Agenda - 09-05-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 1 Elvira Mebane is from the Efland Cheeks area and has a child in OCS. She said she is 2 here to ask the County Commissioners to fully fund the OCS Budget requests. She would like 3 for them to consider the expansion of the Efland Cheeks Community Center because the 4 community is expanding. She thanked them for their continued support around transportation 5 issues in northern and rural Orange County. She spoke about having a bus system through 6 Mebane, Efland, and Hillsborough for the citizens there. 7 Martha Williams has a daughter at Grady Brown and said the State expects more from 8 their children and teachers, yet it wants to take the TAs. This year she has seen that the 9 children in her daughter's class are not financially stable and do not have snacks, glue sticks, 10 etc. She asked that the teacher assistants please not be taken from these children that do not 11 get support at home. 12 Michelle Siegling is a parent from CHCCS and the PTA president at Estes Hills 13 Elementary School. She is a licensed teacher but this year is serving as a Teacher Assistant. 14 She asked the County Commissioners to look at the big picture and they appreciate all of the 15 support they can get. She looks to the Board of County Commissioners to mitigate some of 16 these circumstances. 17 Brian Oswald asked the County Commissioners to support the capital plan for OCS and 18 specifically the proposed gym/extra classrooms at Cedar Ridge. He said the TAs are a benefit 19 for the school systems. 20 Jeff Danner said he has been here thirteen years and his observation is that this story is 21 always the same; both school systems' proposed adequate budgets maintain what they already 22 have. He said the County Commissioners are not bound by the County Manager's budget and 23 some years you just have to fund the budget as requested. He said hopefully this will be one of 24 those years. 25 Lee Anne Swanekamp recently moved to Chapel Hill, and the reason they picked 26 Chapel Hill and Orange County is because of the school systems. She asked the County 27 Commissioners to fully fund the schools. 28 Mike Kelley, CHCCS Board member, said he is speaking as an individual tonight and not 29 on behalf of the school board. He addressed the use of fund balance by the CHCCS. He said 30 the two school boards and Board of County Commissioners came to agreement about fund 31 balances and established a goal of 5.5% of the budget in the fund balance. The fund balance 32 last year was over 10% because of the federal funds. The district chose to use those funds 33 immediately and was able to save the local funds. They decided to spend these funds down 34 over three years. The three years are over and the fund balance will be at 5.6%. He said the 35 Manager's recommendation for the schools to use their fund balance is just not practical. 36 Michael Kaunlayk has three children in the CHCCs and he asked the County 37 Commissioners to fully fund the CHCCS proposed budget. He said his family chose to move 38 here because of the school system. 39 Desaray Rockett is a student at Cedar Ridge High School. She asked the County 40 Commissioners to fully fund the OCS budget request including, the capital request for a new 41 gym and classrooms. 42 Jennifer Erneste has three children in OCS. She said she grew up in large school 43 classes without teacher assistants and she saw teachers burn out. She asked the County 44 Commissioners to fully fund the schools. 45 46 4. Adiournment of Public Hearinq 47 48 49 50 Capital Investment Plan Budqet Work Session — No Public Comment 51