Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
Superintendent Pedersen reported that on January 29t" the committee took the charge as <br />written by the County Commissioners and reached the conclusions as written in the agenda abstract. <br />They are happy to look at opportunities far savings from joint operations. They will look for a person to <br />da a study and bring that information back to the County Commissioners. The two superintendents are <br />going to work on better defining mandates. He said that none of the participants were interested in <br />combining central offices for the two school systems at the same site. With reference to merger, the <br />group thought that the County Commissioners would more appropriately conduct this type of study. <br />Commissioner Carey said that he has heard people talk about savings that can be <br />generated with joint efforts and said that he feels we owe it to the public to study savings related to joint <br />operation of the two school systems. Superintendent Pedersen said that this was the idea. <br />Transportation is a major area where the two school systems already collaborate. They are open to <br />studying other passible joint areas as identified. <br />Commissioner Carey said that what he hears is a commitment from the two school <br />systems to look for savings by collaborating. <br />Keith Cook said that the decision was that we would price out a couple of companies to da <br />this type of study and give the County Commissioners this information. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis asked about bullet #5, "during the 2002-2003 school year, the <br />districts will determine the amount of excess capacity in the two districts and seek input from school <br />governance committees, parents, and students concerning their interest in students attending schools in <br />the other school district and in the possibility of merging the two school districts. " He asked if the school <br />boards intended to seek input from the governance committee, parents, and students about the <br />passibility of merging the two school districts. Superintendent Pedersen said yes, but that it would not be <br />a merger study but only to ascertain if there is any interest in merger. <br />Commissioner Gordan made reference to the joint education opportunities and asked <br />about the formal mechanism if a student was to go to another district. Superintendent Pedersen said <br />that they do not know the answer to that yet. The first thing is to determine if anyone would like to switch <br />districts. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked if the student, once in that new district, would be treated the <br />same as everyone else. Superintendent Pedersen said that it would depend on whether they were <br />actually enrolled in the district. <br />Superintendent Bridges said that these were questions that he has also asked. There are <br />a lot of issues that must be considered. <br />Commissioner Brown asked about the proposed survey far the governance committees, <br />parents, and students. She asked if it would ga to the governance committees first. Apparently there are <br />two surveys -one an interest in the educational opportunity in bath systems and one on interest in <br />merger. <br />Superintendent Pedersen said that an important question to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City <br />School system is whether parents are interested in their children attending Orange County schools. <br />Commissioner Brown asked how the student ar parent would understand the advantages <br />and disadvantages of going to another school district. Superintendent Pedersen said that they are <br />sharing what is unique in the Orange County school district. <br />Dana Thompson said that she has seen the draft survey and it does list programs that are <br />available in Orange County and not in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. She feels it is very important to start with <br />the surveying of students and parents. She feels that we are not including the taxpayers that do not <br />have a direct connection with the schools and that the taxpayers should have a say in this. <br />Keith Cook said that he would like for the County Commissioners to wait for the results to <br />come out instead of seeing the survey before it is done. They will share all the results of the survey. If <br />they are interested in merger, the school boards will come back to the County Commissioners and ask <br />them to look into it. <br />Commissioner Brown clarified that both school systems will ask the question about <br />merger in the survey. <br />Bob Bateman made reference to the 1986 study, which indicated that it would cost more <br />to merge the two school systems. He agreed that there are taxpayers that da not have children in the <br />