Minutes - 08-27-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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issue without reaching unacceptable levels of overcrowding. She asked the Commissioners for a commitment to proceed with the purchase of a site and funding for pre-construction planning for a third high school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School system. Etta Pisano, parent of children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, said that the two elementary schools in the bond are extremely important. She reiterated that the bond does not cover all the needs of the CHCCS. She said that the third high school was needed a lot sooner than 2007. She said that the task force recommended that money be spent for planning and purchasing land for this high school and she does not understand why the recommendation disappeared from the band proposal. She is very upset about this. She wants to know if there is an agenda far a merger. She said that the baccalaureate program did not have enough support at Chapel Hill High Schaal when it was discussed previously. She said that there was no way that students at Chapel Hill High School would go to Orange County. She said that there would be no support for moving kids from one school district to the other. Jill Edens lives in Chapel Hill and said that four years ago, when East Chapel Hill High School opened its doors, the improvement in the quality of experience there was palpable. She said that young people fall through the cracks because the institutions that guide and support their development become too large. She has worked with the At-Risk Youth Task Farce. She said that we do not save money when we fail to build adequate classroom space. She said that she was convinced that there was only one thing mare expensive for the citizens of this County than building a new high school -not building a new high school. Jae Herzenberg, Chair of the Chapel Hill Greenways Commission, spoke in support of greenways. He spoke about how popular the greenways are with the residents in Chapel Hill. He supports the letter sent to the County Commissioners from seven Carrboro and Chapel Hill officials dated August 21~. Robin Robinson spoke on behalf of competitive and recreational swimmers and urged the Commissioners to include the $3.5 million as recommended by the task force for the Homestead Park Aquatic Center. She shared some statistics. The Chapel Hill YMCA has 185 swimmers and the North Carolina Aquatic Center has 150 swimmers. These two clubs have swimmers in the water from three to seven times per week from nine to twelve months of the year. The two high schools in Chapel Hill each have approximately 50 swimmers. She said that swimming is big in Chapel Hill, yet current indoor pool space is inadequate. Bettv Davidson, president of the C. W. Stanford PTSA, and a parent of two children in northern Orange County, spoke in support of the request in the bond issue far a new middle school in Orange County. Currently, there is a 68-seat deficit in the middle schools in Orange County. Four out of five of the student projections indicate that the middle schools will be well over-capacity in 2004. Pearson Stewart, representative of the Chapel Hill area chapter of AARP, spoke in support of the senior center portion of the band issue. He said that every day a considerable number of Chapel Hill residents became senior citizens and their interests and needs are various. Pam Hemminger has four children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and in sports. She spoke in support of the Southern Community Park. She is Chair of the Southern Community Park Planning Committee. She said that there was overcrowding in the fields, specifically in soccer. She spoke about the different possible uses of the proposed Southern Community Park such as fields, roller hockey, disk golf, outdoor amphitheater, etc. She asked the Commissioners to please leave the allocation for this park at $2 million instead of decreasing it to $1 million. Robert Dowling, an advocate for affordable housing, thanked the County Commissioners for their past support of affordable housing in Orange County. He thanked the County Commissioners for the proposal of $4 million in the bond referendum. He offered to lower it to $3.9 million if it would help. Poonam Pande spoke in support of the Homestead Park Aquatic Center. She was speaking on behalf of over 300 citizens from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough who signed a petition that was submitted to