Agenda - 09-17-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 1 be cut. He said that the community has a choice to give the schools what they asked for and he 2 said his parents are willing to pay more taxes to fully fund the schools. 3 4 Brian Russell said he is within the walk zone of the new elementary school. He has a 5 four year old who will be attending in the future. He is interested in the communities taking care 6 of one another in both school districts. He asked the Board to increase the funding to schools, 7 rather than just keeping the status quo. 8 9 Lauren Williams thanked the Board of County Commissioners for their hard work. She is 10 a single parent, and her daughter is a rising senior who has had a wonderful education in the 11 Orange County school system. She is worried that others will not have the same education as 12 her daughter was fortunate to have had. She said she can think of no better way to spend her 13 money than to fully fund both school districts. 14 15 Laura Dougherty is a public school teacher and has two children in CHCCS. She feels it 16 is critical to fully fund the schools, and she is willing to pay more taxes to do this. She noted 17 that N.C. ranks 48th in the nation for teacher pay and per pupil spending. She said that these 18 schools need financial support. 19 20 Jamezetta Bedford is the Vice Chair of CHCCS Board of Education (BOE). She said 21 she was surprised at some of the items on the CIP at the joint board meeting, including the gym 22 at Cedar Ridge. She said she does support the auxiliary gym. She feels that both school 23 districts have robust sports offering and the extra-curricular involvement leads to better 24 academic performance. Speaking for the BOE, she said the board does not expect to be fully 25 funded when the request is submitted. The request is based on state funding and it is much 26 less than last year. She said the BOE needs the funding to open up Northside Elementary and 27 meet other needs. She said that, whatever amount the Board of County Commissioners' needs 28 to fund both school systems should be attained. She suggested a special district tax. 29 30 Bonnie Hauser said she feels that the county is too focused on new buildings, campuses 31 and facilities and is not giving enough focus to quality and effectiveness of services. She asked 32 who benefits from the stand alone library in Carrboro and the $11 million expansion to this 33 building. She said that there is much being heard from architects and designers and not 34 enough from major stakeholders and experts on the ground, including agencies, schools and 35 everyday users of County services. She asked that service, and not buildings, be made a 36 priority with stakeholders actively involved in the process. She encouraged more attention to 37 resource sharing and community based services with an explicit intention to support community 38 services. She thanked the Board for pushing back on the project at the Blackwood Farm. She 39 said there is a high amount of concern about the growing interest in a bond referendum and tax 40 increase to fund a list of capital projects that have not had serious discussion about justification 41 or urgency. She asked the Board to look into how services can be modernized, and this might 42 lead to more money being found for the schools. 43 44 Marilyn McTigue is a long time resident of Bingham Township. She expressed 45 appreciation for the Emergency Services work group that engaged the public, and she said she 46 would like the same process for library services. She said that, despite $25 million invested in 47 new libraries in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, she has to utilize two library cards and two web 48 based applications to access the full collection. She said that the Chapel Hill Public Library is 49 central to Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and she questioned the plans for the Carrboro library. She 50 noted that many rural residents travel 15 miles or more to access a library. She would like to 51 see the establishment of a library services workgroup with stakeholders from the town and 52 County to devise a seamless library services plan for the entire County. She would like to see