Minutes - 09-24-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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be grateful to the County Cammissianers far anything they can da that would allow them to move forward with Elementary School #10. Commissioner Jacobs said that it would be good to meet with Carrboro officials. There are a number of things to be straightened out as far as the role of Carrboro in the park/school development. There may be some cost savings to the school system because of the park. Commissioner Gordon asked Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board when they needed the planning money for Elementary School #10. Nick Didow said that they were hoping to be in a position on November 7t" if these funds are approved of moving forward with #10. That is why they petitioned the County Cammissianers several months ago to make a decision to put Elementary School #10 somewhere an this property. Commissioner Brown asked about the reasoning for building two schools at one time. Superintendent Pedersen said that they were associating Elementary Schools #9 and #10 with the concept of building schools at the same time in order to use prototypes and save on design costs. The two schools are on opposite sides of the district and it would make no sense to open a school in Meadowmont and completely redistrict to fill up that school and balance enrollment, and then open another elementary school a year later on the opposite end of the school district and redistrict again. Gloria Foley said that in dealing with enrollment you have to look at what happened historically, like with Scroggs. She said that #9 would fill up immediately. The other issue is that there were a number of other counties that packaged bids for mare than one school and saved a substantial amount of money when they bid out the projects. She does not think that you can discount what happens with kids when you move them one year apart with redistricting, especially at the elementary school stage. Keith Cook said that he hears Chapel Hill's concern and he is looking at the availability of money, which is going to help Orange County's district to plan for their projects. Susan Halkiotis feels that the renovations for Hillsborough Elementary School cannot wait. These need to be done for safety and health reasons. She agrees that we need to lank at haw many schools will be opening. She hopes to be involved with these discussions of which projects will proceed and when. John Link said that he has discussed with each superintendent timelines for each school for each specific project. We can pursue band anticipation notes as soon as the voters approve the bond in November. He understands the urgency far planning money far Elementary School #10. If the bond did not pass, the planning would stop until an alternative way could be worked out to pay for the school. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to a comment that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will not realize the amount of savings by building two schools simultaneously than was thought. Other times it sounds like there will be savings. He still has some questions and would like to see same answers in writing. He would like an explanation on haw Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools perceives the timetable and what the imperatives are in that timetable. Commissioner Brown has questions about the cost of schools because the projected costs of both of these elementary schools exceed the amount that has been set as a standard. She does not want to hear that it costs more to build in Chapel Hill. She does not accept this. Nick Didow said that the school board would welcome the opportunity to present any and all information for Elementary School #10 and justification for the projected cost of that school. g. School Facilities Task Force Report Draft Commissioner Gordon made reference to pages six and seven of attachment 1g and the capital cost per seat for each school system. She said that what this shows is that in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system the cost per student seat is $22,524 and the cost per student seat is $15,023 for Orange County Schools. She said that this was an error. The actual is $21,227 for Orange County Schools when New Hope Elementary is included. She said that there should be a more detailed analysis. Commissioner Gordon made reference to pages 19 and 20 and said that the report says that the task force agrees that membership provides the most realistic picture of the actual number of students attending school. She said that we need to have the conversation about what projection methods to use. 2. ISSUES IDENTIFIEDIPRESENTED BY ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOLS a. Information Sharing Protocol