Agenda - 11-06-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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7 1 Chair Bedford said there was talk that was killed in committee at the general assembly 2 regarding inter - district enrollments. She said the district opposed this because the dollars did 3 not follow the child. She said a child would be able to enroll in any school district in the state, 4 and this would make facility planning extremely difficult. She said it would make it difficult to 5 support a bond issue if you knew that other citizens of the state were not paying those taxes. 6 She said it will be interesting to see if this comes back up for discussion. 7 Commissioner Dorosin said his concern is that there are courses offered in one school 8 and not in another, whether inter or intra districts. He is concerned about the idea of equal 9 education opportunities and access. He said it would be interesting to put all available high 10 school courses on a list and ask the high school students which courses they would like to take. 11 He said he does not want to create a solution for a problem that does not exist, but he knows 12 there are a multitude of AP classes that are only offered at Chapel Hill High, and these could be 13 made accessible to other students. He said the physical idea of moving students around is a 14 step further than needs to be considered right now. He would just like to know now if there are 15 students wanting to take particular courses that are not available at their school. 16 Tom Forcella said CHCCS allows students to take online courses that are not offered in 17 the school, and there are a lot of kids that take advantage of this. He said the challenge is that 18 there are classes that cannot be offered because there are too few students that want to take it. 19 He said it might be possible to have an inter - district class with the three high schools using 20 technology and one teacher. He said schools that have done this, have had the students get 21 together three or four times a year for a seminar to actually connect the people they are seeing 22 on the screen. He said this is being investigated internally right now. 23 Commissioner Dorosin said the idea discussed earlier, of open enrollment, has troubling 24 implications for the County Commissioners who would have to fund students from out of district. 25 He said there are already real problems with how schools are funded generally. He said this 26 issue highlights a huge disparity across the state depending on whether you are lucky enough 27 to live in a county with a high amount of taxable property, or you live in a county with a fraction 28 of the taxable property. 29 Chair Jacobs said neighboring Caswell County is an example of one of the poorest 30 counties in the state, and they would certainly benefit from having access to Orange County 31 schools; however this would open up a whole other set of questions regarding planning and 32 funding. 33 Commissioner Dorosin said this could not be grafted onto the current system. He said 34 there would have to be new statewide funding model. 35 Commissioner McKee said the abstract mentioned that opportunities with Durham 36 Technical Community College continue to be explored. 37 Penny Gluck, Executive Dean at the Durham Tech Orange County Campus, said she 38 would like for Durham Tech to be an answer to collaborative efforts for both the Orange County 39 and Chapel Hill schools systems. She said there are certainly opportunities for students from 40 both districts to look at college level courses. She suggested a work session to look at the 41 courses at all five high schools and how Durham Tech's pathways might be an answer. 42 Chair Halkiotis said historically the districts have been locked in with traditional 43 schedules versus block schedules and the resulting transportation issues. He thinks that 44 creative opportunities may be out there, and is worth setting up a group to explore these 45 opportunities, especially with Orange County. 46 He said there are some award winning courses in Orange County Schools, such as the 47 agricultural program and the furniture making program that cannot be done online. 48 Chair Halkiotis said there are students in Orange County from the Alamance Burlington 49 schools system, and he has wished for a regional program to provide services. He said there 50 has been discussion of this with the pre -k and exceptional children programs.