SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — Effingham County schools are preparing to roll back their millage rate for the first time since 2024, even as the school district’s budget grows by nearly $8 million.

The school board is expected to set the final millage rate at its Aug. 20 meeting. The district is advertising a rollback rate of 18.018 mills but plans to adopt a rate below that figure. Finance Director Lauren Cain said the final rate is expected to fall somewhere between 17.9 mills and the rollback rate.

The district’s millage rate increased in 2025 and again in 2026, largely because of rising state-mandated health insurance costs.

Lowering tax burden

Superintendent Yancy Ford said the district made lowering the tax burden a priority after last year’s increase.

“Following last year’s unexpected state health insurance cost increase, which forced us to raise the millage rate, we knew we had to take proactive steps to ease the tax burden on our residents,” Ford said. “Over the past year, we paused and strategically reduced our budget, primarily through administrative attrition.”

Ford credited the district’s finance department and employees across the district for helping control costs while the district opened a new school.

“I am incredibly proud of our finance department’s diligent leadership and appreciate the cooperation of all our staff across every department and school,” Ford said. “Because of their hard work, we achieved a remarkable milestone by absorbing the operational costs of opening a brand-new school without expanding our total budget.”

Cain said the theme of the fiscal 2027 budget was “pause and prioritize.”

“We wanted to be flat,” Cain said. “We knew we were opening Creekside Elementary, and we wanted to see how we can do that by not increasing costs and not increasing headcount.”

Growing tax digest

The fiscal 2027 budget totals $210.95 million, up from about $203 million last year.

The increase does not necessarily mean property owners will pay more in school taxes because the county’s tax digest has grown, Cain said.

The value of a mill has increased as property values have risen, particularly with industrial properties such as warehouses and manufacturing facilities, as well as land values.

The tax digest is prepared by the Effingham County Tax Assessor’s Office.

That growth allows the school district to collect the revenue it needs while lowering its millage rate, Cain said.

The district's student enrollment is stable, meaning the opening of Creekside primarily involved redistricting students and redistributing staff rather than adding large numbers of new employees.

“Ultimately, if you look at our student count, our growth for student-wise is flat,” Cain said. “So we opened a new building, but we were shuffling students, so therefore we were shuffling staff as well.”

The district still faces higher costs in several areas.

State-mandated employee health insurance costs increased from $1,885 to $1,935 per employee per month. Teacher salaries also increased as employees moved up the district’s salary schedule based on seniority and longevity.

The district also has additional operating costs associated with opening Creekside, including electricity, water and school resource officer costs.

Capital projects

The fiscal 2027 budget includes several major capital projects.

Among the largest are upgrades to the tennis courts at South Effingham High School and South Effingham Middle School, as well as construction of a new maintenance facility on Hodgeville Road.

Cain said the district has estimated costs for both projects but did not have the figures available during the interview.

The budget also includes additional money for substitute teachers because of a state-mandated increase in teacher leave.

The number of days teachers can take off increased from three to five, Cain said, requiring the district to increase its substitute-teacher budget to cover classrooms when teachers are absent.

A different budget

Cain described the fiscal 2027 budget as a different story from last year’s budget.

The fiscal 2026 budget was driven in large part by rising health care costs. This year, the district focused on maintaining operations while accommodating the opening of Creekside and other expenses.

For Ford, the spending decisions put the district in position to follow through on its promise to lower the millage rate.

“This strategic work positions us to deliver on our commitment to roll back the millage rate this year,” Ford said.