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Commissioner Carey said that he participated in all of these priority-setting meetings and <br />that the Board is committed to fund school facilities when they are needed. He said that it has <br />been the County Commissioners' commitment since he has been on the Board and it will <br />continue. However, there should be a target and the County also has needs. He thinks the <br />Board should avoid the hysteria of "the sky is falling" by trying to adopt a policy that gives the <br />public a sense of the direction that the County should be headed in the next few years. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that the strength of the Board of County Commissioners <br />and the two school boards has been great advocacy over the years for the respect for children. <br />He does not think that citizens have a thorough understanding of same of the things that the <br />County Commissioners are expected to fund that have nothing to do with education {tracking <br />video poker machines, tracking sexual offenders, tracking emergency services, etc.}. He said <br />that Orange County has done positive, progressive things to try and track both school systems' <br />needs and prepare for those needs. He said that last night the County Commissioners heard <br />that, because of the formulas from DPI, CHCCS benefited this year to the tune of $388,000 <br />because they had fewer students show up than DPI anticipated and OCS suffered to the tune of <br />$250,000 because they had more students show up than DPI predicted. He said that there are <br />a bunch of formulas that the state adheres to and the County legally has to use, that da not <br />make sense to him. He thinks the formula and the process is stupid and needs to be revised. <br />He would rather see a formula where the school system is paid for the children that show up at <br />the reporting time. He said that he would support this resolution because he knows the Board <br />will do the right thing and meet the building needs of both school systems. If the County fails to <br />meet the needs of any child at any school system in this County, he will resign from this Board. <br />PUBLIC COMMENT: <br />Gloria Foley said that the County needs that are defined in the ten-year CIP are <br />worthwhile. She supports the County needs as much as she supports the school needs. She <br />asked if a project is critical, then why is it not prioritized and why is this policy needed. She said <br />that Orange County Commissioners have a statutory requirement to provide to both County and <br />school needs. She asked about the point of defining arbitrary percentages to fulfill them. With <br />this policy, the County is depending on an enrollment projection model that has still not been <br />stabilized. With this policy, the two school systems are placed with a limited and shrinking pool <br />of pay as you go money. This will affect both school systems in addressing the needs of the <br />older school buildings. She said that aten-year economic plan is not completed that could <br />affect both school and County needs and therefore changes the percentage. A public school <br />facilities construction standard is still not completed. The ten-year CIP is along-range planning <br />document that should be reviewed each year. Priorities will change as necessities arise and as <br />citizen needs change. She said that an arbitrary policy based an arbitrary percentages is only <br />as goad as the paper that it is written on. <br />Etta Pisano said that she is a close observer of this Board and this topic has not been <br />on the public's radar screen for the last year. She said that this came up spontaneously at the <br />last meeting and most people are completely uninformed about it. She said that the data are <br />not very convincing for the 60°l0. She has had kids in schools here for 14 years and they have <br />been in overcrowded schools almost the whole time. This concerns her because there might be <br />another huge growth wave in the next ten years. She is the Chair of the School Governance <br />Committee at Culbreth Middle School and they have foregone some things that they need <br />because of the explosive growth. She is worried that the public is not aware of all of this issue. <br />Mike Kelley is a member of the CHCCS school board and he said that a lot of their <br />board members are at a meeting and could not be here. He thanked the Board for not taking <br />action on the resolution at their work session in October. He said that they recognize there is a <br />need for consideration of alternative priorities. They also recognize that the Board of County <br />Commissioners has made decisions about capital policy in the public process. They do have <br />