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Commissioner Carey said that he supported the collaboration efforts last year and now he has had a change of heart with paying $20,000 to the I~G to facilitate two school boards to get together and talk about collaboration. He thinks this could be done without paying a facilitator. He has already proposed a merger and he thinks the two school boards should be able to do this without paying $20,000 because the County has other pressing needs. He arrived at this conclusion in the last few months. If the Board wants to da it, that is okay but he can no longer support spending $20,000 to get the school boards together to talk when they aught to be talking with each other voluntarily about callabaratian. Commissioner Jacobs said that he agrees with Commissioner Carey an what ought to be but we da not know if the systems will merge. He said that one of the things that came out of the meetings was that we need to have a better sense of feeling comfortable with one anather's values, goals, and aspirations. He thinks this process would be important regardless of merger. He said that the Board has had to take the lead and if it requires an artificial stimulus then it is money well spent. Commissioner Carey said that he once supported it but no longer does. Commissioner Gordon said that there are two parts to this -collaboration with two school boards and who is involved and whether there should be a professional facilitator. She said that it seems worthwhile to her to get the Commissioners involved with this collaboration. She would not spend the money unless it was necessary and this is. Chair Brown said that she has always thought it was a worthwhile effort but she is not clear on what the goals are. Commissioner Carey agreed with Commissioner Gordon that collaboration needs to occur and he supports it in concept only. This item will be an an agenda in the future. Chair Brown made reference to siting a new facility and the high school. She said that last January it was clearly stated by the school board that they would make the search and when a site was found, then it would come to the Board of County Commissioners with a price. The price is included in the $27.8 million dollars. This has been clarified in two letters -one from Commissioner Jacobs in November and then the one from her three days ago. She asked far any discussion about this. Commissioner Gordon said that her understanding in talking with the Budget Director Donna Dean is that they looked through the budget and identified the sources of funding for new space and it was $27.8 million. This funding is identified in the budget in the CIP. The money still has to be formally transferred from the elementary school and it is not finalized. Also, the funding available for the high school and for Elementary School #10 needs to be finalized. Another issue is what the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City School system is allowed to do and the Board of County Commissioners has to approve the price they want to spend. The money for high school construction standards far a 1,000-student high school is from $24,695,000 to $29,920,000. Gloria Foley said that they are directing the Superintendent to develop a detailed plan and they will look at the CIP. They are hoping to exhaust all possibilities for funding the new high school. She said that a final package would be delivered.