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communication is goad and should continue. He would like to keep the process moving <br />forward. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to Guilford Community College and said that Orange <br />County has a tendency to look at something and then not do anything far ten years. He said <br />that if Durham can get something cranked up in a year and a half, then certainly Orange County <br />can. He said that the University probably has some empty classrooms and can be involved <br />also. North Carolina Central might also be interested in doing something. He wants to see all <br />the costs involved. <br />Chair Jacobs said that there is another collaboration meeting on October 4t" and they can talk <br />about this. <br />Chair Jacobs said that he heard Barbara Baker from Durham Tech say that she thought there <br />was agreement to have between 100-150 students and start it a year earlier than originally <br />projected. <br />Chair Jacobs said that when the two Commissioners and the Manager have lunch with Dr. Phail <br />Wynn, they should continue to encourage the cooperation. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that this is a goad list of collaboration items and she would agree <br />that the school boards should pick the top ones and prioritize. She said that the main thing is <br />that there is measurable forward progress and that something actually happens within a finite <br />time span. She hopes there will be progress to report at the next joint meeting. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that the County Commissioners had a visitor at the regular meeting <br />last week that accused them of not fostering and promoting collaboration, but rather being in <br />collusion. He thinks it is wonderful that the two school systems are already talking and meeting. <br />He does not think there is collusion. <br />b. Educational Excellence Update <br />John Link said that after the public hearings last fall on the potential impacts of merging the two <br />school systems, the County Commissioners had a work session where they identified three <br />areas to further examine prior to revisiting the issue of merger ar equitable funding. One of <br />those was collaboration. The second one was educational excellence, and the third was school <br />efficiency. <br />This second issue has involved the UNC School of Education. The group is headed by Dr. <br />Madeline Grumet, and they are examining the educational programming and resources <br />provided by both school systems. This scope of work is described in attachment 1 b. The report <br />on this will be ready by the end of November. <br />Shirley Carraway said that they met with Dr. Grumet and her staff and they were going to move <br />into the schools and go through some assessment documents as they put together the report. <br />This was in August, and she has not had any contact with them since that time. <br />Chair Jacobs suggested that Shirley Carraway call Dr. Grumet to ratify the schedule. <br />Neil Pedersen said that they were in the same meeting and Dr. Grumet was going to meet with <br />each principal individually to explain the protocol, and then she was going to send teams to the <br />