Orange County NC Website
61 <br />Attachment 3 <br />HMEL HILL - <br />ARMOR0 <br />x C I T Y SC H 00 LS <br />Date: May 3, 2013 <br />To: Craig Benedict, Orange County Planning Director <br />From: Todd LoFrese, Assistant Superintendent for Support Services <br />Re: SAPFOTAC Draft Annual Report Comments <br />On May 2, 2013, administration presented the draft SAPFOTAC annual report to the <br />Board at the regular Board of Education meeting. As requested, Board members shared <br />their thoughts and feedback with respect to the draft report. A summary of that feedback <br />is contained below. <br />Culbreth Science Labs: The Board previously made a formal request to the <br />Commissioners for funding to construct a 6 room science lab addition. The science room <br />addition has been in our CIP since 2002. Students at Culbreth are not having the same <br />experience as our other middle school students due to the inadequacy of the existing <br />spaces at Culbreth. Teachers are struggling to provide hands on learning opportunities <br />simply for the fact they lack access to water. Furthermore, teachers report having to <br />teach lessons out of sequence due to the facility limitations. It is estimated that the <br />proposed addition would increase the capacity of Culbreth Middle School by 104 <br />students. Based on the current projections, this would result in a two year delay in the <br />need for Middle School #5. The Board wishes to reaffirm the continued need and <br />prioritization of this project. <br />Pre -K: Currently SAPFO doesn't reflect the impact of having Pre -K in our schools <br />although this has a significant capacity impact, especially at our older schools. Our <br />district has over 250 pre - school students enrolled in our program. This equates to <br />eighteen classrooms that are utilized for this purpose located on all of our ten elementary <br />school campuses. After accounting for schools that were built with a Pre -K classroom, a <br />recent analysis (see attached) shared at the Joint Boards meeting suggests that this <br />equates to the loss of 294 capacity seats. The Board appreciates that there continues to be <br />an ongoing dialogue about the importance of Pre -K along with the need to recognize the <br />impact of Pre -K on building capacity. The Board also recognizes that there are details, <br />including current space and financial constraints that still need to be discussed. The <br />Board looks forward to continued collaboration on this topic. <br />Student Generation Rates: We are concerned that the student generation rates currently <br />in use may not accurately reflect the impact of new development that is occurring in our <br />Lincoln Center, 750 S. Merritt Mill Road - Chapel Hill, NC 27516 -2878 - (919) 967 -8211 - www.chccs.k12.nc.us <br />