Agenda - 02-17-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 1 increase taxes if this is needed. She said this is a price that she and other citizens are ready to 2 pay. 3 4 Eileen Regan read from the following written comments: 5 From: Carrboro Elementary School Improvement Team 6 Presented at tonight's meeting by: Eileen Regan, teacher/member of CES SIT 7 8 The Carrboro Elementary School Improvement Team is in favor of full funding for city and 9 county education budgets. It is critical that our schools maintain all of our current educational 10 programs and services. 11 12 The CES SIT understands that other county services are experiencing funding cuts. Educational 13 and social program cuts have a direct impact on all families and, in particular, our most fragile 14 families. We know that finding ways to raise revenues are difficult because it can 15 disproportionately affect these same communities. 16 17 Our story at CES demonstrates for you the changing demographic and community issues. We 18 recognize the struggle for the smaller number of revenues, and your difficult role in allocating 19 shrinking funds for essential programs that are facing increased demands. However, we need 20 commissioners to understand that these same families are increasingly relying on our school's 21 support to maintain quality of life for their children as well as provide educational excellence. 22 Each year that funding is cut to community programs, schools have increased their efforts and 23 outreach to help meet these essential needs. This has been done through new community 24 parent-education initiatives, expanded responsibilities for the social worker and counseling staff, 25 and increased workloads for our EC specialists, literacy coaches, interventionists and teacher 26 assistants. 27 28 I am a reading specialist at Carrboro Elementary as well as a member of the Carrboro SIT. As a 29 reading specialist, I teach children daily who must work very hard to develop academic literacy 30 when their families are struggling. All of my students have the potential to become successful 31 students and productive citizens. If we want to continue to have a strong, vibrant and 32 economically robust community, it is vital that these children, and all our children, receive the 33 support and resources they need to thrive. 34 35 On behalf of all of the children in our care, please fully fund the school budgets for both the 36 county and city school systems. 37 Thank you. 38 39 Kim Talikoff thanked the Board for their support. She is a 4th grade teacher in the 40 Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) and she asked the Board to fully fund their schools 41 to include a teaching assistant (TA) in every class in their elementary schools. She said these 42 TA's are co-teachers and are part of their essential services. She said it takes a team to 43 provide basic services, and the schools are far away from meeting their goals in Orange 44 County. She said she had the great privilege of working with the most wonderful TA this year, 45 and if the state budget goes through there will be no TA's in grades 3-5 next year. She said 46 TA's are invaluable, and she would not be able to compensate for that loss. She asked the 47 Board to provide full funding and put TA's in every classroom. 48 Jen Weinberg-Wolf is a parent and a representative of the school improvement team at 49 Northside Elementary school. She said this school is a community of over 500 young scholars 50 who are excited to learn and master teachers who are working on curriculum planning across 51 grade levels. She implored the Board to fully fund CHCCS to support students and teachers.