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as we felt this all a necessary sacrifice to ensure a high level of public education for our children. My kids have been redistricted twice and are now in private schools, yet another sacrifice. I had every intention of bringing both children back into the public schaol for high school as our neighborhood is literally right next door to East Chapel Hill High School. However, if the merger were approved, according to the Board of County Commissioners, we would be targeted for yet another redistricting. "Students moved would mostly be in the northern quarter of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school district that includes the areas along and to the north of Dairyland Road, Homestead Road, and the Weaver Dairy area." It is completely nonsensical to target students who have a school right in their awn backyard to redistricting. It is statements and possibilities such as this that have Chapel Hill-Carrboro parents panicked and angry. These two schaol systems have always existed side by side. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school did not secede from the County system taking with it all of its assets. If the County system has indeed not received the funding and staff and facilities it's requested and needed, then why have the County Commissioners been voted in term after term? Why are fingers being pointed at Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents with anger and bitterness? Why are you not held accountable for not following through with the merger study recommendations of equitable funding and collaboration? Why are you not asked why you have never put forth a district tax referendum? What have you done far all these years to equalize the school systems? You are the people that should be held responsible, and pressed for answers and solutions. Merger is not the panacea for all of our problems, both Chapel Hill-Carrboro and County systems. It will hold only logistical chaos. Sam Brooks: A lot has been said about this not being a democratic process and I want to stress that I feel very strongly that you are following all the democratic processes, beginning with those that are approved by the North Carolina General Assembly decades ago, making the decision to halt the establishment of any new administrative units, which are school districts, within counties. Year by year, decade by decade, many counties have faced this issue. The primary reasons far merger, according to Steven Scroggs of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system, is either money or race. And obviously, in Orange County's case, it's a matter of money. Many school districts have successfully merged. There are now only 117 administrative units in our 100 counties. And because a couple of those counties have more than two districts, it means that there's about 13 counties left that still have more than one. In the case of Durham, where we've seen merger, it was played out in the newspapers far over a decade, and a lot of that rhetoric caused the problems that made it difficult for Durham residents to successfully and smoothly make a change. While that process was difficult, that difficulty was brought about as a result of the rigormortis that set in as a result of the inflamed rhetoric. One of these fears is the one of redistricting, which we've heard a lot about just this evening. And it comes from many of our newer residents. A lot of these residents I've worked with as they've moved to this community and I've helped them become established in the City ar out in the County. And I feel that those who have made the most successful moves from states and Gauntries far away from here are those who've looked upon it as a positive experience and one where they've made a good decision. And I'm hoping that they will continue to have those sorts of feelings. It