Minutes 05-23-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Jeremy Heinold is a science teacher and head basketball coach for the girls at Cedar Ridge High School. He spoke in support of the new classroom wing and new gym at Cedar Ridge. Patrick Kavanaugh is the science department chairperson at Cedar Ridge High School. He said he realizes the Board of County Commissioners has not put them in the position they are in now. He said the school boards have been good at prioritizing and planning, but there is much growth. Cedar Ridge is currently over capacity and the projected growth will require more teachers to keep classrooms at the required levels. Some teachers have to move from classroom to classroom to teach their classes because of lack of space. Manjula Watson urged the County Commissioners to fully fund the CHCCS budget. She said the budget is not for new programs but will only sustain the current programs. Cynthia Larrick has kids in CHCCS and she is proud to call Orange County home due to its schools. She said she would like to pay more taxes in order to fully fund the schools. Sam Gharbo said he is here as a parent and one of the reasons he moved to Orange County was because of the school systems. It has one of the highest taxes in the state. He said his son is thriving at Efland Cheeks Elementary School. He spoke in support of teacher assistants. Jennifer Carson is a teacher assistant at Grady Brown Elementary. She said N.C. ranks at the bottom of the scale for teacher pay and today the state senate passed legislation to reduce TAs by 3,000. She asked the County Commissioners to fully fund the budget. Eric Davis is the Chair of the Cameron Park Elementary PTO. He asked the County Commissioners to fully fund the Superintendent's requested budget. He said teacher assistants are a necessity. Art Menus is the Executive Director of the ArtsCenter in Carrboro. He said the ArtsCenter filled the gap when the state cut arts education. The economic impact of the ArtsCenter is $3.1 million. The ArtsCenter is going to be focusing on the Title I elementary schools in the County this year. The request of the ArtsCenter is $10,000 to support outreach and scholarships for children. Carson Monschein is a fifth grader at Grady Brown Elementary School. He said he does not know what he would have done without his teacher assistant. He had a stroke and brain surgery last year and he has needed help with simple things. He said they should be hiring more teacher assistants. Robert Dowling thanked the Board of County Commissioners for the support they have provided over the years for Community Home Trust. They face a lot of challenges at Community Home Trust. He said they have successes too. They have built 203 homes since the beginning. People in these homes are low-income individuals who would not have had a chance to own homes elsewhere. He said they are diverse group. All of their homes together are worth $40 million and the equity would be $10 million. He thanked the Manager for including Community Home Trust in his recommended budget this year. Tonya King is a substitute teacher and she thanked the County Commissioners for supporting the schools over the years. She encouraged all attending to contact their House Representatives about the state budget because the Senate has already proposed major cuts. Nancy Pekar is Vice President of PTA at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and asked that the County Commissioners fully fund the CHCCS budget requests. David Schanzer is a parent of children in CHCCS and he is in support of fully funding the budget requests. He said cuts over the last years have caused an increase in classroom size, lack of supplies, tattered books, and mobile classrooms. He said he fully supports a tax increase to provide the needed budget requests. He said they are de-prioritizing education and their teachers deserve raises. Mindy Morton is a representative of Smith Middle School's Improvement Team and she spoke in support of the CHCCS budget requests.