Orange County NC Website
everybody back then to be careful that this train must be watched as it went dawn the <br />tracks because it could take off and I would still put that caution out there. This is still a <br />Commissioner's goal that we take upon ourselves, and I might add, that we have a <br />booklet probably twice the size of this one with our goals and objectives, some of which <br />we have been working for 14 or 15 or 16 years, and we haven't fulfilled those yet. So I <br />take this with a word of caution because sometimes people read into things more than <br />may be there and before you know it everything starts spinning out of control rather <br />quickly. Some of the public comments that have been made show me that some of that <br />spin has already taken place. <br />On page 20 of this presentation this evening that everybody should have in front of <br />them, the top block, the Manager's staff, and by the way John I think this is an amazing <br />document and if anybody on your staff is looking far a Doctoral Dissertation topic I think <br />you have already completed a significant amount of the work right here and they should <br />run off and get their degree immediately. <br />It says the hypothetical countywide supplemental tax. I find those two words are really <br />interesting but we don't have any more, other than those two words. It says it could be <br />part of a merger plan or an alternative thereto. So that alternative thereto, Madam Chair, <br />I'd like to know what that really is because it is a couple of banes that need some meat <br />on it- it needs some flesh. So if we are into this goal of looking at all aspects of a <br />passible merger, what is this "alternative thereto"? I would couple that with if we are <br />going to start talking about alternatives thereto, how does that deal with the issue of <br />capital needs, because we heard that the merger issue would take care of the capital <br />plan because it would delay and postpone same of the construction. But what does the <br />alternative thereto do to the capital plan? I want to have that against a backdrop of a <br />bigger question, is bigger better? Or is smaller better? And I couple that with Governor <br />Easley a couple of weeks ago shaking hands with somebody representing the Gates <br />Foundation where the state got I don't know how many millions of dollars to look at the <br />prospect of making high schools smaller in the state, just one piece of the puzzle. So <br />which way are we going on this thing and if we are looking at all aspects of this, I think <br />we need to be very careful. I know obviously the ten-year scenario for the hypothetical <br />countywide supplemental tax is interesting because of the impact of the final analysis. <br />But I think the alternative thereto needs to be investigated. And are we saying that, and <br />I listened very carefully to Shirley Carraway, and I listened very carefully to Neil <br />Pedersen, and I read the findings of their respective groups and so they have got twice <br />as many club opportunities for children in Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools than they have <br />in Orange County Schools. There were interesting vocational opportunities for children <br />in Chapel Hill-Carrboro and there were interesting vocational opportunities for children in <br />Orange County. There is a rather interesting leveling of the playing field when it comes <br />to honors courses and advanced placement courses, which I think some people, may <br />have been surprised. <br />Students are students, having spent most of my lifetime dealing with teenagers in one <br />form or another. All parents should have at least one, some chose to have mare than <br />one for their own peculiar reasons. But having been a principal for seventeen years, <br />there is an amazing thing about watching high school kids get together from both ends of <br />the county. There are more things that bring them together than divide them and set <br />them apart. I think the kids need to be the focal point of all our deliberations and <br />discussions as we study this topic. And adults may have one perspective and students <br />