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to vote is a very precious civil right. The voters should be allowed a right to vote on merger in a binding referendum. The law that forbids a referendum in Commissioner initiated mergers is obviously a bad law in defiant opposition to basic democratic principles. The legislature should be asked to repeal the law or at least to pass a local bill allowing referendum in this case. There is no urgent reason to merge; you can wait another year to let the people be heard. I also oppose merger. Terri and I have four children; all of them have spent their whole school careers in the city schools. We don't know anything about the County schools really, whether they are good or bad. Whether they are or not, we don't want to take long bus rides to go to other schools, we are happy with the schools that are nearby. We just went through what to us was a bruising redistricting in the city schools and ended up with what we thought of at that time as a long travel distance of six miles, which is really quite short compared to some of the likely distances that will happen if we have a merger. And, of course, the bus rides' purpose will be socioeconomic balance and make all the test scores at the various schools come out the same, creating an appearance of equality, but really not creating any benefit to those on the bus. And really, the Countywide redistricting would be the mother of all redistrictings. don't ever want to think about it and hopefully won't have to go through it. Michelle Lewis: Good evening. My name is Michelle Lewis, I live in Chapel Hill, and I've been an active member of INFORM. Merging two school systems should not be done lightly. It is a very serious extreme measure that will cause a lot of change to two school systems that are already tops in this State. It is not as if we have one excellent school system and one so-so system. We have two excellent school systems. Each system is a little different, and that's because the people of each district want slightly different things from their schools. School systems are not born overnight; they are cultivated like gardens by the people they serve. The parents of Chapel Hill-Carrboro system have labored for many many years to make their school system exactly what they want. So have the parents of the County schools. There is no reason why two school systems need to be exactly the same. Indeed I would argue that our State and our community at large benefits by having diversity. That having been said, I believe it is high time for the 1986 merger studies recommendations to be implemented. We absolutely need to have the funding mechanism adjusted for the County schools, and we absolutely need to have more collaboration between the two systems. I, along with a lot of other parents in Chapel Hill-Carrboro stand ready to support a major collaborative effort between the two systems. We know that the major thrust of this collaborative effort needs to come from our district, and we stand ready to make that happen in a serious, sustained, effective manner. I have talked with many many Chapel Hill-Carrboro parents, and can assure you that they want to find a solution that will be best for all children of the County. I believe, and these parents believe that the 1986 merger study had it right -that is that the best solution is to fix the funding problem and have a serious, high level of collaboration between the two school systems. The collaborative steps outlined in Dr. Pederson's proposed options to merger are a good first step. So let's get to it. We've been dawdling around for 17 years since that study. Let's finally implement it. Thank you for your time.