Minutes - 06-18-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Gordon asked how this would impact the bond. If we are talking about sharing facilities then we need to look at the bond projects to see which are necessary. In the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools the two Elementary Schools are necessary. There could be some sharing in the middle schools. Regarding the high school numbers, it is clear that another high school in the CHCCS would be needed by 2QQ5-2QQ6. She said that if we are going to talk about sharing facilities, we need to talk about it soon. She feels that if we expect the schools to share we need to let them know that now. That brings up the question of whether or not we should have these schools on the bond referendum if we decide to share facilities. Commissioner Carey said that dialogue should take place. However, it cannot realistically be done in time for this bond referendum. He feels that the incentive needs to be what we include in the band. The two school boards need to take leadership in this process. Commissioner Jacobs said that John Link has mentioned in this document some alternative funding for expansion of high school facilities if that should be required between bond referendums. He agrees with Commissioner Carey about creating incentive. He made reference to the School Merger Task Force Report from the mid-198Q's and read from it as follows: "Encourage the school districts to investigate areas where economies may be affected by joint operations such as transportation, food service, and maintenance. Encourage the school districts to pursue areas of educational cooperation such as special services." He said that we should be revisiting what a group of people worked for a year to come up with 15 years ago. John Link said that the original request from the Chapel Hill-Carrbora City Schools was to expand both high schools and he understands that their current alternative is to build another high school. He has suggested that if necessary these expansions can happen between the bonds. Commissioner Brown said that she has heard so many people say that if there is going to be a third high school in Chapel Hill, it should be shared with Orange County. Chair Halkiotis said that nine years ago the people in Raleigh considered having one school system per County. We have heard this year during the Innovation and Efficiency Committee meetings the issue of merger. He agrees with going back and revisiting the report from 1985 and 1986. It cannot happen this year. In order to look down the road he feels we need to be prepared. He feels that there should be two people from the County Commissioners, members from the two school systems, and members from the municipalities to meet together and look at the issues of capacity and merger. It is not going to help us in this budget cycle but we can position ourselves down the road. Chair Halkiotis said that, as a result of the Innovation and Efficiency Committee, this Board heard a request and approved a request from the Robert S. Segal group to go in and look at the operation of County government. He thinks we should challenge both school systems to take advantage of the organization and open themselves up for scrutiny. The staff will develop a proposal for the two school systems as proposed by Chair Halkiotis. Commissioner Gordon explained the graphs on school enrollment. These are herein made a part of the record by reference. She also made reference to the Tischler projections as presented to the Schools and Land Use Council. Tischler used a different projection method for the Orange County School (OCS) district versus the Chapel Hill Carrboro School (CHCCS} district. For the OCS a linear method was used while for the CHCCS a linear extrapolation method was used in order to decrease the impact of the recent spike in enrollment in the CHCCS. If the linear method had been used for the CHCCS, more students would be projected than were projected by the linear extrapolation method. She presented this for the Board's information. Equitable Allocation of Funds for County Projects Commissioner Gordon said that when the County Commissioners passed the policy for parks, she thought that it was a mistake. She has written same memos about this. She thinks the retroactive policy in regards to parks is something that the County Commissioners should not do. She supports being equitable to all parts of the County. She feels that a more general statement of the