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up spilled backpacks. She continued to list the things she does each day. She said that if a teacher did all of this every day, they would not have time to teach. In the end, a great number of children would be left behind. Arlene Furman is a resident of Carrboro and her children have been enrolled in both school systems. She moved to Carrbora to gain more mobility in her life, having lost the majority of her eyesight. In the past four to five years, she has stood before the Board to request the County Commissioners to find money to fully support the OCS. Tonight, she is asking that the Caunty Commissioners listen to all parents and fully fund both school systems. She received a phone call from Superintendent Pedersen over the weekend stating that the CHCCS will came up $1.6 million short of being able to fund mandated increases. She said that if the CHCCS cannot cover these mandates, it would be very bad for OCS, which has been chronically under funded for years. In the past few years, County school shortfalls have been explained by Jahn Link as unsolvable and simply a matter of arithmetic. She said that John Link should know that these explanations would no longer suffice and that if he does not have a better solution, he should find a new jab. She disagrees with the tiered solution. She said that it is the County Commissioners' job to fix the funding problem and to come up with a funding formula that meets the needs of both systems. She said that a simple and clear solution would be to laver the district tax, and increase the countywide property tax. Libbie Hough is Chair of OCS Board. She thanked everyone that has advocated for funding for both school systems. She totally concurs. She spoke on behalf of the OCS Board and on behalf of the 7,000 children in OCS. She said that they realize that taking students to levels of excellence requires more resources and support. Their 2005-06 budget request tames directly from community-generated plans or from mandates, and their needs have been substantiated by the findings of the Educational Excellence Work Group. Last year, they were encouraged to reduce their fund balance to make much needed improvements in OCS. Using these savings, they increased non-tenured teacher supplements 11 %, hired social workers, and reinstated the elementary Spanish program. They are counting on the Caunty Commissioners for financial support to help keep these improvements in place. They have also tightened their belts. Last year they privatized janitorial services at Orange High School, implemented the Energy Education Program, and received a donation of funds for their afterschool program. This year that program, together with their Child Nutrition Program, will provide $300,000 towards district efforts. Their local budget request focuses on the basics -literacy, dropout prevention, increasing academic rigor, and teacher recruitment, development, and retention. Next week, the Board of County Commissioners will formally receive the OCS request, and on the request will be the first ever district wide Literacy Specialist. Also, the first ever district wide Math and Science Specialist will be on this request. She said that Orange County students deserve an excellent education and it is imperative that they have access to equivalent resources as CHCCS does. She made reference to the recent discussions about equity and merger, and said that over the last two years both districts have spent many hours on callaboratian efforts. Throughout it all, the one clear thing is that OCS has done an excellent jab with the resources they have been given and the children of rural Orange County deserve more. She asked the County Commissioners to fund their budget request fully and to finally address the $13.3 million different in local funding that keeps the OCS from providing the educational services that are needed. Ken Perry is a CHCCS parent. He supports taxes for all causes that have been mentioned, particularly education. He would like to ask State legislators and the Governor to fund education better, but he would not wait for this to happen. He said that the buck stops here. He finds it odd that the concept of voters having an opportunity to vote on issues is bad. He thinks everyone should be allowed to tax themselves as much as they want and be able to vote on it. He said that it would be easier to put the countywide district tax an the ballot rather than trying to guess what people think. He said that the district tax is not evil. He suggested a