Minutes - 20031023 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Vicki Hill: Someone said earlier, I didn't like this, separate, but unequal. And I asked what that means last week at the hearing. And what it means, what I was told it means is unity, we want to be one community, and we don't want to be separate. Cannot we all unite as one community and tailor a plan that meets the needs of the children of our future? A plan fairly funded without weakening one district over the other? Your leadership has demonstrated courage and innovation. Thanks to your generous support and the resourcefulness of our educators everywhere, our students in both districts are reaching new highs, but challenges remain. We have diverse student populations in our schools. Chapel Hill has students of 50 languages and offers various language programs. In Orange County, the Hispanic population is growing, but only one elementary school has a Spanish teacher, and the request for six teachers has been denied. Statistics show that non-English speaking students drop out before ninth grade. What happens to them? It's not fair to them, nor is it fair to our students who miss out on the enrichment of being in culturally diverse schools. We want to see Spanish and French teachers in our elementary schools and not have students wait until seventh grade to access a class that teaches Spanish and French as a language. Highly experienced teachers in Orange County schools are nearing retirement, opening doors to entry-level teachers. Entry-level salaries in Orange County schools are not competitive with adjacent school districts, so hiring and retaining the educators will be a challenge, costing more in the long run. We want to see funding disparity fixed. Orange County schools have not had a funding increase in the past four years. We've built two schools but did not add maintenance staff at the district level. There is one person who drives the bush hog to maintain the fields and grounds for 11 schools in this district. A separate district tax -will it be permanent or challenged in an election year? It won't be enough to accommodate growth or replace buildings older than 50 years. But wait, the population of Orange County has about the same number of school children as it does seniors. Of what benefit is this discussion to people who have no children in school? I suggest this scene of the future -wake up to the radio, the DJ went to the year round Hillsborough Elementary where students wrote and produced the morning news every day. On the drive out of town, you pull your transporter into a central station for recharging. The computer mainframe operator attended Estes Hills. Next stop, a specialty store with gifts, flowers, books, and your favorite coffee. Greet the owners, both graduates of Orange and Chapel Hill High. The last stop, a quiet setting in what ten years ago was thought to be a dividing line across the County. There sits aone-story residence with a second story porch where many people are seen sitting and enjoying the view and making ice cream. Designed by high school students in a joint project among all the high schools, your son and daughter were part of the design team. Entered to be led down a corridor by a robot modeled after a robot built in 2002 and taken to national competition by high school students from Orange and Cedar Ridge. You see other robots cleaning the rooms - a nurse, nurse's aide, doctor -graduates from the oldest elementary school. Checkout medication for a patient. A light is on in the next room and you enter. Hi mom, I'm ready to join you in your water aerobics. On the way, I'll tell you what the kids did in school this week. The children are everyone's future. I urge you to move forward for fair funding.