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Jahn Link: We would rely on the Board, at that point in time, to get further instruction or have <br />further discussion on your education excellence evaluation group, because basically you're at the paint <br />of talking about a charge and the composition of that element. But we'll be happy to come back by your <br />retreat ar by the first meeting in January and try to give you further detail an what specific areas other <br />studies have probed into as it relates to efficiency and try to give you some further ideas as to what the <br />potential casts would be in this County. We won't be going out for proposals, of course, by that time, <br />but I think we can give you some further detailed information. <br />Commissioner Gordon: I thought that was part of what we wanted to do. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis: I just wanted to put a caution out there because some of the <br />companies that we've seen some of their PR work and materials they put out, it's a slash and burn <br />approach. They come in and tell you to lower your thermostats 20 degrees so everybody's freezing, <br />raise them 20 degrees in the summer so everybody's dying of perspiration, fire 20 people, cut back this, <br />cut back that. I don't think that's what I'm interested in. I'm looking for something creative, something <br />that's going to blend in with collaboration that we talked about, something that's going to blend in with <br />ca-location. Some of those other things have been quick fixers, "Give me my Commission money and <br />I'm out of here, and you guys go wrestle with the after effects." I'm not interested in that. <br />Commissioner Jacobs: And if I might just suggest, if you're going to flesh out specifically the <br />efficiency study passibility, to confer with the two school systems and their staffs to get an idea of areas <br />that they might be interested in getting more information about, or what kind of timeline they can see <br />working with someone, understanding that if we're going to try and use this information to make a <br />decision that we have to have an aggressive schedule. <br />Commissioner Brown: And I could give you a specific that I'd be interested in for both <br />systems. When they decide that they'd like to do a program that's going to cast a certain amount of <br />money, I'd like to know how those programs actually perform. What are the results? What do we see <br />far our money? And I knave we've invested in several programs that are supposed to address the needs <br />of disadvantaged students or lower achieving students, but I've really never seen how these programs <br />actually bring forth results. Then that money gets refunded, and refunded, and refunded, and I don't <br />even know if the programs exist anymore. So that's one piece I'd like to know. <br />A PROPOSAL CONCERNING THE FUNDING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ORANGE COUNTY AND <br />CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTS <br />AND THE ISSUE OF POSSIBLE MERGER <br />Alice Gordon -December 9, 2003 <br />After listening to discussions of the possible merger of the two school districts, I believe that <br />compelling reasons have been offered to address the funding disparity between the two districts. The <br />difference should at least be reduced or even totally eliminated. <br />To eliminate the funding disparity, taxes in the Chapel Hill-Carrbaro City School (CHCCS) district <br />might go up a little. However, in the Orange County School {OCS) district, there would be a huge tax <br />increase in comparison to the usual tax increases. This past year, for example, taxes went up 1.5 cents per <br />$100 valuation. If the funding disparity had been entirely eliminated on July 1, 2003, countywide property <br />taxes would have risen 20.8 cents per $100 valuation. That means the owner of a $200,000 house would <br />have paid $416 more per year if the tax had been assessed all at once. Of course the more likely event <br />would be that a countywide tax increase would be phased in aver a period of years, while the CHCCS <br />district tax would be reduced proportionately. It should be noted that the CHCCS district tax does not <br />decrease the amount of funding allocated to the OCS. Each year the county allocates the same amount per <br />pupil to both school districts and then the CHCCS district receives additional money from the supplemental <br />district tax. <br />