Minutes - 20031016 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

smaller systems that are more geographically accessible to the constituents. Number three -merger may harm certain special education and English language non-proficient students in the City school district. The City school district has a larger proportion of these students than the County. They are more expensive to educate and State funds are insufficient. So if funding is forced to be equalized, then either you have to reduce the programs and services to these kids, or if you want to hold the level of programs and services to these kids constant, then you have to reduce services to somebody else. Neither of these options is acceptable. Let's not harm any group of students by forcing a merger. Let's slow down the process and carefully anticipate and weigh the consequences so there's no negative impact on this particularly vulnerable group of students. So, in closing, let's allow the Orange County voters to consider a special district tax that is a less expensive option, that is more locally flexible and responsive to citizen input than a merger, and let's allow two smaller and more locally accessible school districts, and especially, let's not inadvertently harm special ed and English language non-proficient students. I have two autistic kids in the Chapel Hill school system, and I don't want my kids to fall through the cracks in this merger situation. Thank you. Gayane Chambliss: My name is Gayane Chambliss, I'm an Orange County parent, and I thank you for providing the opportunity to come before you. First, I'd like to quickly address one thing about bussing. I live seven minutes from my son's school. If he were to ride the bus, it would take him 50 minutes to get home, so I pick him up everyday for that reason. Also then, we have heard from some that actually Orange County Schools are doing just fine. Well, they are, thanks to the dedicated teachers we have who make the best of the limited resources that they have with which to do their jobs. Yet there are still students in various grade levels in the Orange County school system that are going without textbooks, and they are failing their grades in those classes that don't have textbooks. We wonder why they're failing. No textbooks. Over the past few years, there have been a number of items removed in the Orange County school budget after the final County appropriations. For example, just this year alone we requested one nurse. We didn't get it. One nurse coordinator, we didn't get it. One AG teacher, we didn't get it. One guidance counselor, we didn't get it. One reading recovery teacher, we didn't get it. However, federal funding from title 1 did give us the funds to get that. One reading resource teacher, we didn't get it. Six Spanish teachers, we didn't get even one. Five custodians, we didn't get any. We also asked for an increase in the teacher's supplements so that we don't lose qualified, wonderful teachers to school systems who can cherry pick the very best. You guessed it, we didn't get it. And the list goes on totaling $1.8 million in this year alone for cuts. But it is not just about what we didn't get. It is about opportunities. It is about the opportunity for a student in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system that wishes to learn a trade. If you as the elected officials choose to do what's best for the entire County and create a union of the two currently separate systems, that student could have the opportunity to learn a trade. What about the parents of a child in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system who desires the opportunity to place a child in the year round program. There are many benefits to a year round program which have been well documented. Orange County has such a program both in the elementary and middle school. Wouldn't it be wonderful to offer