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changes required to address the minority achievement gap. The district is expected to grow 338 students, health care and fuel costs are increasing, the district is opening a new high school, and they need to change the high school curriculum to address the minority achievement gap and make the zero period adequately accessible to all students. He said that all of these items are important and need to be properly funded. He said that while the Board of County Commissioners is not responsible far line item spending, the school board lacks the authority to levy taxes, thus it is ultimately up to the County Commissioners as to whether cuts will or will not occur. He is concerned that the anticipated $2.4 million in lottery proceeds are being used to supplant current spending and being used to cut two cents from the tax rate rather than increase education spending above just the required teacher pay increases. He said that the lottery was intended for new spending. Don Willhoit, Chair of Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action Agency, said that this is the 40t" anniversary of JOCCA and also the 33rd year of continuous support from the Orange County Board of Commissioners. He said that they are willing to accept the Manager's recommendation. He encouraged the County Commissioners to attend an open house this Friday for Building Futures Youth Organization from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at the Inter-Faith Council offices in Carrboro. Ann Gerhardt, Executive Director of the Women's Center in Chapel Hill, said that they served 6,000 women last year from Orange, Durham, Chatham, and Wake Counties. She thanked the County Commissioners for their ongoing support. She said that she thinks this is one of the well-kept secrets in Chapel Hill. She is a new Executive Director and she said that she inherited some financial challenges and she is operating with 113 staff that she started with. They have free legal information services, career-planning programs, and financial information services. She said that they also served 30 teens in their award-winning Teens Climb High program and this will continue next year. They are also involved in the IDA program, providing new homes for 20 low to moderate-income families. They are trying to recruit from the University, the school system, and people that work in those organizations. She said that these programs serve both men and women. She looks at this as support to prevent women and families from falling into the homeless shelter, losing custody of their children, and empowering them to become and remain self-sufficient. She thanked the County Commissioners for their support. Jane Kerwin-Frederick said that she has four children in the CHCCS, and they just moved here from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida this year. Ft. Lauderdale is the sixth largest school district in the country. The #1 reason they moved to Chapel Hill was because of the schools. She said that when you put money into education, you are bringing other things into your community. She said that they couldn't complain about haw far they are behind the rest of the world when they do not make education their number one priority. She said that it should not matter which school system you live in, they should be fully funded. She said that being $2 million short in CHCCS and $4 million short in OCS is unacceptable and it should be the number one budget driver. Ted Triebel said that he decided to speak tonight because of the lack of comment on the needs of Orange County such as mental health and local Medicare funding. He said that these people are the weakest of us all and they deserve our support and interest. AI Hartkopf is the Vice-Chair of OCS Board of Education and he advocated for full funding of the CHCCS budget request out of the general fund and not out of the district tax. He said that if the CHCCS is fully funded, OCS might get within striking distance of what it needs to do. He said that when they look at funding for education in North Carolina, he is reminded that the vast majority of low socioeconomic status individuals believe that the only way to make it is to get the lottery. They do not believe in working hard and investing little by little. He does not want to gamble on getting lottery funds, but he would rather invest and work a little harder with