Minutes - 20060425 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

AI Hartkopf said that there is a reality here that you cannot escape -the district tax referendum for OCS did not pass. He said that if you raise the ad valorem tax rate and lower the district tax, the net of that is that the Orange County people that voted against the district tax in the County will still be paying the same amount of money. He said that this is not representative government. He thinks that they are smart enough people to come up with another way. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has been around for four bond referenda and it was the people in the southern end of the County that carried the day for the children in the northern end of the County when it came to school capital facilities. He said that progressive people in central and northern Orange County voted for the bonds, but they were outvoted by those who were against the bonds. There were even school board members putting up "na bond" signs. This is not progressive. He knew that the OCS district tax would not pass, but the people had the right to speak. He said that he would like to see the school boards have taxing authority. He would be more than willing to meet on school equity, but he will not meet on a Saturday. He said that he is not going to do anything to hurt the CHCCS for the benefit of someone else. Chair Jacobs made reference to taxing authority and said that the Board of County Commissioners wants to get through this budget cycle before they take on any new issues. Chair Jacobs said that there are two proposals that he has heard: a proposal for a group of people to come up with an outline for the bigger group to discuss, or a proposal for everybody to meet as one big group. He suggested making a decision about this before moving on to the rest of the agenda. Jamezetta Bedford said that she does not want to hash out equity as a school board member and that it is a County Commissioner responsibility. She said that they will never agree on equity. Randy Copeland said that the OCS board's response to the County Commissioners when they asked about equity was basically that, if on paper you could take away the district tax and then say that they are equally funding the two districts, they have succeeded in equity. This is his personal thought. Chair Jacobs said that they are continuing to get conflicting messages. He said that what the County Commissioners heard from the two school boards several months ago was that they wanted the County Commissioners to deal with equity. He asked haw to proceed. Mike Kelly said that the position of the CHCCS board was that this decision was for the Board of County Commissioners and Lisa Stuckey said that is what they decided. AI Hartkopf said that his comments of a few months ago were reflecting the fiscal reality of the Board of County Commissioners this year, and throwing equity on top of that is a recipe for a bad outcome. He said that the OCS board said that the decision is up to the Board of County Commissioners. He said that this year the OCS has a strong needs list sa they need to deal with that, but it is still the Board of County Commissioners' ball. Liz Brown said that she thought that Commissioner Gordon was going in the direction of sitting down and discussing how to fund the schools. She thinks that this is different from people sitting down to define equity. Perhaps the OCS Chair and Vice-Chair could sit down with the Board of County Commissioners and talk about equity. She is willing to talk about this sooner rather than later. b. School Funding and Budget Drivers OCS BUDGET PRESENTATION Superintendent Carraway said that as they went through budget this year, they looked at the district strategic plan, the high school reform plan, the middle school plan, and they also looked