The Oglethorpe Echo
The Oglethorpe County 4-H youth development program has only one full-time employee following the May 26 departure of 4-H agent Marcus Eason.
Because the University of Georgia’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences is in a hiring freeze, Shanna Reynolds, the county extension coordinator, said the office likely won’t be able to fill Eason’s role until the second half of the school year.
“They’re UGA employees, so we’re at the mercy of the UGA College of Ag and their budget constraints on getting that hired,” Reynolds said. “We will get another 4-H agent eventually. We just don’t know what that timeline looks like exactly right now.”
Reynolds said she believes Eason had been in the county for 16 years.
The county has a robust 4-H program, offering roughly 20 activities for students. However, Reynolds said the office needs two full-time employees, a program assistant and an agent, and warned that some programs may be at risk if the office stays understaffed.
“We’re gonna keep having 4-H, but we’re gonna have to start making hard cuts,” Reynolds said during the board of commissioners’ July 21 work session.
To address the vacancy, Reynolds presented a funding request to staff a second program assistant in the office to the board of commissioners and the board of education last month.
The salary for the position is $47,000, with each board contributing $23,500.
The BOE approved the request while drafting a budget for the new fiscal year and the board of commissioners voted unanimously to approve the request at its meeting on Monday.
But Reynolds plans to revisit the BOE to tell members about Eason’s departure and the hiring freeze.
“All those circumstances are different than when I met with the board of (education) before, so I’ll just kind of go back to give them an update,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds approached the boards with this request last year, but tabled the matter when federal funding for the role was unexpectedly extended for 12 months.
The office planned to revisit the request this summer when that funding ran out, but recently found out that leftover funds will keep assistant Kayla Latimer on staff beyond the expected year.