Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
systems. There are critical needs that go unmet. They especially need more social <br />workers, additional reading remediatian instructors, enhancement of the OHS AP <br />program, and financial assistance for AP testing of students in the lower soci-economic <br />spectrum. She agrees with funding for the entire recommended budget. She hopes that <br />all needs of Orange County citizens can be met. <br />Gina Reynolds is a CHCCS parent. She congratulated the County <br />Commissioners for their past decisions, but the school system must be compared to the <br />whale country and not just the state. She feels that the school districts are the most <br />important assets in the community and that we have to be stewards of assets. She said <br />that by funding the schools, a capital investment is being made, a human capital <br />investment. She said that she loves how involved the parents are in the community, but <br />the teacher assistants are critical. <br />Linmarie Sikich is a child psychiatrist and she has had the chance to see how an <br />early education program can make a difference for special needs children. She has also <br />worked with children in places where they do not have the support and there are horrid <br />consequences. She urged the County Commissioners to fully fund all of the early <br />childhood and school programs. She said that she moved to North Carolina about ten <br />years ago, and people have told her that the reason they live in Chapel Hill is because of <br />the schools. She is 1 QO°~ convinced that if the level of funding in the OCS is raised to <br />the level of the CHCCS, all of Orange County will be a magnet for people. <br />Caroline Sherman is a CHCCS parent. She encouraged the County <br />Commissioners to fully fund bath school districts. Specifically, for CHCCS, the <br />Superintendent has outlined areas on the cutting block such as teacher assistants. She <br />has been an active volunteer for the past five years, and she has seen firsthand the <br />difference of having afull-time teacher assistant. She said that the learning in the <br />classrooms without full-time assistants suffered. She said that she witnessed the <br />achievement gap in a second grade classroom because there were not enough <br />assistants. <br />4. Adjournment <br />The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 p.m. <br />Moses Carey, Jr., Chair <br />Donna S. Baker <br />Clerk to the Board <br />