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Commissioner Gordon made reference to the debt capacity and when they could afford to build Elementary #10 and said that the Board has not approved a debt issuance schedule far awhile. She would like to discuss this as a Board. Commissioner Halkiotis thanked Lisa Stuckey for sharing the article from Newsweek. He felt very good about the fact that several County and school representatives visited Guilford Technical Community College five years ago and learned about the concept of middle college. He said that the article was very frightening to see Mike Easley portrayed as an education governor. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has had concerns all along about subsidies for child nutrition. He said that he remembers reading that CHCCS used fund balance to nip away at some large deficits in the child nutrition program. Superintendent Pedersen said that when their audit was completed, they found that they were running a deficit and they had to balance it out. They did appropriate about $460,000 of fund balance to take care of the deficit. Steve Scroggs clarified that the amount was for three years of accumulated deficit. Commissioner Halkiotis acknowledged that this is a tough decision because CHCCS does not have the numbers of free and reduced lunch eligible children that would provide reimbursements, yet they need to feed kids healthy meals. There will still be challenges, even with raising the cost 25 cents. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he remembers hearing Steve Scroggs talk about an in-house energy savings program. He was hoping to get some information about this and how they accomplished an $180,000 in savings from a $2,000 investment. He asked about the expected utility increases of $274,000. He would like to see the whole utility picture. He would also like to see information about the $423,000 savings from the Segal recommendations, specifically the projects and categories of the savings. Commissioner Halkiotis said that it seems that in the whole budget document, the school system is trying to play catch-up. Steve Scroggs said that they have had the same old challenges and many things have been under-budgeted for years and to ask for it all at once would be unreasonable. Regarding the utilities, they have been under- budgeted for years, so even though they have saved money, they still need money to catch upon what has been under-budgeted. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the possibility of the County and either school system or both school systems partnering for copying contracts. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to "Potential Cuts to Cover Shortfall" and said that he had a meeting with the Qurham Tech representatives this week and he asked Dr. Wynn how many students they had from OCS and CHCCS and the number was not that great. He said that last year OCS requested $65,000 in transportation casts and he learned that the students ended up driving themselves. He asked if middle college was going to make it or if they should just forget about it. Superintendent Pedersen said that they were hoping after this first year that it would grow. He suggested distributing the article in the packet to all parents of potential middle college students. He thinks that it will work and take off. He knows that transportation is a huge barrier. They were supposed to have 25 students last year, but there were only eight. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the estimated cost for middle college for CHCCS and Superintendent Pedersen said that this year it would be about $75,000. They only budgeted $20,000 for transportation and the transportation costs are minimal. Commissioner Halkiotis asked for clarification and what exactly both school systems have with school nurses, social workers, and resource officers so that they can