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item is not shown as an item for the County Commissioners to address in the local budget. John Link pointed out Attachment 5, Alternative Scenarios for Possible Modifications to the FY 2005-06 Manager's Recommended Budget. This indicates how the County Commissioners can cut the tax increase to less than 3 cents. He does not think there can be no increase, because there are 3 cents of mandates. He recommends looking at cutting the first and second cents. John Link then pointed out Attachment 4, which is the history of the total amount of County appropriations to both school systems since 1990. He said that the real issue is how much the County can afford in terms of increases in appropriations. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the Board asked John Link to ask both school systems about some specific questions, one of them being middle college. He said that CHCCS is showing middle college expenses of $75,000 and OCS is showing middle college expenses (support staff, technology, transportation) of $125,000. He asked if there was a clear understanding of what bath school systems need. John Link could not answer this. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he does not feel comfortable in making a decision if he does not have a good answer about the discrepancy in the middle college area and other areas. • OCS Superintendent and Board of Education Presentation OCS Board Chair Libbie Hough thanked the County Commissioners. She said that over the past two years, the board of education has partnered with the community to generate roadmaps for improvement to the school system. These opportunities have yielded valuable information. Their 2005-06 budget request comes directly from these community-generated plans -The five-year strategic plan, middle school task force recommendations, and preliminary work from a high school reform task force. They consider it critically important that the students' needs have been substantiated by the funding of the Board of County Commissioners' commissioned Educational Excellence Work Group. This report validates that the OCS is doing an excellent job helping students at the elementary level. It also clearly points out what must be done to help the middle and high school students thrive. The OCS board endorsed the budget request unanimously. The four major categories of the budget request are literacy support, dropout prevention, increasing academic rigor, and recruitment and retention of excellent teachers. At the last board meeting, they looked at areas that may need to take priority over others if they do not receive more than the $95 per pupil increase. They have not gone through each line item, but have focused an some major initiatives. They have concerns about continuing or moving forward with adequate funding to bring all middle schools up to a consistent level of service, collaboration efforts with CHCCS, and addressing the dropout rate. The OCS board also stated concerns about the proposed tiered funding approach. She said that the tiered approach promises to address any difference in funding if there is any money left over. The OCS board encourages the Board of County Commissioners to respect the fact that school boards have been given the statutory authority to choose programming that is best for their students. Rather than having the County Commissioners earmark funds for purposes in both districts, they wish to retain their authority to determine the use of funds. Last year, they were encouraged to use their fund balance to cover recurring expenses. They used $1.4 million of the fund balance to implement programs and services last year, many of which have been on the budget requests for well over five years. They need the County Commissioners' help to ensure that current programming and services can continue. In closing, she said that the OCS Board of Education would like to state that, no matter the individual position on taxes, they all think that students of rural Orange County deserve the best education possible and they need the County Commissioners' support to provide this.