, said, “There wasn’t a lot of interest in renewing it. I’m sure they’ve got their own good reasons for that.”
“There’s two big issues,” Schofield said trying to explain the challenge in simple terms. “One is the financial; that overnight some tax base gets moved from one district to another…but that’s not a big deal either way…it’s not enough money that you’d want to lose any sleep over.”
“But the issue that I do lose sleep over is the fact that we are just completely taking the stability away from those families whose school district changes overnight.”
“So these 140-150 students that currently live in the annexed areas would become Gainesville City School students. So what we would do is notify them that as of October you are no longer a Hall County student (and) you will have to apply to be a Hall County School student…and you’ll have to pay the tuition on an annual basis.”
Herrington said, “Those students are Hall County students now because of the Tax Sharing Agreement but (they) are probably unaware that that’s why they are still in Hall County schools.”
“So to wake up in October and find out they are no longer Hall County students is going to be an extreme shock to them,” Herrington added.
“We have a great relationship with our city district; we just feel differently about this particular issue,” Schofield said
Schofield added, “The city will continue to annex property as it becomes necessary in the coming years from their standpoint. I have never understood how a municipal annexation should have anything to do with where a child goes to school; but it does and that’s a flaw in Georgia’s law.”
Schofield said affected families would be notified as soon as possible. “It will not be October that they find out from us. We’ll start letting them know pretty quickly.”
Below is the entirety of Schofield’s media release followed by a comment from Gainesville City School Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Williams.
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Greetings from your Hall County School District,
2018 promises to be yet another excellent year for Hall County students and families. I thank you in advance for the honor of working with our community’s most valuable resource, our boys and girls.
We have enjoyed significant cooperation with our sister system, Gainesville City, and I hope that this spirit will continue as we seek even more ways to support each other. However, complicating issues exist when a community contains both a city and county school district within its borders. In our case, Hall County actually contains two city districts: Buford City Schools and Gainesville City Schools, both with school attendance zones and taxing capabilities within our county.
While these two districts provide additional educational opportunities and choices, ongoing annexations are a continual area of confusion for citizens. The Georgia Constitution contains a fatal flaw that was confirmed in a 1980’s court case. When a local municipality, in our case the city of Gainesville or the city of Buford, annexes Hall county property into their city limits, school district attendance zones and the school tax base are transferred simultaneously. First, this creates an immediate and unforeseen loss of county school property tax digest and transfers it to the city system. However, the issue that is even more troubling is that a family’s school district is changed overnight with the stroke of the annexation pen.
Twelve years ago, Gainesville City Schools and Hall County Schools sat down and crafted a thoughtful tax sharing agreement that is unique in the entire state of Georgia. To summarize, the agreement created an inner-governmental agreement that would hold school boundaries and taxation collections stable regardless of annexations made by the city of Gainesville. When a Hall County property is annexed by the city of Gainesville, families have the option of continuing in the Hall County school their children are attending with no disruption to educational services. This agreement is scheduled to expire in 2018. The Hall County School District has approached the Gainesville City district for the past 18 months, desiring to extend this agreement into the foreseeable future and maintain the unprecedented sense of order it has created. Gainesville has made the decision to allow the agreement to expire without any sort of renewal.
I feel an obligation to let our community know that I believe this is a mistake. The absence of an inter-district agreement will create immediate uncertainty for between 100 and 200 students who will have their school districts changed, and untold numbers of families that will be affected in the future. Rest assured that while the taxation issue is real and detrimental to the Hall County District, the uncertainty created for families is the most compelling reason that Hall County Schools seeks to extend the agreement that has consistently provided deserved stability for our community.
I am expecting your Hall County School Board to direct me to notify families of the upcoming changes and provide them options for how we can lessen the effects of these changes for our families.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve this community.
Will Schofield
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The following is an email received from Gainesville City School Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Williams late Monday evening expressing the position of Gainesville City Schools:
The GCSS Board of Education and I respect the position of Hall County School System regarding their displeasure with the expiring tax sharing agreement. Both school districts, Gainesville City and Hall County, currently allow students to attend via tuition and offer district-wide school choice. I look forward to working with current and new Gainesville City families as we tailor services to best serve their children and prepare them for the future.
