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verbally give his responses. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has no excuse but he <br />knows what to say. <br />Commissioner Gordon reviewed the first question of her handout as shown <br />below. <br />SCHOOL FUNDING EQUITY Alice Gordon -February 14, 2006 <br />Answers to Two Questions Posed During the Commissioners Retreat in January 2006 <br />WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF EQUITY? <br />A. Definition <br />School funding "equity" means "fairness" in school funding. <br />Source of definition: According to Webster's dictionary, one of the definitions of equity is <br />"freedom from bias ar favoritism" or "something that is equitable." The synonym of <br />equitable is "fair." <br />B. Process <br />The county and the two school boards should work as partners to develop an agreement <br />for fairly funding bath operating expenses and capital expenditures in the two school <br />districts. All three boards have statutory responsibilities for schools, so it is important to <br />work together. <br />(1) Operating Expenses. The cooperative agreement should include fair funding of <br />programs and services in both districts. This agreement would involve consensus an the <br />method and level of funding, and the time period aver which the agreement would be <br />implemented. <br />In December 2003 I crafted a proposal far addressing the differences in school funding <br />which provided more operating funds for the Orange County Schools. Though this <br />proposal was not adopted and subsequent events have moved us beyond this particular <br />proposal, it is illustrative of the sort of solution an which we might agree. <br />(2) Capital Expenditures. The agreement should also include fair funding of needed <br />school buildings and other facilities. <br />(a} New Facilities: SAPFO. For new buildings, that means that we will continue <br />to follow the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, so that new schools will be <br />built when needed and thus eliminate future school overcrowding in both districts. <br />{b} Older Facilities: Substantial Equivalency. For alder school buildings, it <br />means that the commissioners and the school boards should develop a policy of <br />"substantial equivalency," so that all school facilities are substantially equivalent to each <br />other throughout the county. We have standards for new schools. What we need to <br />have in the future is a systematic plan to maintain and renovate the older schools. <br />There is a gap between the newer schools built within the last 10-15 years, and the <br />schools built about 20 years earlier. We need a systematic program to work on the <br />