Orange County NC Website
Commissioner Gordon made reference to #1 on the 2001 bond referendum -schoals and <br />John Link clarified that the original recommendation from the Capital Needs Advisory Task Force was <br />over $70 million for schools and his recommendation was $52 million. <br />Commissioner Jacobs made reference to item 4-b, "Additional options for pay-as-you-go <br />revenues," and asked for an explanation of the vacuum cleaner approach. John Link said that the idea <br />was that any of the residual capital projects that have waned in importance or have no further need for <br />any additional funding, the funding would be swept back into the capital fund "pot." <br />Commissioner Gordon said that in the agenda packet, the County Commissioners received <br />projections for both school systems. She said that the County Commissioners need to use the five <br />projections -the Tischler method, the Orange County Planning Department method, and the three <br />Cohort Survival methods (three, five, and ten-year historical growth}. She said that the question was <br />what schools should be put on the bond issue that need to be built right now and what schools are <br />needed but do not need to be built right now. <br />Commissioner Gordon made reference to sharing facilities and said that the County <br />Commissioners have gone on record saying that they support sharing facilities. She said that this would <br />mean sharing facilities both within school systems and between school systems. If sharing of facilities <br />took place, it could affect the timing of construction of new facilities. <br />Commissioner Gordon stated there was a need far four new schools in the next four to five <br />years in the two school systems: two elementary schoals in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools <br />(CHCCS), one middle school in the Orange County Schools (OCS), and one high school in the CHCCS. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that she feels it is reasonable to support elementary school #9 <br />and #10. In 2003 the high schools in the CHCCS will be over-capacity. She would like to buy a high <br />school site and da some planning and other pre-construction activities. Regarding the middle school in <br />the OCS, she does think it is necessary to buy a site and do planning and other pre-construction <br />activities. However, if there were sharing of facilities within the OCS, it would not be necessary to put a <br />middle school on the bond now because there are currently several hundred extra student seats in the <br />OCS that could be used temporarily for middle school space. After the opening of Cedar Ridge High <br />School, there will be well over 1,000 extra spaces in the OCS. For the bond she suggested including the <br />two elementary schools with a commitment to Orange County Schools for the middle school and a <br />commitment to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools for a high school. She feels that renovations are <br />necessary in bath systems and funds should be included in the bond for renovations. <br />Commissioner Brown made reference to the school projections and said that in June the <br />County Commissioners left at least recognizing that sharing space was something that needed to be <br />discussed fairly soon. She asked for some clarity on how the discussion was left on the sharing of <br />facilities. She is open to any considerations on sharing facilities countywide. <br />Commissioner Carey said that he recalls the County Commissioners asking both school <br />systems to begin a dialogue on sharing facilities. He said that we need to plan how we are going to <br />utilize the funds not raised in a bond referendum. Not everything can be placed on the bond referendum. <br />He feels we need to decide which student projection method the County Commissioners are going to use <br />for future planning purposes. He cautioned people to not think that their project is not going to be <br />supported simply because it is not an the bond. <br />Commissioner Jacobs distributed an article about Union County opening a new elementary <br />school. Two more elementary schools are going to be opened in 2002-2003, with three more expected <br />between 2003-2005. He also gave other examples of counties opening new schools. He said that <br />Orange County has done a good job in anticipating the needs and trying to meet them in a proactive <br />way. He pointed out that the projections and the charts were not given to the Capital Needs Advisory <br />Task Farce until the County Commissioners received them and that therefore no information was held <br />back from the task force. <br />The Board will continue this discussion on August 21St at its next meeting. <br />10. REPORTS -NONE <br />11. APPOINTMENTS -NONE <br />