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adhere to Board of County Commissioners' time frame. This is an internally-driven time frame. Randy Copeland suggested giving this mare time. Dana Thompson asked if the past merger studies could provide a blueprint for our study to shorten the time. John Link said that the RTI study addressed the issues in more depth and he would like to strive towards this. Dana Thompson said that whenever she has made a request of the County staff, they have always worked with eagerness. She would hope that her board would show the same eagerness in providing information. She urged all to go into this with eagerness. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the Board did not approve this concept when it was brought up by Commissioner Carey. The Board deferred it to a future discussion and there was a significant discussion. This is a possibility of a Commissioner goal. He said that they were very careful to state that they did not have any preconceived notion that they were heading towards merger. He said that we need to be careful on haw we word this goal. The other studies were done with the purpose of moving towards a merger. This is different - it is just a goal and not a plan to merge. Commissioner Carey asked about the school boards' estimate of time to accomplish the elements listed on the sheet in the fuchsia color. He also asked if the previous studies were done after a decision was made to merge the school systems, or if they were done to provide information to help the County Commissioners and school boards decide to merge. He would not feel compelled to duplicate the same kind of report that RTI did if it was done with the intent of showing how to do it. This is a multi-step process. Superintendent Pedersen said that he has more concerns about the questions than the time. For example, under Educational Student Impacts, number 2, "An analysis of the impacts that a possible merger would have on current class size and current curriculum offered in both districts." He said that he has no idea about this. He thinks it would require the boards working together to come up with an answer. He said that he does not know where to begin to answer these types of questions. Gloria Faley said that she appreciates that this is going to be used as an investigational document, but she is concerned about the timetable. She is trying to understand haw hard and fast these dates are. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there is not enough time to even do the shortest study. He said that this, as one the many goals of the County Commissioners, may or may nat meet the timetable. He does not expect that all of these things can be done in this time period. He is interested in hearing about the tax impacts and the long range benefits of merger. He is trying to be realistic. Commissioner Carey said that he thinks that this list of items is a collective document done by the Board of County Commissioners and that some of these questions may not even be able to be answered by an outside consultant. He suggested asking the staff to give it their best shot within the established time frame. Chair Brown said that what she has heard is if we had enough time, we would all come together and come up with a really goad document. Time is a significant issue. Delores Simpson said that since the idea of merger has resurfaced and now the communities are becoming interested in this, she thinks we need to do the paperwork and get the answers and have a Q&A forum with the community. Chair Brown said that the Board of County Commissioners can discuss this again and the timeframe could be extended with information gathered as we go along. Jahn Link said that as the staff addresses those items on the yellow sheet, he would share the interim report with all {elected officials and schoal superintendents}. He asked if the school boards and superintendents would be willing to address the items under Finance and Governance Implementation on the aqua sheet. He understands that some questions are