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The Commissioners will be glad to provide a speaker and/or presentation for your group/organization on the "Potential Impacts of a Possible School Merger". Please send your written request (no emails) to: Clerk to the Board County Commissioners Office P.O. Box 8181 Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 PUBLIC COMMENT: (verbatim) Mark Peters: I speak tonight on behalf of the SGC and the PTA of Seawell Elementary School, and we have not yet taken a stand on the position of a merger. However, we are concerned that the rapid pace of the possible merger does not give ample opportunity for the public's questions to be answered before proceeding; that the process lacks mechanisms to poll the public's will in this matter; that the alternatives to merger are not being more seriously considered, for example, the BOCC currently has the power to raise the ad valorem tax and unlevy part or all of the city district tax without referendum and provide OCS with the appropriate or equal funding; that the perceived social injustices have not been identified so that they can be studied in light of alternatives, such as funding equity and school district collaboration; that the currently planned schools may not be built or may be unnecessarily delayed during any possible merger; that bigger is not necessarily better; that the Commissioners have an obligation to represent their constituents, and that no current Commissioners were elected on a platform of merger. At this point, there was applause and Chair Brown asked to make a comment. Chair Brown: If you all would please hold your applause or make any noise, I think it would be much better so that anyone who is speaking is not interrupted or feels under any pressure from anyone. So I would very much appreciate that. Mark Peters continued: That the city schools may not be held harmless in the long run because funding increases that may have otherwise passed in the city schools may be less likely to pass in a merged system; that the time and resources spent studying and executing a possible merger would be better spent focusing on the education of our children and focusing on ABC inequity initiatives; that two elected school boards could be replaced by an appointed school board; that our children may attend schools that are an unreasonable distance from their homes, thereby depriving them of time to participate in other activities or making it more difficult for parents to participate in their children's education. Note that the State recommendation of a maximum of 76 minutes bussing time is two and one half hours per day on a bus. And finally, that a merger would increase the public pressure to develop the rural buffer. We also propose that in lieu of a referendum, the BOCC should poll the School Governance Committees (SGC)