Orange County NC Website
CountylOCSICHCCS Matters <br />a. SchoollCounty Collaboration Process <br />Chair Jacobs asked Rod Visser and John Link to bring them up to speed. The main <br />charge the group received was to revisit school construction standards, and at one of their <br />meetings they found that the square footage price has gone up 50°~ from 2003-2005. <br />Rad Visser said that there have been three meetings of the school collaboration group in <br />2006. School construction standards have been the major topic of discussion. The first <br />meeting in February was an overview of the school construction standards. The group decided <br />that it would be useful to get some additional information from other entities that have insights <br />into school construction guidelines and also some information regarding collaborative use of <br />facilities, etc. At the March 20`" meeting, several people came in and spoke on school <br />construction guidelines, what other jurisdictions are doing, and what the State has to say about <br />the guidelines. At the April meeting, they talked about sustainability issues and they talked <br />about joint use of facilities now and what might be needed in the future. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to two other attachments -attachments 6 and 7 -that this <br />group has not discussed and if the three boards want them to include this at their next meeting, <br />then they can. The plan is to have at least a draft adjusted standards for the joint meeting in the <br />fall. <br />Libbie Hough said that, with an eye to the future and the possibility of a bond <br />referendum, OCS is set for new construction for the next 10 years. She said that she is curious <br />as to what would be in the bond referendum for OCS as it relates to schools. She said that <br />people in the OCS would need to have something to vote for. <br />Chair Jacobs said that they are about a year away from having the debt capacity to <br />entertain discussions of a bond, but the County Commissioners need to start talking about it <br />maybe as early as the beginning of next year. Libbie Hough encouraged the County <br />Commissioners to please think of what the OCS citizens would get out of this as it relates to <br />5Ch0015. <br />Chair Jacobs said that they might also entertain the idea of haw the standards would <br />apply to retrofitting schools. <br />Dennis Whitling asked if there was a timetable far completing the construction <br />standards. Chair Jacobs said that when they got the charge from last year, they did not want it <br />to drag out too long, but they are looking at possibilities. Dennis Whitling said that he thinks it <br />should be faster and that there are other more pressing issues that should be addressed. He <br />said that both school systems have had presentations on the First School concept. However, <br />the OCS board did not find out about the concept until they read about it in the paper. He thinks <br />that this should have been brought to the table as a passible collaboration item. He said that <br />they need to look at programmatic issues as well as school construction standards. <br />Commissioner Halkiatis said that he and Chair Jacobs were asked to meet with <br />Superintendent Pedersen and CHCCS board members, with some representatives from Frank <br />Porter Graham, who have made presentations to the CHCCS board. He said that Chair Jacobs <br />suggested that the Frank Porter Graham representatives talk with the OCS board about <br />presenting the First Schaal concept to their board. <br />Liz Brown agreed with Dennis Whitling and suggested that school construction <br />standards could be done by a consultant and they could focus on funding and programmatic <br />issues. Otherwise, there is no point in OCS continuing with collaboration. <br />Commissioner Gordan arrived at 8:00 p.m. <br />Mike Kelly asked if the OCS board would like to subscribe to the CHCCS newsletter and <br />Liz Brown said yes. <br />