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APPROVED 4/18/2006 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />WORK SESSION <br />February 16, 2006 <br />4:00 p.m. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Thursday, <br />February 16, 20Q6 at 4:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, <br />N.C. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners <br />Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, Alice Gordon, and Stephen Halkiotis <br />COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant <br />Managers Rod Visser and Gwen Harvey, and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All <br />other staff members will be identified appropriately below). <br />NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE <br />PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. <br />1. Continuation of Discussion Regarding School Equity Considerations <br />Chair Jacobs said that this is a continuation of the discussion began at the <br />retreat on January 20t". The County Commissioners stated that they wanted to try and <br />move as expeditiously as possible to discuss what is meant by school equity and how to <br />better address the issues raised by school equity. They also said that they would try and <br />schedule extra meetings if necessary to do it, and this is one of the extra meetings that <br />was scheduled to have mare of an opportunity to discuss school equity. There is another <br />work session on March 13t", and this can also be discussed at that time. He suggested <br />seeing where they get tonight in the time allotted and determine how much more time is <br />needed to come to a satisfactory resolution of what is meant by school equity and how to <br />address it. <br />The Board agreed. <br />John Link said that the three questions on the abstract are good because the <br />Board has deliberated the fiscal side of equity and chose not to pursue merger at this <br />time. The voters of OCS voted against the district tax and now they are left with looking at <br />the fiscal side equity by using property tax, other funds, or lottery money. He said that <br />there may be opportunities to provide funds to schools outside of per-pupil such as <br />contracts via County departments for social workers, nurses, SRO's, etc. <br />Chair Jacobs said that they received a letter from the CHCCS board that said <br />that they did not have time to respond to equity questions at this time, but that they will <br />give a written response soon. <br />OCS Superintendent Shirley Carraway said that they received the letter and their <br />board has not had an opportunity to meet yet to address the questions. <br />Question #1: What is your definition of equity? <br />Commissioner Gordon distributed handouts from Chair Jacobs, Commissioner <br />Gordon, and Commissioner Foushee. Commissioner Carey said that he did not write his <br />responses to the school equity questions because he was on vacation. He would like to <br />