Orange County NC Website
4 <br />1 Superintendent Patrick Rhodes thanked the County Commissioners for their <br />2 support because it greatly dampened the impact of the State reductions on the school <br />3 system and the classrooms. He said that there is a revised version of the handout. He <br />4 made reference to page 6 and the State reductions. The reductions equate to 52 <br />5 positions (30 custodians, 22 office staff, and some substitute positions). He made <br />6 reference to page 8, Attachment 2-d. The total State reduction was 11.9%. This <br />7 attachment shows the stabilization offsets that were used. The net reduction in State <br />8 funding after the Federal stabilization funds was $1.68 million, or about 4.2% reductions. <br />9 He said that OCS is planning on a $1.9 million reduction in funding going forward, and <br />10 this will be another year of difficult decisions. He feels confident that the classroom <br />11 instruction and classroom teaching core has been protected. As a result of stabilization <br />12 and reductions, OCS has 25 fewer positions in the district than it had last year at this <br />13 time. This is a combination of teachers, teaching assistants, assistant principals, office <br />14 professionals, etc. <br />15 Superintendent Rhodes said that he appreciates the Board of County <br />16 Commissioners' funding for capital projects. Funding has been received for the <br />17 auditorium at Stanford Middle School. It is a freestanding facility. Qualified School <br />18 Construction Bond funding was received of $1.55 million. The design is already drawn <br />19 out, which will greatly cut costs. He is anticipating $1.5 million for this facility for next <br />20 year through the same sources. This facility could be an excellent resource for the <br />21 community theater. <br />22 Regarding enrollments, there has been a spike. This is detailed in Attachment 2- <br />23 c. The projection was 7,007 and the 20-day membership number is 7,097. <br />24 <br />25 Commissioner Hemminger pointed out that Cameron Park seems to be over <br />26 capacity and other elementary schools are way under capacity. Superintendent Rhodes <br />27 said that this is very possible. Overall, there is excess capacity. <br />28 Commissioner Jacobs said that he has not received any minutes from the school <br />29 collaboration meeting and Chair Foushee said that she will insure that the minutes go <br />30 out to all. <br />31 Commissioner Jacobs said that he would like to talk about equity in building <br />32 schools in the districts. <br />33 <br />34 3. County Update on Outcome of 2008-09 fiscal year and Impacts <br />35 Paul Laughton made reference to page 9, which is Attachment 3-a. This shows <br />36 the revenue picture of FY 2008-09. He went through this table. The County received <br />37 97.6% of its budgeted revenue. The shortfall was about $4.4 million. He made <br />38 reference to page 10, Attachment 3-b, and pointed out that there is a downward trend in <br />39 non-property tax revenues. <br />40 Frank Clifton made reference to the property tax revenues and said that it does <br />41 not have to do with growth, but it is a reflection of the Board's tax policies. <br />42 <br />43 <br />44 PRELIMINARY 2008-09 GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES <br /> <br /> <br /> ACTUAL PCT <br /> BUDGET EXPENDITURE <br />S REMAINING USED <br />Governing & Management $ 9,977,081 9,351,651 625,430 93.7% <br />