Minutes - 04-30-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Jacobs spoke about the $250,000 set aside far housing purposes and asked if the urgent repair money could came from this money. He questioned if a position would come from the same allocation. Jahn Link said that he could incorporate this position in the new position requests that will be discussed on May 14, 2001 at a budget work session. Commissioner Carey feels that this is an important program and should be continued. Chair Halkiotis asked if this is state money or federal money and Tara Fikes said that this is state money and may not be available. Commissioner Brown asked what other programs the Orange Community Housing Corporation does for the County. Tara Fikes said that Orange Community Housing Corporation handles a majority of the tenant housing. b. Student Population Protections John Link said that direction is needed from the County Commissioners on what to send forward to the Capital Needs Advisory Task force regarding student population projections. Budget Director Donna Dean used several different models for projecting future student growth in both the Orange County School system and the Chapel Hill-Carrbora City School system. She presented charts for projected growth in the elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. These charts compared information from different sources and included projections from the Tischler report and from the Orange County Planning Department, projections submitted by each of the two school systems, and projections that utilized the cohort survival method for three year, five year and ten year growth. The charts also showed the point where capacity would be reached. Steve Scroggs, Assistant Superintendent for the Chapel Hill-Carrbara City School system, explained how the Cohort survival method is used as a statistical model. Commissioner Gordon asked how much over capacity there is right now in each school district. Donna Dean will provide this information. Craig Benedict said that he based his figures on the fact that build out conditions are occurring in the next ten years in Chapel Hill but not in Carrboro. Donna Dean said that in the Chapel Hill City Schools at the elementary school level, 4302 is the student capacity and the current membership is 4444. That means that 142 more elementary school seats are currently needed. Commissioner Gordan asked if a high school would be on the bond referendum planned far November 2001. Donna Dean pointed out that these projections would be changing annually. Commissioner Jacobs asked how the growth was determined for each of the ten years on the chart. Donna Dean said that it depends on the model used. The Tischler model used a growth number the same for each year. The Planning Department model changes the number each year. On the other models, it depended on other variables that were used. Commissioner Jacobs asked for a model of haw magnet schools could be used. Commissioner Brown would like to have one chart that compares the elementary, middle, and high schools using each of the models. Commissioner Gordon questioned what the County should be doing in the interim between when capacity is reached and when the new facilities are available. John Link said that one question that came up last week at the Capital Needs Advisory Task Force meeting was what other sources of money there is to build schools. The answer is that the main source is the same as the funding of the band and that is the property tax. Commissioner Brown questioned what is gained from postponing the building of schools. John Link said that it does give additional time to pay dawn the debt. Donna Dean said that the good news far Orange County district is that the student projection numbers show that the elementary school capacity will not be reached within the next ten years. The capacity is 3,820 and the level of service at 105°~ is 4,411. Orange County presently has 3,078 students which means there are 742 elementary school seats currently available.