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insurance coverage and the County chose not to go that route. He feels that both systems have worked together very successfully in the area of transportation. Outsourcing of custodial services may achieve an economy of savings, but he would want to be sure that the workers are paid a living wage. He feels the two school systems should work together as much as possible to achieve savings. Neil Pedersen said, in response to Commissioner Halkiotis' remarks, that food service is a different relationship in that all the food service employees are employees of the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools under the State plan. The custodial employees are not Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools employees but employees of another firm. They use a firm that does not hire people without a background check and in most cases people who have another full-time job. These employers do not provide benefits for their part-time employees but they do for their full-time employees. Their salaries would fall below the living wage that Orange County has set. That is an issue that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board has discussed. They looked at cost savings and also the cleanliness of their buildings which has been excellent. Nick Didaw said that they discussed this issue at a recent school board meeting. They are not doing a complete outsourcing but a mixed plan outsourcing the major heavy duty work, but on each site the school system maintains their own employees for daily maintenance responsibilities. The program is being slowly phased in so that their employees are not let go but are worked into the program. Chair Jacobs made reference to the results of the survey that indicate that students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are interested in attending Cedar Ridge High School to take advantage of different opportunities. Neil Pedersen said that students are interested in other choices and flexibility. The school board has just received the results of the survey and will do an analysis and further discuss the results. Valarie Faushee said that she has long believed that many students are interested in being successful at working upon graduation from High School. It is apparent that every student is not going to go to college. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the district tax and Neil Pedersen said that the question poised to them was haw they would address the reduction in the district tax. He said that they will be asking for reconsideration of an increase in the district tax for the opening of elementary school #9 next year. Orange County Schools Presentation Superintendent Randy Bridges said that he provided to the County Commissioners a copy of the survey that they distributed to Orange County students. It indicated that some of their students would be interested in attending another High School. There will be further discussions on the different types of classes being offered by both systems. With regards to outsourcing child nutrition programs and custodial services, they have done studies an this and have provided that information to the Manager. In reference to the startup costs for Cedar Ridge High School, he feels that the $550,000 will allow that school to open. Mr. Segal is doing a study of haw they can realize savings and will be making a presentation to the school board in July. Mast of the savings will be through sales taxes and copier services. Regarding the question of how they would get their fund balance to 2.7°~, he said that they would have no problem with this. He said that the Orange County budget allocation for 2001-02 was $308,882. He thanked the County Manager for the $79 per-pupil increase. The actual enrollment for 2001-02 was 6,186.