Orange County NC Website
Karen Kincaid Dunn works for Club Nova. She thanked the County Cammissioners for <br />their past support. She is in favor of having taxes raised if that is what it takes to support mental <br />health. She told a story of one of the members of Club Nova, who has suffered greatly. This <br />person disappeared after his sister died, and they found him in his bed unresponsive. He did <br />survive. She said that this is too close of a call and far too many citizens are living way too <br />close to the edge. She said that Club Nova needs the same level of County support in the <br />upcoming fiscal year as the current fiscal year. She said that Club Nova provides at least <br />$70,000 of services that are not reimbursed and the State continues to find different ways to not <br />pay for services. There are also new costs such as daily documentation. She said that their <br />new costs are about $50,000, which covers casts of documentation, authorizations, audits, etc. <br />She said that they count on County money far transportation of members. She said that they <br />have made it through their first year as a private non-profit and any less support could be <br />destabilizing. <br />Deepak Sirdeshana said that the County Cammissioners' actions impact education and <br />affect the reputation. He said that the thing that most bothers him is the passibility of losing the <br />resource teachers. He said that he is happy to pay more taxes for the school budgets. <br />Marne Meredith is a social worker with CHCCS and a CHCCS parent. She brought <br />signatures from two different parent groups for which she coordinates meetings. She asked the <br />County Commissioners to fully fund the schools' budgets and to raise taxes to do this. As a <br />school employee, she asked the County Commissioners to not ask the teachers and other <br />school staff to do more or the same amount of work with fewer resources. <br />Aerin Benavides said that she is here as the President of the CHCCS PTA Council. She <br />said that she is representing all of the children, though their parents are not here tonight. She <br />said that the PTAs voted on a referendum supporting full funding of the school system. She <br />said that the national average of the per pupil allocation for public schools is $6,857+. She said <br />that this is saying a lot for CHCCS because it is one of the best school systems in the nation, <br />and the per pupil allocation is much lower than this. She said that everyone has to work <br />together to keep the programs going. <br />Michael Buck said that he is a County resident and he thanked the County <br />Commissioners for their attention and fortitude and far all of the time spent on the budget and <br />attending events throughout the County. He said that a few weeks ago the County <br />Commissioners altered the locations of the public hearings and they have bent over backwards <br />to accommodate the public. He said that about 104 people have spoken at these public <br />hearings, and all but four people have spoken in favor of full funding for the school systems. He <br />said that there is support to make these decisions through the ad valorem tax. He said that if <br />the majority of the people in the County disagree with this, then there is a huge disconnect that <br />ought to be addressed. He hopes that the end result will be full funding of all schools. <br />Hattie Fax works with the Durham-Orange Community Tennis Association and is also a <br />tennis coach in the district and a parent of two children. She spoke in support of funding the <br />renovation of the tennis courts at Orange High School. She said that the courts are in extreme <br />disrepair and they are the largest courts open to the public. She said that in Chapel Hill there <br />are at least 18 courts open to the public. She said that the citizens of Orange County support <br />staying active through tennis. As a parent, she supports full funding of the school systems. <br />Chris Bern is a CHCCS parents. He said that he is a product of public schools in Florida <br />and he thinks that mediocre schools can still deliver good results. He said that there is nothing <br />overall wrong with mediocrity. He said that the County Commissioners do not have to fund the <br />schools fully -they will get by. He said that North Carolina and the United States have <br />mediocre schools and they get by. He said that OCS and CHCCS are not about mediocrity; <br />they are about being leaders. He said that this is an opportunity to maintain the leadership. He <br />asked the County Commissioners to fully fund CHCCS. <br />