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that opportunity as a magnet school? A high functioning autistic child in the County <br />could have the opportunity to get the resources and education by attending a school in <br />the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district compared with what he gets in the Orange County <br />district. If an unwed mother in the Orange County school system had to drop out <br />because her school does not have the opportunity to have care for her child, so she <br />didn't get an education, she could at Chapel Hill High School. You see, there are many <br />opportunities to benefit all the children, and at the same time put an end to the issues of <br />funding disparity, polarization of the County, and equality of education for all. <br />Sometimes in management the people in charge have to make unpopular decisions. <br />But true leadership is about making hard decisions about what is right for everyone. <br />What is right for the future, and not about waiting for the future to see when the time is <br />right but then too late. The time is right now -merge. <br />Russell Woods: My name is Russell Woods. I am currently attending Chapel Hill High <br />School. I am a senior; I am a member of Student Government and many clubs, and am <br />the assistant teacher for a first period class. I would like to ask the Board how would <br />students of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district not be held harmless in the <br />proposed merger. It would seem that by freezing the annual per pupil allotment as to <br />ensure that it can't decrease would also mean that it can't increase. This seems an <br />injustice to a district that is experiencing considerable growth. Thank you. <br />Deb Love: My name is Deb Love and I have been a co-founder of INFORM. I am not <br />anti-merger and I'm not pro-merger. I just don't have enough information at this time. <br />However, I have been very critical of the process by which we've been affecting this. <br />speak as someone who has had 25+ years experience in organizational change and <br />affecting change on a large-scale basis. And it seems like what we have here is the <br />cart before the horse. We have suggested and are considering a possible solution <br />when we haven't gotten alignment about what's the problem for which this is the <br />solution. There are two ways to do change. There is imposed change, which you <br />clearly have the power to do. You clearly can vote and make this happen and impose <br />this change on us. And you can see the resistance that even the consideration of this <br />has engendered. And that, I think, could have been foreseen. The other alternative is <br />to do involved change. That's change where the people who are potentially affected by <br />that change have an opportunity to reach alignment around what is the problem for <br />which we need a solution, to explore various solutions, and then to make <br />recommendations and be participative in affecting whatever solution seems best. So, <br />you have a choice about whether you use imposed change or involved change. I think <br />that there's still a chance to slow this train down, to go back and get alignment, get <br />common ground around what are the issues that we need to solve here. And I think <br />there's openness in this community now in a way that there wasn't several weeks ago, <br />several months ago. I know that there are parents in the Chapel Hill school district who <br />now understand much better what the funding differences are and are concerned about <br />those. I have never ever heard a parent in Chapel Hill say that I don't want my student <br />to go to school with those kids -ever. <br />