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Charles Paddock, Chair of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Advisory Council, said that RSVP appreciates the County's support of its work. He distributed a handout. He requested that the County Commissioners please consider maintaining the funds for temporary staff and to be aware of RSVP's federal funds and guidelines and the consequences of not meeting them. The proposed budget cut affects one temporary position. The position holds a permanent function, but is a temporary position. This position is required by the funding sources. The County has proposed cutting the hours by 50°~, which would be five hours total per week. The federal sponsors have required additional accountability and administrative effort. RSUP's effort to submit accurate and timely reports would be handicapped if this temporary position is reduced to five hours per week. Mollie Langston, an exceptional children's teacher at New Hope Elementary, thanked the County Manager far the proposed increase in the per pupil appropriation. She said that she is proud to teach in Orange County schools. Because of the current budget situation, Orange County has been forced to ask its schools to do more with less. They can only cut back so far before the quality of education in Orange County begins to suffer. With the current cuts in teacher assistants and the loss of teachers, she believes we have already sacrificed the success of our students. She asked the County Commissioners to find the means to secure adequate funding far our schools and prevent further cuts in staff and programming. Dianne Russell said that she admires and respects the County Commissioners for what they are doing. She is concerned about some smaller things. She said that last week Tarheel Mobile Wash came to the Whiffed Human Services Center in order to pressure wash the exterior brick sidewalks and retaining walks. She found this perplexing given the budget crunch. Also, she does not understand why we need to spend money to pave perfectly good parking lots at the same building. She believes there are ways to cut back and save that will not harm the schools, seniors, and the poor. She said that it starts with the little things that add up. She urged the County Commissioners to find a way to trim the waste. Stacy Lee, a first grade teacher at New Hope Elementary and a parent of two children in the Orange County school system, thanked the County Manager for recommending to raise the per pupil funding in Orange County. She said that this still leaves them about $700,000 short, which will require internal squeezing. She said that quality will decline. She is concerned about the funding of Cedar Ridge. She said that New Hope is slated to lose 10 positions. She asked the County Commissioners to help them maintain the good work they have done in whatever way necessary, including a district tax. She said that there would be no finger pointing and they are ready to work as a team. Randy Bridges, Superintendent of Orange County Schools, said that he thinks that the Manager has done some things to ensure that they are served as best as possible both for capital and operating expenditures. He said that they have had to squeeze internally to create positions for Cedar Ridge High School because they cannot share an art teacher, a band teacher, and a chorus teacher between the two high schools. This will affect the quality of services provided to our parents and kids. He spoke about the State proposals of increasing class sizes, which would cost them between two and thirteen teaching positions. The State is also changing the formula for teaching assistants, which could cost the system between $200,000-500,000. He does not know what will happen if the State proposals come into play. Peter Morcambe said that he has been building charter schools. He said that this was helping County government. He asked the Chair to talk to Ed Regan at the Association of County Commissioners in Raleigh and persuade him to change his policy position, which is very antagonistic to charter schools. Two of the charter schools that he is associated with are in Orange County. The building for a charter school going up next to the SportsPlex is a public school being built with private money. He thinks there should be more of this and that the County Commissioners could encourage this. He thanked the Manager for the per pupil increase. He spoke to the Budget Director and said that he noticed the County was paying 10°~ on one of the loans. He suggested refinancing and taking advantage of low interest rates. John Link clarified that of the $17 million that was issued in bonds, the debt service was $1.7 million and the interest rate on the debt is less than 5°~. He said that the overhead may have been misleading.