Agenda - 08-21-2007-4x - Laserfiche WebLink

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3~ Dennis Whitling said that, on the capital side, OCS has done what is listed, such as the lottery proceeds. He said that the operating side is stickier. He said that he thought he saw a memo about the 48.1 % target, and this is integral to the recommendation. Chair Carey said that it is important to keep the issue of fair funding on the agenda. He suggested having the school collaboration work group discuss it again. Liz Brown said that the OCS Board has talked about this, and she thinks That with the talk of no tax increase, that the work on the fair funding was pointless. She said that getting more equity is different from getting more funding for the schools. She said that it seems that this year is a year that the County Commissioners should look at giving more money to the OCS children. Chair Carey said that the County Commissioners have said that they want to target the tax increase at the level required to cover the debt service from all of the capital projects that the schools and the County have. He said that the Board will go through the process of adopting the budget as always, and will do the best it can for both school systems. Liz Brown said that she differs with the subjects that are discussed in the school collaboration work group because it seems that they have spent a lot of time discussing buildings and tax increases for buildings, which will not be for OCS. She said that OCS needs more money for programs. She would like to see the whole County work together at discussing that issue. She said that they have spent four years dancing around this issue of fair funding. Chair Carey said that the recommendation from the work group came forth in May and the Board of County Commissioners raised the tax rate six cents to try and accommodate the needs. He does not think that the Board can raise the tax rate another six cents this year. Jamezetta Bedford said that the CHCCS is presenting a budget to the Board of County Commissioners that meets their schools' needs. This budget has been cut from the budget that was presented to the school board at their February Board retreat. She said that it is millions more than the Board of County Commissioners is planning to cover. She asked about the realities here. Chair Carey said that the budget drivers included the $800,000 and that would not be at risk. Dennis Whitling said that what is driving OCS next year is the construction costs and debt service. He made reference to the budget public hearing on May 31St and said that OCS has offered the use of one of the school auditoriums. Ted Triebel said that there are serious concerns about the OCS operating budget and CIP. He said that they are trying to look after their youth in the long range. Mike Kelly asked for an explanation about the payment of debt service and said that he would like to look to avoid this in the future. He said that he would like to understand how they came to this point - to not increase taxes past paying for debt service. He said that this is a transient problem and debt service is supposedly going to go down. Commissioner Jacobs said that the cost increase between Gravelly Hill, Carrboro High, and Elementary School #10 caused a bump of $10 million beyond what was anticipated. Also, the Governor raised State teachers' salaries. He said that the County gets indirectly penalized for this and they still raised taxes 12 '/2 cents over the last two years. He said that the County Commissioners are trying to address County needs. He said that this was a confluence of circumstances that were not within the County Commissioners' control. Liz Brown said that she does not think the fair funding discussion should be in the school collaboration group because it is a waste of CHCCS's time. She would like to see a separate meeting of the Board of County Commissioners and the OCS, without the CHCCS. Chair Carey said that anytime you talk about funding, decisions affect all of the groups, and he does not see a conflict with the school collaboration group discussing it. Ted Triebel said that they would be discussing this in a partial vacuum if they did it between the County and OCS only.