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leave you with 40%, just with Commissioner Carey and Commissioner Gordon. So I don't want <br />to do that. I'm sensing here that we're losing a spirit of goodwill on moving forward, and I don't <br />understand why. And I hope that we get a clarification when we get our report because we <br />need to move this process on. I thought this was behind us. There's an issue of the week. <br />Lately they're becoming two and three issues of the week. And by Thursday we may have the <br />biggest issue of all because we can't do anything because of the weather. So anyway, I'll be <br />awaiting the report you guys got. You still have my assurance. I just want to move this thing <br />along; let's get it built. <br />Valerie Foushee: If I may respond to what you're saying. First of all, let me just say that I am <br />operating under the assumption of goodwill. This letter was written by me, it was composed by <br />me. I am speaking on behalf of the board. I am not saying that the project has been <br />unnecessarily delayed. What I am asking from the Commissioners is all the help that we can <br />get to ensure that in the future this is not unnecessarily delayed. I feel as a steward of taxpayer <br />dollars that I am responsible for making sure that everything the Board of Education can do that <br />the Board of Education does da. So this is an attempt by the Board of Education to ensure that <br />we are moving in the right direction and that at some point we're not stopped because we're not <br />fallowing what we have agreed upon as a Board of County Commissioners and a Board of <br />Education to continue. So I'd like for that to be clear before I leave the podium. <br />Commissioner Jacobs: I want to roll back the tape to when Commissioners Halkiotis and <br />Carey made their remarks. We had just come back from the summer. The school board came <br />and said, "Will we have $27.8 million ar $30 million to spend far the high school?" And several <br />Commissioners, not me, although I might have felt similarly, expressed chagrin that the school <br />board had unnecessarily delayed over the summer. The two Commissioners who spoke were <br />encouraging the school board to be optimistic, to assume the best of the Board of County <br />Commissioners, and to go ahead and plan the school with the assumption that we could work <br />out the issues regarding smart growth. And if you had to pick a number, pick the higher number <br />and get to work. That's what I heard that night. I don't think anybody said, and so everything's <br />all settled. And I don't think that Commissioner Brown or I have approached it either that things <br />are settled or that we're going to drag anything out as long as possible. We have met three <br />times already in less than a month. There were two big meetings, as you know, because you've <br />been there. They also include the Department of Transportation representatives, Carrboro <br />Planning representatives, citizens who are working on the school with you, Chapel Hill Transit, <br />our Planning Director, our Manager, our Assistant Manager, the representatives of the architect, <br />members of your school staff. It's a big group. We've been batting around ideas; we've been <br />asking questions; we've been trying to think how we can coordinate things. It takes a little bit of <br />time. I would ask, with all due respect to Commissioner Gordan, who always likes to have her <br />"I's dotted and T's crossed", to give other Commissioners the same courtesy when we're <br />working hard to try and work with the school board to get to a point where we all feel <br />comfortable that we know what we're talking about, and that we're trying to do some things here <br />that are responsive to the needs of the schools, but also respect the realities of life in an area <br />that has air quality problems, that has student populations and adult populations suffering from <br />obesity because we no longer exercise, walk, bicycle, all those things that are part of our <br />thinking; part of what we're trying to work out. I'm sure we'll get there as soon as we can. And <br />if we need to keep scheduling meetings on a quick basis, I'm sure Commissioner Brown, just as <br />Ms. Foushee, will be glad to do that. And we'll get this back to our Board and your board as <br />soon as we possibly can. <br />Valerie Foushee: Thank you far that assurance. <br />