Minutes 12-03-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Schools) which will be used in developing 10-year student membership projections and the 2012 SAPFO Technical Advisory Committee (SAPFOTAC) Report. Planning Director Craig Benedict said this item is to approve the November 15, 2012 numbers submitted from our two school districts. These capacity numbers include elementary, middle, and high school. Pages 3-8 of the agenda package itemized specific capacities within each school. He said one change was submitted from Orange County High school, which was recently downgraded by the Department of Public Instruction. It used to have a capacity of 1518 students and now it is set at 1399, with a decrease of 119 students. That is rarely done. Changes in capacity do not normally occur through re-rating. There was a re-rating a few years ago due to class size changes, which changed the capacity of the school. The membership does change each year, on November 15th, roughly the 45th day of school. Based on the SAPFO and that is reflected in the charts on attachment 1 in the far right column. They accept numbers as history, and if the Board of County Commissioners approves they will develop figures for the future. He said SAPFO says to take these new numbers, from November 15 and they take a look about 8 years back and then they develop 5 projections for the future. He said they will average those 5 projections to come up with what they think the membership will be in the future. They will use this as part of their capital improvement program. The group that does this projection is the SAPFOTAC (School of Adequate Public Facilities Technical Advisory Committee) and is made up of staff members from local governments and school boards. This process will start with the efforts tonight and will develop a 2013 School Public Facilities Report that will talk about the projections and the needs for future schools. That report will be available as capital improvement programs for the 2013/2014 budget are done. The purpose of tonight is to accept what was received from the school boards and to begin the process of creating that SAPFOTAC report. Commissioner Dorosin clarified that this is just a formality. Craig Benedict said that this is a formality at this stage. After the report is created, it will be presented to the Commissioners and local governments and school boards for feedback moving into early next year. He said that he had the agenda there and noted that the commissioners had spoken to the school board about pre-K enrollment. That is not reflected in the capacity numbers and is being discussed for inclusion in the future. He also noted that there are impacts when you affect the capacity numbers. Commissioner Dorosin asked for clarification that the pre-k programs are not counted now, but do exist in the schools, so they are taking up seats in the buildings. Commissioner Jacobs asked for a summary for the public of what these numbers tell us about capacity of the schools versus student membership. Craig Benedict responded that the way SAPFO works is to add all of the elementary schools capacity for a school district. All of the CHCCS capacities add up to 5244 seats. (Reference attachment 2) The ordinance says that 105% of that capacity number is what a reasonable number is before a new school is built. This program lets them foresee three to four years in advance that they need to get started. So for example, the Chapel Hill Schools' elementary schools capacity at 105% level would be 5506. Looking at this year, there are 5543 students, which is 37 students