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sufficient resources to meet those needs, we must spend in a measured manner. That includes a firm limit on funding for the new high school. Seven months ago the county identified funding in the amount of $27.8 million for construction of a new high school. That fits within debt constraints and spending limits that are acceptable to the funding body, the Orange County Board of Commissioners. We will not support the assumption of further debt to build the school. Even if CHCCS pays off the debt, unacceptable limitations will be placed an future county borrowing. We are persuaded another high school is needed. We recognize a strong preference for locating that facility in the southern sector of the district. We understand that large-acreage sites are limited in a growing urban area. But cost is a major concern. The current CHCCS proposal exceeds adopted standards by more than six million dollars, requiring $34,527 per student seat, far higher than for any school ever built in Orange County. The cost per seat will be significantly higher than at recently constructed high schools in fast-growing counties such as Lincoln, Cabarrus, Forsyth, and New Hanover. Even at $27.8 million, the spending per student seat for the new high school ($27,800) would virtually equal that of Cedar Ridge High School in the Orange County system ($27,900). Yet the cost of the new school is greater. Cedar Ridge, built to be expandable to 1,500 students, includes large core facilities in its initial construction budget, and the per-seat cost will decrease accordingly as it expands. The proposed CHCCS high school is designed to serve 1,000 students, based on the most recent presentations of board and staff. The Board of County Commissioners twice has been assured that the projected costs of construction do not include expandable core facilities. That is welcome specificity in light of persistent shifts in what has been requested. We must choose a fixed target upon which to base funding. Guided by the county's various constraints and policies, the commissioners allotted $27.8 million to a new high school with all attendant facilities. Given the 1,000- student model, we respectfully suggest that CHCCS consider: 1} A 700-800-student high school, expandable at a later date. This approach, producing a facility of a size endorsed by CHCCS in spring 2002, would spread funding over a longer period and allow for possible development of the Lincoln Center as another high school space. Current projections shave CHCCS high school enrollment will not exceed the 110 percent capacity level through 2014. There is no need to build both a 1,000-student facility and to rehabilitate Lincoln Center as a high school space (as per the proposed CIP far CHCCS) within the next decade. A choice that includes the Lincoln Center would support important community values, stagger the costs, and provide students with the alternative academic environment that polling indicates some prefer. Other possibilities are to work with the Orange County system to add planned seats at Cedar Ridge High, and then to utilize space there, or to expand the two existing high schools, as CHCCS recommended in spring 2001. 2} A 1,000-student high school that reduces the overall footprint from the current request of 182,710 square feet, the largest possible facility under adopted school construction guidelines. The square foot range fora 1,000-student high school, a standard adopted by both school boards and the county commissioners, begins at 151,049 feet. 3) Revisit discarded sites at Obey's Creek and C71d Lystra Road. Significant criteria in rejecting both sites were their inability to fit a 1,500-student building and full complement of athletic fields and ancillary facilities. Subsequent to rejecting those properties, CHCCS decided to reduce the size of the building and to place some functions off-site, mooting significant reasons for abandoning the Obey's Creek and Old