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being disenfranchised on these bond votes. I'm tired of paying for buildings that are right around the corner from me, I pay for them, yet I can't use them; I'm excluded from using them. I don't want to be disenfranchised with this countywide tax thing, and that's what's going to happen. I'm just tired of it. Either put it together or separate it all out. Jim Sorgy: I'm a Chapel Hill resident. As you can tell, I'm against merger. But after this evening, you know, I don't think the process is appropriate. You don't have appropriate facts and information to make a good decision. You need to make sure that what's in the best interest of the citizens of Orange County, the total of Orange County, is protected. Let's start quickly and try and end some of this disparity between the two systems. Bring the Orange County system up closer to the Chapel Hill system. It's much easier, and it's much easier to throw this to the people and say, "these systems are much more equal than they are today." We can see that it's not going to disrupt the Chapel Hill schools that pride themselves that they're one of the best in the country. We don't want these kids over here to not have the opportunities that the kids in the Chapel Hill schools have. Let's find the money, bring them up closer to the Chapel Hill schools, fund the collaboration between the two systems so that instead of throwing some task force of disinterested folks together, there's money there so these people can get something done. And put the programming in the Orange County schools so that they can come up closer to the Chapel Hill City schools and then talk about merger. And then you don't scare the hell out of people. Brad Walters: I'm an Orange County resident. I don't have any children in the school system, so I don't have any fish to fry on that score. I'm wearing an opposition to the merger tag, and it's pretty clear to me that equal funding is appropriate. It's still not clear to me that a merger is the only way to do that. I personally was not educated in North Carolina, but I was educated in the local school system. And I don't think bigger is better. I really do believe in students going to close, nearby schools. I don't like the idea of shipping children around. And I do think you have, as the previous speaker mentioned, an obligation to the parents and children in Chapel Hill that if you do something, you need not detract from an outstanding school system that's a big success. The job, and it's a big one, is to bring Orange County up to that level. And again, both Chapel Hill school district and Orange County are very well funded in the State. I don't personally see this as a social injustice issue either or a civil rights issue. It may be a social injustice issue. Again, I think that the funding should be made equal, though I'm not confident that that alone will be enough. I think that that's the situation with the law. I think that merger is not clearly demonstrated to meta be the best way to go about doing it. Thank you. With no further public comment, a motion was made by Commissioner Brown, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to adjourn the public hearing at 10:45 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board