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Chair Jacobs said that Orange County has decided to provide money for parks and affordable housing, and these are not mandates, but they are consequences of having more citizens. This makes the cost of growth a more complicated equation. Rod Visser continued with the presentation. Likely School Construction Overruns Rod Visser said that there was the possibility that Elementary School #10 for the CHCCS, which is currently programmed in the CIP for 2047, could be pushed back a few years. He said that they are going to try and set up a meeting of the technical staff of the County, towns, and the school systems by the end of this month. He said that it is important that the public know that there is a mechanism that drives when new school facilities are to be provided. It is the County Commissioners' intention to ensure that the funding for new school facilities is available in time to bring the schools online. He said that the overruns are just estimates and could be higher or lower. Commissioner Gordon pointed out that, because the State has reduced class size in grades K-3, the State has therefore effectively changed the building capacities for schools and this change needs to be addressed within the SAPFO. It might be necessary to build more classrooms. Commissioner Halkiotis would like to know how other counties are dealing with the issues of unfunded mandates in North Carolina. Commissioner Carey made reference to mandates and asked about the penalty if a school system does not reduce class size in K-3. He asked representatives from the school systems to comment on this. He also asked about bid timing. Rod Visser said that it is his understanding that the bids for the OCS Middle School #3 construction are due an December 2"d. The County Commissioners probably will need to decide haw much money they will put forward to cover the bid at the December 14t" meeting. Steve Scroggs said that they would like to have funding solidified for CHCCS High School #3 before it is even sent out to bid. John Link said that it looks like Elementary School #10 can be delayed until 2008-2009 according to the preliminary projections. If this is true, then the County can, in the short term, use the debt funding available from #10 to address the overruns for the two schools. This would not affect SAPFO at all. This would be a win-win scenario. Chair Jacobs asked each superintendent to respond to the question about the mandates. Superintendent Shirley Carraway said that they follow the mandates related to class size reduction. She said that the ratio is not calculated per individual classroom, but the average has to be 1:21. Superintendent Neal Pedersen said that there is no waiver available for exceeding the ratio. There can be a waiver for an individual classroom being over the State maximum. He does not know what the penalty is. Commissioner Carey would like to get information about the penalties for not adhering to the mandates. John Link said that the Attorney General has to give specific information. He said that if a County does not pay the warrant bill from the State on Medicaid, they will withhold another source of revenue due that county. John Link said that the target would be to come back with as much information as possible, including the bids on the middle school. The Board would need to make a decision on December 14t"