Minutes 05-22-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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3. Public Comment Art Menius welcomed the new manager. He said he greatly appreciated the proposed increase in their budget for the Arts Center, where he is executive director. He said this past fall the center increased their arts and education program to all four Title 1 schools in the Orange County system. He said they serve a total of 93,000 people at the center, and 1/3 of them are school children. He said 90 shows have been presented, all tied to the core curriculum in the Chapel Hill Carrboro School system, and more than 2,200 adults took classes in the art school. He said the after school arts emersion has reached a high of 40 kids every day, and this includes bus transportation from the school to the center. He said there are conversations ongoing with the Hillsborough Arts Council to bring services north of Interstate 85, and the goal is to have art school classes in downtown Hillsborough as early as this coming fall. He said the goal is to serve all of the citizens of the County. He said the center has an economic impact of almost $3.5 million annually in Orange County. Jeff Danner has lived in Orange County for 14 years. He said the school districts bring the Board budgets, but no new initiative. He said the schools requests are never fully funded, and teachers are fired and course offerings are reduced. He said this process has worn everyone down, and it has been accepted as the new normal. He said the Board has a means to raise revenue, and it has been 6 years without a tax increase. He understands that the Board does not set how the school spends money, but this is a partnership. He recommended that the Board put together a budget with a guiding principle of firing no teachers. He asked the Board to think about why they want to serve. He said there seems to be a higher value placed on tax minimization than anything else. He said this is the year to do something differently and just fund the schools. James Barrett said he is not speaking officially for the CHCCS Board, but he would like to offer some reactions. He referred to the $750,000 addition to the CIP for the older school projects and said he agrees that it is preferable to build capacity at existing facilities versus building new green built schools. He said the issue is timing, and it takes more time to add on that it does to build new. He said the additions need to be started right away in order to increase capacity enough to avoid plan B for elementary #12. He said this $750,000 is a request to get started earlier on an alternative plan for elementary#12, which is already in the CIP. He said if this is not started next year, there will be a need to build new in order to meet the growth. He referred to the operating budget and said that every additional dollar received will be used to save teacher and assistant positions. He said the requested budget is not some huge expansion budget, but simply provides for all of the existing positions. He said the school board has looked at the cuts that would be necessary to meet the manager's recommendation, and all of them would have a negative impact on teachers, assistants and students. He said the Board is their last hope. He thanked them for their past support of education, and said he looks forward to their continued support. Robert Dowling said he is the executive director of Community Land Trust and he expressed thanks for the County's on-going funding, support and advice to him and his board. He said the Board gives them $149,000, which is a lot of money, but this same amount has been given since 2008-09. He said the Community Land Trust has grown a lot in that time. He said there are discussions about a proposed charter amongst the local governments and the home trust. He said he hopes there will be a funding formula in this charter. He said there are 227 homes in their inventory, and they have sold 38 homes this fiscal year. He described one owner who is an employee of the Orange County school system and bought a townhome off Old 86. He said this person is a real community builder and a great ambassador for the Home Trust. Ann Gerhardt is the executive director of Compass Center, which is a domestic violence agency that also provides health sufficiency and debt reduction programs, as well as community