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some point, this has to change. He said that it was important for the County Commissioners to come out and visit the schools and see the needs. He said that the shelves at their library are half empty. He said that the best estimates are that it would cost an additional $50,000 just to get their accreditation. He said that there was a laundry list of basic maintenance needs at Cameron Park. Joe Capowski lives in Chapel Hill. He showed a graph. He said that he is concerned about the taxes that have continued to increase. He said that this is an extremely bad time far a 3.8-cent increase. He was laid off last year from UNC and several people in his neighborhood were also laid off. He asked the County Commissioners to talk with Nancy Suttonfield, Vice-Chancellor for Business and Finance at UNC, before making a decision on the budget. He made reference to schools and said that he has two stepsons who went through the CHCCS. He said that they got excellent educations. Since 1990, the property taxes have gone up 240°~. He asked if the 2003 graduates were getting a better education than the 1990 graduates. He said that it was definitely not 2.4 times better. He said that performance in high schools has been pretty flat for the last two decades. He said that the money is not going to the teachers, and that is why he is here. Teachers make the quality and the other stuff is less important. He asked the County Commissioners to conserve in other places. He asked the County Commissioners to please not levy a big increase in taxes right now. Katharine Everson is a resident of Orange County and teacher in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. She said that it is appalling to hear the discrepancies between the two school districts. She urged the County Commissioners to adopt atwo-cent district tax increase instead of the proposed .8 cents because of the impact on special education students. In the proposed budget, there is no funding for teacher assistants far the additional 12 K-2 classes, which are State mandated. She is concerned that the special needs students will be the first to feel the effects of a reduced number of teacher assistants. Martha Tyson is a Friend of the Carrboro Library and said that in the last census, the County's population increased 26°~. She said that if the library were open more hours, more of the new people could be served. She said that during these hard economic times, people are relying more on libraries for computers that they cannot afford, for information that they cannot obtain elsewhere, and for entertainment. She said that the Carrboro Library has 16 computers for use, but the library must be open for access. The task force has recommended that the library be open 32 hours, and they are now open 20 hours. She said that being open more hours would allow more minorities to use the library. They also have art exhibits. She said that they need to strengthen their programs and not duplicate them. She asked the County Commissioners to provide the funds in this budget for the library. Nancy Grebenkemper is a school psychologist at Grady Brawn Elementary Schaal. She said that at Grady Brown, aver 113 of students in 4`" grade are special needs students. There are also an increasing number of ESL students {English as a second language). She urged full funding of the Orange County Schools budget. Susan Houck has two children in the Orange County Schools. She said that on May 31 S`, in the Chapel Hill News, Chair Brown was quoted as saying, "but we can't give them {Orange County) more money, unless we give Chapel Hill more." She agreed with the statement because giving Orange County what the school board has requested