Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
and I want the public to know that I haven't given up, on my goal of trying to move this County in the <br />direction of merging the two school systems so that we can not only benefit from the ultimate <br />collaboration, but also have potential in the future of saving some money on school capital construction <br />that we will need to save in order to address important capital needs in the future. I think that's very <br />important, and I think that merger is the only way we're going to achieve that goal. As long as we've got <br />two separate school systems that are unequally funded, we're not going to achieve that goal. Sa what <br />I'm going to ask the Board to do tonight is to consider this proposal. (He distributed the proposal to the <br />County Commissioners and staff and offered it to the public). It is clear to me that there is common <br />ground on same things that we've addressed in the context of merger, in this discussion of merger and <br />equal funding. The one thing that there is clear, common ground on, and I coined that phrase from one <br />of the members in the audience here tonight, the common ground that everybody was encouraging us to <br />find on this issue of equal funding and merger. But that common ground is associated with the fact that <br />everybody agrees that the school systems are unequally funded and the funding scenario is inequitable <br />between the two, and that we need to address providing additional funds for the County school system <br />children immediately. We need to fix that, and we have it within our power to fix that immediately. The <br />other thing that I've heard people say is that they think that this issue is too important far Commissioners <br />alone to be deciding, that they want the public to decide it. And although I've come a long way too since <br />we've discussed this, I really wanted the Commissioners to decide the issue of merger and move in the <br />direction of merger, but it's clear to me after discussion on the 11th and after the discussion tonight, that <br />this Board is not ready to make that decision, and I respect this Board's decision on that, and this <br />Board's position on that. In view of the fact that this Board is not ready, though it may be at some future <br />date. I think it's incumbent upon us to begin now to provide a clear direction for the public on where we <br />ought to go, and I think the public, to some extent, is ahead of us on this. At least that's what I'm <br />sensing. And although it makes me nervous to put this proposal forward because we may still end up <br />with two school systems if the public decides to go that route, I don't think the public will decide to go <br />that route, because I think that the public has come along far enough now to recognize that it is going to <br />be in all of our best interests to have a merged school system sooner rather than later. <br />Consequently, I'm asking this Board to consider putting a referendum forward in the primaries in <br />May of next year to ask the public to vote on adopting a countywide supplemental school tax, or voting <br />on merging the two school systems. What that means is that the status quo is unacceptable because <br />that's what the people have told us, the status quo is unacceptable, and that many people would prefer <br />to have the public decide this issue rather than the County Commissioners. In any event, it will provide <br />some additional funds for the County school system immediately, beginning next year hopefully. And it <br />would also indicate whether there was enough public support far merger for us to move forward with <br />that. And I recognize that if the public chose merger in the vote next May, or whenever the primary is <br />held, it's not necessarily a binding decision for the Commissioners. But I think that if the public chose it, <br />this Board would be required, which we would require ourselves, we would decide in advance that we <br />are going to pursue implementation of that public non-binding decision. And, as you can see from the <br />proposal that I've put forward, I had hoped that we could make the decision to move forward to merge <br />the systems by July 2006. But in view of the fact that we are not going to make the decision tonight or <br />in February, and then I think the July 2007 timeframe would be the only one that would be meaningful in <br />this context if the public decided that we should merge the systems. I'm asking the Board to consider <br />this option of giving the public the option of deciding to adopt a countywide supplemental tax, or merge <br />the systems. Now that's not inconsistent with the collaboration discussion we've just had, because if the <br />public decides that they want a countywide supplemental tax rather than to merge the systems, we will <br />need that collaboration. We will need the benefit of all the decisions that result from that process. And <br />if that process concludes itself in June, then we'll have something concrete to move forward with. But if <br />the public decides that merger is the best option and the most efficient and economical option far us to <br />move forward with, then we may still use some of the suggestions that come out of the collaboration <br />task force or collaboration discussion, but we will be able to move immediately to the ultimate <br />collaboration of merging the systems by July 1, 2007. <br />So I'm asking the Board to consider this whether we decide to put this forward to the public <br />tonight or at a subsequent meeting. I think that we'd have to make the decision in January in order to <br />get the issue clarified and on the ballot by May. Sa, I'm asking the Board to consider this tonight, <br />