Minutes - 20050602 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

of the 11 schools in the OCS district. She thanked the Board of County Commissioners for their support and guidance to the schools, in particular, the opportunity for the Educational Excellence Report to be conducted. They also acknowledge that the funds to the schools are provided in a lump sum and it is up to the school board to implement the funds to support the needs and requests for the entire district. The PLC fully supports the Superintendent's budget this year. She asked for full funding of the OCS budget. Sandra Peterson is a patron of the local library, a member of the Orange County Friends of the Library, and an advocate for library services in northern Orange County. She spoke specifically about the expansion of the main central library in Hillsborough. She thanked the County Commissioners for appointing the Library Services Task Force in 2004, which presented a final report in October. She is also pleased that the Orange County Space Needs Report presented in March indicated the plan to have an adequate library facility by 2010. She said that many citizens eagerly await this facility. She encouraged the County Commissioners to continue these plans for all Orange County citizens. Susan Julian spoke about teacher assistants. She has worked as a teacher assistant at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School for almost 13 years. She is also working on becoming licensed at NCCU to teach. She asked the County Commissioners to fully fund the school budgets for the coming year. She said that if the budget were not fully funded, many assistant positions would have to be eliminated. She said that, by performing a variety of clerical tasks, teacher assistants help teachers deal with the increasing burden of necessary paperwork and documentation. They also provide teachers with much needed planning time. They also work with small groups of struggling learners or non-English speakers. Lauren Sacks is a representative of the ArtsCenter in Carrboro. She said that the ArtsCenter has come a long way in the past year financially. For the first time in their 30-year history, they will be operating in the black. Last year alone, they gave out $26,000 in scholarships to children and an additional $5,000 in scholarships to adults. Their most recent demographics indicate that about 53°~ of ArtsCenter constituents live in Orange County, and the ArtsCenter spends aver $500,000 a year on Orange County residents. The County gave them $5,000 last year and they are asking for that same amount for this year. Their specific request is for the children's programs, specifically the afterschool arts immersion program. This program is in conjunction with the Arc of Orange County and Communities in Schools. The children's programs serve over 4,000 children a year. She said that they are hoping to expand the afterschool arts immersion program to other programs and organizations in the community. The Communities in Schools program and the middle schools in Orange County are in financial difficulty, and they are interested in a partnership with the ArtsCenter to provide a program similar to the arts immersion program for middle school students. The Arc of Orange County would also like to partner with the ArtsCenter to provide arts immersion programs far middle school, high school, and adults. Pat Keck Cameron has been employed with Orange County for 15 years and has done various jobs in social work. She is now working with the Health Department as a Maternity Care Coordinator and a home visitor. She is overwhelmed by the choices and decisions that the County Commissioners have to make. She said that she is here because she is an employee and she is a broke employee because they have not had a raise in a long time. She sees new employees come in and start within $2,000 of what she makes after 14 years. She now works with pregnant teens and women who are on Medicaid. She said that she wants everything she has heard advocated tonight. She