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Document Availability ^ Clerk to Board of Commissioners ^ County Budget Office ^ Orange County Library ^ Chapel Hill Public Library ^ Carrboro Library ^ Cedar Grove Library ^ Orange County Website (portions of document): ^ vvww.co.orange.nc.us Commissioner Jacobs said that one of the groups the Board may hear from are the County employees and it is good to see them speaking for themselves. He said that the County Commissioners share many of the frustrations that the citizens feel about funding issues. He encouraged the citizens to contact the State legislators. He also thanked the Manager and staff for their work. Chair Carey pointed out that the citizens should contact all State legislators and not just those that represent this district. 3. Public Comment Tina Siragusa is the Executive Director of EI Centro Latino in Carrboro. She gave the County Commissioners a letter with the appeal, as well as the first page of the Human Services application that they submitted. She is appealing for a correction and a consideration as stated with the new amounts, which is a $2,000 increase from $25,000 to $27,000. Karl Knapp spoke on behalf of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA Council. He read a prepared statement. In summary, he said that the Council asked that the Board of County Commissioners fully fund the budget requests of both school systems. The County Manager's recommended budget would leave each district about $2 million short of their requests. They are concerned about how these shortfalls will affect students. He said that if the Manager's recommended budget were adopted, it would force the school boards to make significant cuts to specific programs. He said that in the CHCCS, a $95 per pupil increase would cover only the cost of increase for insurance and employees and would not provide funds for cast increases in other items such as utilities and employee benefits. In recent years, the school system has compensated for small funding increases by reducing the district's undesignated fund balance to the point where there is almost Wane left. He understands that OCS has done the same. The prospect of insufficient funding is forcing the school system to consider cuts such as elimination of middle school resource officers, elimination of middle school after school programs, and reductions in staffing for exceptional child programs, teacher assistants, and gifted education. He asked far full funding of both school systems' budgets. Florence Soltys was representing the Senior Care of Orange County. This is the beginning of the first year of the transfer to a private organization that they formed into a non- profit as a result of the Master Aging Plan. They have found a great need for a day health center, particularly in Northern Orange, which has formed and is growing rapidly. They are now full and need other space to expand. She gave examples of people that visit the center. They have certified nursing assistants and nurses so that the people can be cared for well. She thinks the entire community should support this program. About $0% of the people that use it can not afford to pay the cost. She said that she feels the support of John Link and his staff in helping them with this. They have also had support from Carol Woods and UNC Hospital. Bernice Goldstein is the full-time teacher of academically gifted at Scroggs Elementary School in Chapel Hill. She asked the County Commissioners to fully fund Superintendent Pederson's budget request for this year. She said that this budget just seeks to maintain the current level of services. If the budget is not fully funded, many essential positions are in