Agenda - 09-30-2014 - 1-5 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment 2a 3 "EL H �CITY Date: September 23, 2014 To: Bonnie Hammersley, Orange County Manager From: Todd LoFrese, Assistant Superintendent for Support Services Re: Joint Boards Meeting Materials As requested, please find materials and information in support of the September 30, 2014 Joint Boards Meeting agenda. We are looking forward to an informative and rich discussion about public education in Orange County. Our submission includes this cover sheet and an electronic version of our 2014 -15 Board of Education Approved Budget. Key parts of this year's state budget included sizeable (and long overdue) teacher raises, and additional state cuts to central office, transportation, and Teacher Assistants. Due, in part, to flexibility restrictions, we made the tough choice to reduce 22 Teacher Assistant positions this year. To partially offset this loss, we reduced average class size in grades 4 and 5 by 2 students. Attached please find a two -page document prepared by the Department of Public Instruction that illustrates the erosion of state support for our public schools. Additional reductions were also necessary to balance our local budget. These included reductions to central office salaries, gifted specialists, contracted services, and 15 part-time custodial positions. It would have been much worse if it were not for the strong support of the Board of Orange County Commissioners and our community. We are greatly appreciative of the property tax increase and additional revenues provided to our schools. We will present an overview of our budget and district priorities at the meeting. As requested, we are also sharing some brief information related to cross - district enrollment in classes, and a living wage. Cross - district enrollment: This has been explored and attempted previously. Logistical factors, different school schedules, travel distances and the desire to participate in after school activities led to extremely low participation. Even our middle college program has available slots and we believe that a child's inability to participate in athletics is a major factor in the program's underutilization. We are currently reviewing policy requirements and exploring whether we may be able to facilitate middle college students participating in athletics. We are also exploring technology solutions to provide greater access to unique course offerings and schedules. Both districts also have access to North Carolina Virtual Public Schools to provide unique course opportunities. Opportunities with Durham Tech continued to be explored, especially due to the state support of CTE programs. Many exciting programs, such as Project Lead the Way, are drawing students to enroll in more CTE courses. These include bio- medical and engineering pathways courses. We want to maximize the use of these funds and leverage the resources of both organizations.