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William Bodkin is an employee of CHCCS - a teacher assistant at Chapel Hill High School. He is also anon-certified representative on the SGC. He is asking for the County Commissioners to fully fund the CHCCS budget. He understands that the County Commissioners do not decide on the line items, but he said that some of the line items couldn't be done without the money. One of the areas is teacher assistants and he is speaking for CHHS only. At CHHS, they have assistants that might not be funded. The other items are clerical and English as a Second Language. He said that there are 33 students that are in full ESL classes and 51 students that must be monitored constantly. This is a big need because the non-English speaking population is growing. Nerys Levy is a Friend of the Carrboro Branch Library and a member of the 2000-2001 Library Task Force. She questioned the emphasis in the budget pertaining to the Carrboro Library on the development of the cybrary in the Carrboro Century Center. She said that the recommendations from the task force were that the library be developed at its present site for 12 more hours at McDougle. She said that the library needs to be opened longer. She suggested that it be open from 3:30-8:00 on Monday through Thursday, 1:00-6:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. She said that this facility has 14 computers, which are being underused because the facility is not open for the public at convenient hours. She said that we need to develop this facility properly before launching out with a computer satellite station in the Century Center. There is massive public interest in a fully functional library. She asked that the money allocated to the proposed Carrboro cybrary be reallocated to the current Carrboro branch library. Meg Millard is also a Friend of the Carrboro Branch Library and she is a teacher in Chapel Hill. She thinks it is important to work on developing the existing library and improving it. This library needs to be open for longer hours. Karen Long is also a Friend of the Carrboro Branch Library. She asked why we were putting money into a duplication of effort. She said that the cybrary is in a facility that does not have close parking and is difficult to access at night when it is dark. She said that it is in a physical space in the Century Center that is not ideal for a library. She asked why the County was going to spend $53,000 to duplicate what it could spend less for and open the hours of the Carrboro Branch Library. Donna Jones spoke on behalf of Orange County Schools. She said that two years operating with less than minimum funding would push them backward in time and cause the staff and teachers to lose trust in the vision and give them less to offer the students. She asked for more funding from the County for OCS. Liz Brown applauded the County Commissioners' fiscal responsibility and far always being so generous to education. She asked the County Commissioners to fully fund the OCS budget and reduce the CHCCS district tax because it hurts the County schools. She said that at recent school board meeting, many parents showed support for hiring Spanish teachers at the elementary level, moving ahead with the IB program at Cedar Ridge, and funding two new reading teachers. The Manager's recommended budget would make them omit these items. She is glad the topic of merger has come up, not because she likes it, but because something has to move this logjam. She said that the merger issue should make us all examine our prejudices, and we all have them. She said that her friends in both districts are great people and they love their children. She