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

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17 1 Todd LoFrese said this has come up before, but this is a tall order. He said they are 2 currently in the process of looking at the walk zones in order to create policies or guidelines. 3 He said the goal is to encourage students to walk or bike to schools. He said there is also a 4 partnership with the Town of Carrboro to promote walking and biking. He is not aware of other 5 approaches to limiting parent drop offs. 6 Chair Jacobs said he would be interested in having this looked into. 7 Mia Burroughs said many parents are fearful about putting their children on a bus. She 8 said a lot of people also do not like adding extra time for commuting. 9 Commissioner Rich said it would help if there were more sidewalks. 10 Commissioner Pelissier said there are parents that feel the commute is their quality time 11 with their children. She said if a parent feels this way, it does not matter what other options are 12 available. 13 Chair Jacobs said we need to test the assumption that this is the way things are and the 14 way things always will be. 15 James Barrett said it is good to continue the conversation on public transportation. 16 17 3. Charter School Enrollment and Funding 18 Clarence Grier said a topic at the recent collaboration meeting was the impact of charter 19 schools on school enrollment. He said the County, since 2002 has held the number of charter 20 school students at the same level. He said the numbers for 2013-14 and the projected 21 numbers for 2015 show those numbers going up substantially. He said these numbers may 22 change as Pace Academy did not have their charter renewed. 23 Tom Forcella said Pace Academy serves a different type of student population than 24 some of the other schools. 25 Geri Martin said the abstract lists only two charter schools in Orange County, and OCS 26 pays money to 15 charter schools on a monthly basis, for 343 students that attend charter 27 schools. She said this costs the district $1.2 million, and this number is expected to increase as 28 a new charter school (The Expedition School) opens in August. 29 Debbie Piscitelli said The Expedition School's website shows numbers to be higher than 30 projected. 31 Commissioner McKee asked if the districts are required to provide extracurricular 32 activities to charter schools. 33 Both answered no, not yet. 34 Chair Bedford said charters that have been denied will have another opportunity to apply 35 for opening next August. She said there are 37 of these. She said the opposition is only to 36 charters that don't provide free or reduced meals and transportation, and EC services, who 37 therefore are not really serving the public. She said these schools also become very racially 38 segregated. 39 Steve Halkiotis said charter schools also pay off of the state salary schedule and receive 40 the same retirement schedule. He said teachers have been lost to the charters for higher 41 salary. 42 James Barrett said another legislative item is a model out of Colorado that allows inter 43 district and intra district transfers throughout the state. He said this could have a significant 44 impact. 45 Commissioner McKee said charter schools should offer all of the services of traditional 46 school. 47 Commissioner Price asked about the achievement rates of the students leaving the 48 charter schools.- 49 Chair Bedford cited a study showing that 37 percent of charter students do worse than 50 the public schools that surround them.