Minutes - 06-07-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Jordan Farmer, a rising fifth-grader at Cameron Park Elementary, said that she loves going to school. She said that she needs the best possible education today if she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. Danielle Farmer said that Cameron Park Elementary has great teachers. She thinks the teachers deserve some credit. She is in favor of the Orange County school's budget request. Bob Bateman said that this is the smallest increase he can remember being recommended for the schools. He said that there have been plenty of people itemizing various programs and one gentleman even offered to give $100 of his tax refund. He said that he is not in favor of increased taxes or a district tax and he thinks this can be worked out without doing that. He does not understand why we are hung up on the 49% percent. He mentioned the 12.5 new positions in the County that have been proposed and said that we cannot even open our new school. He does not support the budget at the board level. He said that it was unreal to go from a 15% increase in the budget to a 2% percent increase. Deryle Daniels is a parent of three children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system. He is in full support of Superintendent Pedersen's and Superintendent Bridges' full request. He said that our children spend mare time with the teachers and the staff of the schools than they do with siblings and parents. This means that we depend on other people to mold and take care of our children and to teach them what they need to knave to grow up to be responsible and productive adults. He said that we need more parents involved in the schools and that kids will achieve more if more parents would be involved. He said he does not want any mare far his children in Chapel Hill than he does for the children in northern Orange County. He wants the Board of County Commissioners to look in their hearts and to come together in this thing. Edie Allen, President of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation and a parent and volunteer in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, spoke in support of full funding for the school budget. She said that the school system has respectfully submitted a realistic budget in a crucial year. She said that, in her memory, they have never received full funding and she encourages the Board of County Commissioners to do so even if it means going over 50% of the total budget. She said that 735 volunteers worked in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school system this year. She said that investing in volunteers is a way to leverage minimal resources for maximal return. Susan Anderson spoke as a resident of Orange County far over 40 years. Her daughter is a rising senior at Orange High School and she is very concerned about the lack of funding suggested for the Orange County schools next year. She made reference to the projections from DPI and said that it was hard to believe that there were no school-aged children in the new neighborhoods in and around Hillsborough and Orange County. She said that the 2°~ increase would not cover the teachers' cost-of-living wages that the schools are obligated to give them. She said that the difference between the requested 15°~ and the suggested 2°~ raise is monumental and cannot be tolerated by the students, parents, and educators of Orange County. Dani Black, a parent of two children at Hillsborough Elementary School, asked the County Commissioners to do whatever it takes to fully fund the Orange County schools budget. She said that a Spanish program is not a frill, it is a necessity. She said that you cannot raise a family on a teacher's salary and that is a crime. She said that she would ga to Raleigh if that is what is needed. She said that they were willing to do whatever it takes to fully fund the school budget. Diana McDuffee spoke in favor of the proposal for the Orange County public library's "cybrary" in the Carrboro Century Center. This facility is proposed to be primarily an Internet library and is very strategically located in downtown Carrboro. The facility is also easily accessed by several public lines of transportation. She is proposing to share the cost of the "cybrary" between Carrboro and Orange County. Carrboro will provide the space, the computers, and the operating funds for the space. They are asking that Orange County and the Orange County public library provide the staffing for the "cybrary." She proposed that the "cybrary" be a branch of the Orange County library because Carrboro cannot do this alone. She