Letters regarding position of impact fee - VII-A - 3-21-95

Browse Search

Orange County Commissioners 22 March 1995 Good Evening, I am a parent of three children in the elementary, middle and high schools of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. It is in my best interest to have safe and effective schools. Tonight you will hear that our schools don't have enough money. I disagree. I think that 23 M$ is more than enough to construct a single high school. To spend more on the existing school system is to further widen the gap between the Orange County and Chapel Hill City Schools. Given the difficulties in the County, I could not argue that the CHCCS are more important. The problems which confront us are very difficult. Logically, the answers will be equally challenging. We just can't afford the "same old solutions". We must go beyond the ordinary, "mo money" answers. Towards this end, there are several logical steps which should be considered. First, The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools should adopt zero-baseline budgeting. The present budget model is one used by the US Congress to run up a 4 trillion dollar debt. Under this type of budgeting, you take whatever was spent last year and inflate it by a certain percentage for the next year. Under zero-baseline budgeting, schools would have to justify each program, line by line. Second, turn more of the day-to-day operations over to the school governance councils (SGC) which, at present, only write school improvement plans. With increased reliance on the non-paid SGCs, fewer employees will be needed in the central administration. The savings could be redirected to the classrooms. Third, turn the former Lincoln high school back into a school, if only for a short while. We all know that the proposed high school in Chapel Hill will be late and over-budget. We own the Lincoln high school and could renovate it within a short time. Fourth, as is common in private industry today, when demand exceeds capacity, outsource. The manifestation of this is charter schools which, under contract, provide us with a opportunities more palatable than trailers. In sum, the reason that the schools are out of money is not because we are taxed too little but that the local school board spends too much. . It is said "when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging". I say, give them alternatives, not a bigger shovel. John Reinhard (942-7811)