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additional money. He asked for clarification on this. It was answered that this money was already budgeted. Commissioner Jacobs said that he is recommending that all three boards eliminate the contingency funds because all three have fund balances, including the Board of County Commissioners. If you take the Manager's recommended increase, the contingency from the OCS, the proceeds from another'/ cent ad valorem tax increase, and the cuts that he recommended (netting $705,000},then OCS will get an additional $997,000. There would therefore be a shortfall of $788,000 to cover the opening of Gravelly Hill and the mandates, which is almost exactly the cost of opening Gravelly Hill. Since he has been on this Board, it has been his understanding that, because the OCS did not have a district tax, that fund balance was to cover the opening of new schools. When there was discussion a few years ago about using some of the fund balance for something else, the Superintendent reminded the Board that she was saving the money to open Gravelly Hill. He said that there is a $788,000 shortfall, and there is a fund balance of $1.86 million. The agreed upon fund balance target is 2.7%, and OCS is currently at 7.8% fund balance. If the $788,000 were taken out of fund balance, there would still be a 4.43°~ fund balance. Chair Carey said that he agrees in concept about the use of fund balance, but he has a philosophical problem with telling the school boards what to do with the money the County Cammissianers give to them. He said that this invites the public to tell the County Commissioners that they are cutting the school boards in a line item fashion when they do not have line item authority. He said that the County Cammissianers should decide what to give the schools and then let the schools decide how to use these funds, etc. He said that there has been agreement to have discussions about fund balance in the near future, but to tell the schools what to da with it goes counter to what the County Commissioners try to tell the public that they do not have the authority to do with school boards. Commissioner Jacobs said that this year is an extraordinary circumstance. He said that OCS is certainly free to ignore the suggestion of using fund balance, but he is trying to be helpful. He said that he has not detected from the OCS that the Board is intruding. Commissioner Nelson said that philosophically he agrees that the Board of County Commissioners should not tell the school board haw to spend the money. He thinks that the difference is that the 2.7% was a mutually agreed upon target. Given that, it is okay to suggest using the fund balance. Commissioner Foushee said that she thinks the school boards understand this. Commissioner Jacobs said that the CHCCS recommendation is similar. If you take the Manager's recommended increase, delete the $50,000 contingency, add money from the '/ cent ad valorem tax increase, and the percentage of the County cuts, it comes out to about $1. 4 million. If the district tax is raised two cents, this raises another $1.6 million, which would be $3 million. This leaves a shortfall of $1,346,000 to cover all of the mandates. If the fund balance is used, it takes CHCCS under the 5.5°lo target. He said that he checked with Ken Chavious about when CHCCS did not have enough money, and they were at a 3% fund balance at that time. Ken Chavious thought that 4% should be sufficient, given that the County will make good on any difficulties. Commissioner Jacobs is suggesting that CHCCS use $1.4 million out of fund balance, which leaves $2 million. Chair Carey said that he is recommending using one cent to make certain cuts in the Manager's proposed operating budget to reduce the tax rate by .699 cents to save $871,000. Also, he is recommending adding 1.2 cents to the tax rate to provide $919,000 to the CHCCS and $577,000 to the OCS. This would increase the per pupil by