Minutes - 20060120 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Carey agreed that they need to put emotions aside when they talk about equity issues. He wonders if they asked someone like Bob Segal to look at this issue for them, and he wonders what he would say about the issue of how to achieve equity and whether the school systems should be merged. He made reference to the Grumet report and said that maybe they should ask the school systems to take along-term view. The school boards may have a different perception than the Board. He learned from the tax referendum that people in the County system do not think that a district tax is the best way to address the equity issue. Chair Jacobs said that he agrees that they need to have the school boards to say what they think. He also believes that, at some level, by funding outside the per-pupil, they will free up money that now goes to per-pupil expenditures. The schools can then set their own priorities. He sees this as an opportunity to give the schools more flexibility. He also agrees that the referendum said something about the district tax with the Orange County school system, but two different groups were speaking simultaneously. He agreed with Commissioner Foushee that we should not demean people who want to spend more to educate their children, and that was one of the voices. He said that there are only three options -merger, status quo, or raise taxes. Commissioner Gordon said that they should get the school boards' opinions and they need to ask bath of them what they think about funding. She would like to get a statement from the OCS about the district tax and how the difference should be funded. If you lower the CHCCS district tax, then you raise the countywide property tax. Chair Jacobs suggested working on articulating questions for each school board and asking them to consider getting back to the Board by the work session on March 13t" Commissioner Halkiotis said that he read a survey in the Chapel Hill newspaper about an OCS district tax and these residents were overwhelmingly in favor of it. Andy Sachs asked that the Board discuss what questions they would ask the school boards. Commissioner Gordan suggested big picture questions like "How would you define school equity?"; "What do you think about the per-pupil approach versus a non per-pupil approach?"; "If it is a non per-pupil approach, what would you like the Board of County Commissioners to include in that?"; and "How would you like the schools to be funded?" Commissioner Halkiotis said that this is too open ended. He does not want to hear from the OCS Board about their differing views. He wants to deal with the merger issue and then move on to equity. He said that if another series of questions were opened up, then they would be going back to point zero. He thinks the Board knows where everyone stands. John Link said that when you talked about merger, you had to talk about financial impact. One system was revenue neutral and the other faced an 18-cent tax increase. He said that the message from the OCS citizens in November was that they do not want a district tax. There is a question that he thinks is fair to ask the OCS Board - "What is the means by which you as a school board wish to have with funding addressed in the future?" Commissioner Carey said that he thinks that they need to come up with some questions to both school systems and have the collaboration group to look at the questions. The answers are still just advisory to the Board because the Board has to make the decision. Chair Jacobs said that he does not want to ask for direction from the school districts. He can see three questions: "What is your definition of equity?"; "We're inclined to increase funding on an equal basis outside per-pupil. What areas would you be most interested in seeing us adopt?"; and to the OCS: "Do you want mare funding? And if you do, how do you see that coming about?" He thinks that the OCS Board needs to give a clear statement. He said that the Manager tried to offer the option of outside the per-pupil and it was repudiated by the Chair and another member of the Board. He wants to try and move it forward as expeditiously and simply as possible. The Board agreed that each County Commissioner would write out a definition of school equity and share it at the next work session.