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5 <br />Commissioner Halkiotis suggested that the Board of County Commissioners discuss and vote on this first and then <br />send a formal request to the School Boards. He stated his willingness to work with the County Manager on <br />creating several models so that they could be presented to the Commissioners at their April 20th meeting. <br />Susan Dovenbarger asked if the value engineering process was in addition to the work that Mr. DeBruhl is doing. If <br />so, she was concerned about funding sources for both services. <br />John Link stated that the Board of Commissioners could discuss this process and define their expectations. Then <br />he could work with Superintendent Bridges and identify which of those expectations are being fulfilled by Mr. <br />DeBruhl. <br />There was a consensus on this approach. <br />PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING SCHOOL FUNDING TARGETS TO GUIDE FUTURE ANNUAL BUDGET <br />DEVELOPMENT: <br />John Link said that the Board of County Commissioners requested that he work with the school superintendents to <br />develop a process on how to best fund both school systems through short and long range planning. He noted that <br />the County is doing an excellent job of funding the school systems and are number one in per pupil appropriations <br />in the entire state. He gave a brief history of Orange County's track record in this area and stated that he <br />questioned the sustainability of the process currently being pursued. Forty-eight percent of the general fund is <br />being appropriated for the schools. The increase in the County budget last year was approximately $7 million <br />dollars. Sixty percent of this increase went to the schools. He has been asked by the Board of County <br />Commissioners to come up with a workable methodology which could be a threshold, percentage, gross amount of <br />funds, or some other methodology. He has also been charged with making a recommendation about what should <br />be funded by the general fund. State mandated expenditures must be addressed first. When each of the school <br />systems have new initiatives, and those initiatives are not comparable, should the general fund pay for those <br />enhancements when they do not gravitate toward programmatic equity? He has been asked by the Board of <br />County Commissioners to present recommendations on this issue at the joint Board of County Commissioners and <br />School Board meeting scheduled for September 15th. He will be collaborating with the school superintendents in <br />preparing this report. <br />Keith Cook stated that the Board of County Commissioners need to know what goals and mandates are driving the <br />School Board's requests. He feel that the Commissioners should ask the two School Boards how they could help <br />them get each and every child to grade level. How the gap could be closed between minority children and other <br />children. How could the class size be reduced? He commented that without the Board of County Commissioners <br />support those goals could not be reached. The Governor has said that he wants North Carolina to be the best <br />school system in the country in 2010. The School Board always asks for less then they really need and there are <br />many students whose needs are not being met. More Resource teachers are needed now in order to have all <br />students reading on grade level. Its important that the citizens and the Board of County Commissioners know what <br />actually is needed so that responsible choices can be made. <br />John Link repeated that the question that needs to be refined further is "what should the County's general fund <br />address?" For example, should it address the per pupil allocation and teacher salaries? Perhaps it should also <br />fund improvements that both school systems are pursuing at the same time which would have the same impact on <br />all of the children in the county. There is also the possibility of asking the Board of County Commissioners to <br />increase the district tax. He indicated that it might be possible to establish another source of revenue beyond the <br />general fund that could fund specific items that the Orange County system wants to implement. <br />Susan Dovenbarger said that in the long term both schools are addressing the same issues. Orange County <br />Schools are very grateful for the funding that they have received in the past. She feels that the timing of initiatives <br />may vary, but not the overall initiative. She agreed with Mr. Cook that they are mandated to serve many special <br />populations of children with limited amounts of money. She mentioned that they have funded many of those <br />mandates, including ELS and the exceptional children with almost $1 million dollars of local money. <br />In response to a question, John Link stated that one scenario could be that whatever amount the Board of County <br />Commissioners approve, there would be an overarching constraint. It could be a combination of setting a <br />percentage cap for funding education from the general fund with the additional factor of the increase in the tax <br />base. The details would need to be worked out. Before the budget process everyone would have a general idea of <br />CtA19990331 a.doc is