Agenda - 09-04-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 1 She expressed appreciation for the opportunity to come together. She said district serves a 2 very diverse population, and tonight the Board will hear an outline of some of the initial steps 3 the school board would like to take in addressing the district needs. 4 Chair Jacobs said he is proud of the collaboration that occurs with the Board and the 5 two districts. He said this was not always the case. He said the Board has appreciated the 6 support from the school boards and the community during the past difficult budgetary years. 7 Introductions were made. 8 9 1. Presentation of and Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill Carrboro City 10 Schools Boards of Education Approved FY2014-15 Operating and Capital Budgets 11 Tom Forcella said this is a joint effort within their system to present their budget. He 12 said the schools are facing a fiscal cliff, and preparations on this budget began very early in 13 anticipation of the difficulties that would be faced. He said the districts are in an environment 14 where they are losing teachers due to reduced salaries. He said the schools put together an 15 initiative called Focused Dialogue to gather input from schools, principals, and school 16 improvement teams. He said this involved conversations about the current budget crisis and 17 what they could do in reaction to this crisis. He said the school district tried to stay true to their 18 vision in the midst of these difficulties. 19 He said most of the problems fall back on what is happening to all schools in North 20 Carolina as they try to balance state cuts with their fund balances. He said the board of 21 education had been trying in past years to balance the state shortfall with fund balance, but that 22 has come to an end. He said $1.5 million has been included in this year's budget due to the 23 anticipated state salary increases for teachers. He said if that does not happen, the goal of the 24 school board will be to keep that money in the budget to pay for local positions and 25 supplements. He said it is important to do something to honor the salary increases that the 26 teachers have not received in the past years. He said the absence of salary increases has hurt 27 staffing and staff retention over the past year and into next year. 28 29 Tom Forcella reviewed the following PowerPoint slides: 30 31 CHCCS 2014-15 Board's Budget Request 32 April 29, 2014 33 34 Agenda 35 Share our Success 36 Present Budget Priorities 37 -Professional Development 38 -Teacher Recruitment and Retention 39 The Numbers 40 41 Impact of Financial Support 42 -Rich Curricular Offerings 43 -A Variety of Programs 44 -Strong EC Program 45 -Supports for Fragile Students 46 -Safety in our Schools 47 48 Impact of Financial Support 49 -Lowest dropout rate in NC 50 -Cohort graduation rate is 92.6% (versus 80.4% for NC)