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that puts neighborhood against neighborhood. The domino effect of moving one neighborhood to another school can impact almost every school in the district. We are still healing from this incredibly difficult process. I can summarize the hundreds of speeches presented at the public hearings on redistricting because there were Gammon themes running throughout the speeches. Number one -parents wanted their children to stay at their current schools. Everybody was very happy at his or her current schools and it was a real testament to the success of the City schools. Number two -parents wanted neighborhood schools for their children, which meant they wanted to get the closest school to their home. And number three -parents did not want long bus rides for their children. These were the requests that City parents demanded far their children during last year's redistricting. And countywide redistricting effort will divide our County to a much greater magnitude than even this merger discussion has. Let's look at a potential elementary school redistricting scenario. As a matter of fact, Seawell would be decimated, losing almost all its current neighborhoods. When children move out of Seawell, children from Estes will move in to fill empty seats at Seawell. Children from Carrboro will move to Estes; children from McDougle will move to Carrbora, and the domino effect continues to touch each elementary school in the district. Making room for the children moved out of Seawell into the County schools may require shifting children in the County system, thus the domino effect continues. Now if you throw in achieving diversity in each school and balancing the socioeconomic status, you will need to shift kids throughout the County. Teachers and support staff will shift to accommodate the moving populations of children. Every person in the County will be impacted from the redistricting and the merger either by moving children or teachers. This scenario would be repeated at the middle school and high school level also. Perhaps the greatest impact from a merger redistricting will be experienced by the children in the northern corridor in Chapel Hill who move to schools in the County. These children will be removed from the world, as they know it and their current neighborhood schools and communities to completely unknown and unfamiliar communities in the County schools. This is asking too much of these children. Let's remember all of the children in this process -the children far which we want equal opportunities, and the children for which you are asking to sacrifice too much. Equalized funding can be achieved without merger. Commissioners, I would urge you to avoid the disruption and destruction caused by a County redistricting by equalizing funding and not merging the school districts. Thank you. Melissa McCullough: My name is Melissa McCullough. I'm an Orange County parent. I've been real pleased with the education that my children have received at New Hope. My daughter rides the bus about 35 minutes home and amazingly enough; I still get to her school to volunteer. As I read the merger report, I was struck by a number of important points, which for me began to point to the benefits of the merger for these systems. No other plan really provides all these benefits, not even a separate but equal plan. Each school system has its strengths as well as its needs and shortcomings. Some of these include that merger will enable the special programs, the special programs together that neither of the school systems could afford individually. And merger will enable us to benefit from the other strengths. Orange County can provide vocational education and global languages could be provided at the Chapel Hill schools,