Minutes - 20060120 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Commissioner Halkiotis said that it would be helpful to get a list of items that the state used to pay far, such as utilities. He would like to knave the combined cost of utilities for both school systems. He would also like to know the combined bill for SRO's and social workers for both school systems. He said that Orange County stepped up to the plate to take care of many of these services that the state has mandated but refused to pay for. Commissioner Foushee said that any definition they came up with should put equity in the context of services and opportunity. She thinks that no opportunity should exist for one student that is not available or accessible to another student. She thinks that when they hear equity tossed about, it is more related to those opportunities that exist for some students but do not exist for others. Commissioner Carey said that this issue got started because of the merger issue. He wants to raise the issue again for the children in this County that do not have the same opportunities as others. He thinks it is incumbent upon the Board to equalize the opportunity. He wants the opinion of the school boards on this issue and the Board needs to bring some closure to the discussion of equity and merger. The discussion was tabled when the studies were commissioned. He thinks it is also incumbent upon the Board to articulate what was learned from the recent tax referendum about the school district tax. Commissioner Gordon said that she agreed with a lot of the points that the other County Commissioners made. She thinks that they need a definition of equity, and in this definition they need to take into account that the needs are different in each school system. The OCS need programs and resources for support staff and CHCCS need new schools. The issue is how to get more operating and programmatic funds to OC5 and capital funds to CHCCS. They need clear guidelines on how to do this and the school boards need to be intimately involved in this process. The other difficult thing is how to pay far it. She said that they do owe all students the best possible education. Chair Jacobs said that if they identify non per-pupil funding as the mechanism for addressing equity, as part of the discussion, they should talk about whether there is a relationship between that and the special district tax that only CHCCS has that perpetuates the gap in funding. He said that there could be a five-year plan to index the money put into the district tax and reduce the district tax by a certain rate as the non-per pupil funding is increased. This would leave the CHCCS harmless and perhaps lower the gap between the two districts. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the County Commissioners received a publication and an article from two conservative groups. One of the publications gathered information on administrative casts in school systems across the state. They have found that places where there is even declining school enrollment, there is increase in school administrators. They also talked about some school systems that merged that increased their administrative staff right after they merged. He said that the people that write these publications are trying to take the government out of education and trying to downsize government. He thinks that the County Commissioners should do something with merger or put it to bed. Andy Sachs made reference to services versus opportunities and asked if the Board has talked about what this means. Commissioner Foushee said that there is enough information in the executive summary of the Grumet report that talks about the opportunities available, such as AP courses that are not available in OCS. Transportation is an issue, however. She said that she does not think that anybody should be viewed in a negative light because they are willing to pay more money as opposed to people who believe that the resources are there but are not being used that might be effective. She sees the opportunity issue as a real problem and she hopes that the Board, along with the partners, can put aside those personal agendas and look at real solutions to these challenges. She gave examples of the different services that are provided in the two school districts and how they are delivered.