Orange County NC Website
Recommendations for Increasing OCS Resources <br />Pre Kindergarten -12t"Grade <br />1. Increased Provision of Social Workers <br />2. Increased Resources for Exceptional Children {EC) Specialists in OCS <br />3. Improved Transportation for After-School Programs for OCS <br />4. District Resources for Grants and Data <br />5. Subject Area Specialists (Curriculum Alignment, Development, Implementation) <br />6. Increased Resources for Pre-School Services <br />Chair Carey said that the Board of County Commissioners has not adapted any one of <br />these tiers yet. The County Commissioners just gat it last week and they wanted the school <br />board's initial reactions to this funding concept. <br />AI Hartkopf said that last night someone asked Dr. Grumet about the recommendations <br />and if they were in priority order, and Dr. Grumet indicated that they were not. He wanted to <br />point this out. He made reference to the second to the last slide, and the third bullet. He asked <br />for elaboration on this (As an alternative, NC Statutes permit school appropriations by purpose, <br />function, or project). John Link said that is the process decided by State statute. He was <br />describing something that would involve all three parties in the agreement. <br />AI Hartkopf asked if it still has to be a per pupil allocation and that you cannot block one <br />system and not the other. Jahn Link said that the per pupil has to be the same. AI Hartkopf <br />said that this does not do very much for equity. <br />Lisa Stuckey made reference to tier III and asked if this is suggesting that ad valorem <br />property taxes be raised and that the CHCCS district tax be lowered to provide additional funds <br />to OCS. She asked if funding for CHCCS would remain the same, assuming there are no other <br />changes to tier I and tier II. John Link said yes and that in order for that to happen, there would <br />have to be actual agreement in writing. <br />Lisa Stuckey said that it seems to her that if there were an additional infusion of funds to <br />the OCS, she does not think the CHCCS Board would be interested in directing how the funds <br />would be spent. John Link said that they could be two separate agreements or just one <br />agreement between Orange County and the OCS. <br />John Link said that this tracks back to the discussion of the definition of equity. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that this is one of the reasons why he asked staff to go <br />somewhere and develop these ideas to achieve equity and to have the attorney to get all legal <br />questions answered. He does not understand why these questions cannot be answered once <br />and for all. The second issue is that OCS will not need anything for 1 Q years out with respect to <br />large buildings. He said that they need to start looking at the real needs because County <br />government has been giving its needs away. He thinks that a culture should be developed of <br />who really needs what. <br />Commissioner Jacobs passed around the County Facility Needs notebook far the school <br />boards to review. <br />Chair Carey said that the County would provide the school boards with a copy of this <br />notebook because everyone needs to understand that Orange County has a lot of pent up <br />needs that have to be addressed. <br />Chair Carey said that there are a lot of different scenarios and the County <br />Commissioners would like to hear from others. <br />Elizabeth Brown said that it seems that when they had merger discussions, the main <br />oppositions were against busing in the CHCCS and the desire for local control in the northern <br />district. She understands equity to mean fairness and equality. If the major issues are busing <br />and local control, then she thinks that equity would mean equal funding and not programmatic <br />equity. <br />