Minutes - 05-31-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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$20,000 a year. She said that the $50,000 from the County is a great investment which she considers an economic development strategy because it breaks the cycle of poverty. Joe Tello had signed up to speak but had left the meeting at this point. Don Sweeny spoke on behalf of Recycling for Youth. He distributed a handout to Chair Halkiotis and John Link. He said it makes good business sense for the County to work with anon-profit organization like Recycling for Youth. He said that in fiscal year 1995-1996 the average payment to commercial recyclers was $52.35 per tan recycled. Recycling for Youth is asking for $42 per ton and is being paid $21, which is 40°~ of the rate that commercial recyclers were receiving five years ago. He said that the fact that they have volunteered to work for 80°~ of what the County is already paying for commercial recyclers clearly makes business sense. He said that paying them 40% would be an embarrassment. Laila Adileh is a parent of two children at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools and a support technician. She said that there are computers that are not working in some classrooms and many technical problems. She supports three schools and is at McDougal Middle only 1.5 days per week. She said that the children get discouraged when the computers do not work. She gave an example about the child who had to wait 20 or 30 minutes to get on the computer for testing. She begged the Commissioners to support the proposed school budget. Lisa Hazen is a parent of a student at Seawall Elementary and she is a volunteer at the school. She said that this year the district experienced a shocking increase in enrollment, especially at the elementary level. This has had an impact and puts more challenges on teachers and teachers assistants. The increase in enrollment also increased the workload of our ESL teachers. She spoke about the new requirements of the state for student promotion. The schools still have the responsibility to implement new regulations. Another issue is school safety and character education. These are issues that we must be proactive about, therefore the district is proposing character education as part of the curricula. She said that they are constantly playing catch up with the growth in students. She asked that the Commissioners completely and fully approve the full budget request made by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools. Tom Hazen is a parent of a student at Seawall Elementary. He is also a professor at UNC and has served an many faculty recruiting committees. He said that there was a limited pool of teachers. He said that teachers do not enter the profession far those salaries. He said that it is imperative that both school systems can successfully compete for the relatively few dedicated teachers in the highly competitive market. He said that it was also necessary to provide competitive salaries for support staff. He said that the budget requests were not wish lists, but were fitting for Grange County and for Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools in particular. He said that our children are our most important resources. Tam Cox, a 31-year resident in Grange County, asked the Board of County Commissioners to adopt the two school systems' budget as presented. He has twins at Seawall Elementary. He said that the gateways that are proposed in the high-stakes testing are very stressful for the teachers. He thanked the County Commissioners for being good public servants. June Minton has two children in the Orange County schools. She is a realtor by profession. She said that all of her clients ask about the schools and are willing to pay higher taxes far better schools. She said that most people are willing to pay higher taxes. She is in support of the full budget for schools. Margaret Shelton-Foushee is in support of the childcare subsidy. She is the director of a childcare center and knows how important it is for parents to find a slot for their children and to be able to afford it. Stephanie Willis is a school nurse for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools and a taxpayer. She thanked the County Commissioners for supporting school nurses with the new initiative. She spoke about a family she went to visit and said that she knocked on the door repeatedly. She then saw the children looking out the second floor window. As the children got into 2~d grade there continued to be health problems and the mother refused to come to the school. She said that the system continued to support them and the mother started going into the school also. There have been many meetings with this family regarding the health and social issues and the mother has came to every one of them. She said that today the mother came to school with her piano playing gospel group and they had a