Minutes - 20020923 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Keith Cook spoke. John Link said that there is $1.6 million scheduled for this issue in 2004-2005 with alternative financing. This is in attachment 4d-5. Dana Thompson clarified by saying that they have received documents at different times showing that the central office expansion had been moved much later. She said that it is difficult to move forward with the renovation without the knowledge that the other half is going to follow suit. Chair Jacobs said that if the Board contemplates any change then they would notify the school board. b. Funding for Facility Improvements at Orange High School Interim Superintendent Mike Williams distributed another hand out. He said that the renovations proposed at Orange High School are not cosmetic in nature, but deal with the infrastructure such as fire alarm systems, ceilings, etc. The renovations are things that are critical to the life and function of the school. They recognize that the money is available and they just want to make sure that it stays there. c. Student Population Projections Dana Thompson referred to the hand out and Interim Superintendent Mike Williams said that they have been providing all parties with regular updates on student membership this year, and they have exceeded DPI's projections. He said that DPI uses its own method for projecting student average daily membership for the next year. Orange County's membership at the end of the first month was 240 students over DPI's projections. The growth was at all grade levels — 90 at the elementary level, 56 at the middle school level, and 94 at the high school level. He said that this information was just to highlight that Orange County Schools is growing in contrast to the projections that have been made. Dana Thompson said that she understands that there will be an analysis of the methods of projection. She said that there is no method that is absolutely accurate, but they are very interested in looking at all the methods and assessing which ones are most accurate for both school systems. d. Status of County Appropriation for Funding School Nurses It was stated that Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is interested in this also. John Link said that the plan that was adopted last year was to move ahead with trying to fund nurses for each school. This year they suspended this plan due to the budget constraints and he hopes to enact this after the hiring freeze is over. Chair Jacobs said that the legislature may be voting tonight to deny us the opportunity to recover$1.5 million that we had hoped to recover through being forced to raise the % cent sales tax. Susan Halkitois asked at the point that the County is able to fund these positions, and if the ideal would be to catch them up and address the nurses for this year and next year. They have had to add a nurse this year with a new school opening. John Link said that they understand the deficit and will address it as quickly as possible. 3. Issues Identified/Presented by Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Valerie Foushee said that she wanted to go on record to say that it is the preference of the School Board that the third high school be cited in the southern part of the district. She said that she and Nick Didow did approach the Mayors of both municipalities and indicated to both of them that it is their preference to locate the third high school in the southern part of the district. Nick Didow said that in January they took to each of the Mayors (Chapel Hill and Carrboro), the results of the initial site review. Part of their message was the bad news that the engineering review across from Southern Village showed some problems. In the fall, they had identified some possible other school sites, and when they met with Mayor Foy, they shared with him the two resulting sites— one to the north of Ray Road and the other to the east of Smith Level Road. Mayor Foy said that he did not sense a willingness on the part of his colleagues to reconsider