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at Dr. Madeline Grumet's Excellence in Education Report. The school board presented at a public hearing on April 17t" the budget, which is attachment 8. They identified four critical factors that are driving the budget requests: 1. Dropout rate - it has increased for 2004-05 and the dropout rate is higher than the State's dropout rate. This is very serious to them. They think that this is a matter of a lack of adequate programmatic support and resources to assist them in keeping students in school. They want to continue same of the programs and expand them. 2. Student achievement -there is a decline in student performance as students transition from 5t" grade to 6t" grade. They also need to address the significant achievement gap. 3. Maintaining momentum -Over the last two years, the district has engaged the students by offering Middle College, International Baccalaureate, 6t" and 9t" grade transition programs, elementary Spanish, etc. They must continue these programs and expand these programs to meet the changing needs of the students. 4. Gravelly Hill Middle School -There are staffing needs and one-time startup costs to supply the school with supplies and materials. The OCS board is scheduled to vote on and approve the budget at the next meeting an May 15t. This budget will officially come to the Board of County Commissioners. Lisa Stuckey asked about the net increase of 19.38% and what this translates into far per pupil allocation. Superintendent Carraway said that she would get that number for her. Commissioner Halkiotis asked what OCS was asking from Orange County for start up costs for Gravelly Hill and what they were planning to pay from fund balance. Superintendent Carraway said that they have to determine how much would come from fund balance. They have a limited amount of money in the fund balance because each year they have pulled money out of it to address needs. Commissioner Halkiotis asked if OCS was asking for $2.2 million for startup costs and Superintendent Carraway said yes. Libbie Hough said that some of their fund balance they have used to address instructional needs at both existing middle schools. Stanford and 5tanback need to be brought up to the same level as Gravelly Hill. They have taken $400-500,000 out of the fund balance to address these needs, and that is not reflected in this document. Commissioner Halkiotis said that usually these requests are made more in advance. He said that this question was asked of an OCS staff member over a year ago and he told the Board of County Commissioners that the $2 million far Gravelly Hill startup casts would be coming from the fund balance. He said that they have never funded startup costs for any school in the amount of $2 million. This represents two cents on the tax rate. Randy Copeland said that two years ago they had a large fund balance and they were strongly urged by the Board of County Commissioners to spend it down because it was above the norm that was set, so they did. He said that this is the reason for the request of startup costs for Gravelly Hill. Dennis Whitling said that this is a consequence of the last three years of not doing things correctly. They could have stood still as a district, but they chose not to do this and to use the fund balance and move forward as a district. AI Hartkopf said that they continue to take the results of the Grumet report very seriously. CHCCS BUDGET PRESENTATION Superintendent Pedersen said that they have five budget drivers: 1. Salary increases -driven by the General Assembly 2. Costs associated with projected student enrollment growth - 338 students