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inconsistent with collaboration, or what I think might be developing in terms of collaboration. So I can <br />wait. <br />Chair Jacobs: Other comments on collaborative efforts? <br />Commissioner Brawn: I think it has been an initiative of the Commissioners for many, many <br />years now. It certainly dates back to my first years on the Board. We haven't been good at asking <br />either school board to initiate discussions on haw they can share resources and a list of things that I <br />think would be very beneficial. And to bring it up, how can we do something that will perhaps generate <br />a stronger commitment by both school systems to that. And there was somewhere in our last proposal <br />to hire Mr. Boyle from the Institute of Government, but he is leaving the Institute of Government and <br />there does not seem to be anyone left there that would want to do it. So we could move on to another <br />format, which I see the collaboration issue as kind of breaking down into two or three ways we could <br />work on it simultaneously. There was the issue of Mr. Boyle just getting a structure of communication <br />and working on that. Unfortunately, it didn't include all of the members of the boards of education and <br />us. It only included six or seven people that were going to be involved in that process, which I don't <br />think would be very fruitful. We need to have much fuller efforts to develop this process. I think it's <br />been mentioned that the Dispute Settlement Center could offer up someone. And I think it would be <br />very wise to do that in a public format so people could come in and watch the process and be invited <br />there. I'd certainly be interested in looking at the previous outline far that and maybe going through it <br />and editing it a bit and seeing if some of it is still valid. <br />We have also had a proposal to have a citizens' task force to look at school operations and be <br />involved in helping that collaboration and/or coming up with data. There are parents and citizens at both <br />school systems and I think that in a timeframe that would be excellent too. I don't want to leave out <br />anything here. And then I made the proposal that we work with the School of Education to have them <br />look at both school systems, and have them do an educational resource paper for us, or a report, and <br />look at both of our systems. And I feel very strongly that I don't really understand how both of our <br />systems operate, what they offer and don't offer to the children of Orange County, what their needs are, <br />and I know that both systems have needs. We see that at budget time every year. And to just do a <br />simple, straightforward analysis of what our two school systems look like and do some <br />recommendations that they as professionals at the University could bring forward with some positive, <br />creative proposals that everyone could look at in the County. And also to see what they have across <br />the country that they know of that has worked; that's practical; that's cost efficient for sharing resources <br />in each district; for creating opportunities on how those resources can be shared, and really looking out <br />into the future of what the County Commissioners and the school boards can try to achieve to offer <br />better education to all of our children in both districts. That would help me a lot to get a solid basis of <br />information that everyone could take a look at. And then hopefully that group can also offer their <br />expertise in suggesting some real creative solution that we don't really see right now. <br />Chair Jacobs: Understanding that that's an offshoot of collaboration. If I can just bring us back <br />to collaboration, and then we'll talk about that group. <br />Commissioner Brown: That's what I meant. This information would be a piece of the <br />collaboration discussion. <br />Chair Jacobs: Is there anyone else who wants to say anything about collaboration at this <br />paint? <br />Commissioner Halkiotis: I think we should recognize that there were some issues with the <br />whole topic of collaboration over the last couple of years. When you, Mr. Chair, brought this up initially <br />and began the use of that term. One of the things that I heard quite a bit back then was the fact that <br />same people immediately didn't like the idea of collaboration because the proposal that had come dawn <br />at the time involving our own staff had, with all due respect to Professor Boyle, but there were people <br />complaining that he had children in one school system and couldn't be objective to the other school <br />system. So I think we need to look at any and all concerns. I've never met the man, but I heard that <br />coming from some circles. So we need to go back and review all the concerns that people had from <br />both school systems with respect to what does collaboration mean. I remember somebody jumping up <br />one night at somebody who is no longer on the Board and saying, collaboration is another word for <br />merger. That was a very telling moment. So spend a little time now, if we're going to actively pursue <br />this as part of the component of the total undertaking. Ga back and look at where the concerns were <br />