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~~ <br />Superintendent Carraway said that as students continue to participate, they are going to <br />be the best advertisement for this program. There will be three students graduating from this <br />program in May. <br />Commissioner Nelson asked the OCS about the proposed merger of Hillsborough <br />Elementary and Central Elementary. He has been getting emails from citizens who are <br />concerned about this. <br />Dennis Whitling said that there was amini-session in February and then it was <br />discussed later at another meeting, and he appointed athree-person committee of the board to <br />come up with a process of exploring this issue. This process was discussed at the last OCS <br />Board meeting about a week ago. He said that they are in the process of scheduling a meeting <br />(four-hour retreat) to be facilitated by Andy Sachs of the Dispute Settlement Center to discuss <br />this process. The timeline has been discussed, but there have been no decisions. He said that <br />all meetings would be open to the public. There will be a public hearing down the line and <br />possibly a panel discussion with some experts to talk about the socioeconomic issue. He said <br />that the issue is that there is a year-round school of choice with 14% having free and reduced <br />lunches versus another districted school a block away with 70% having free or reduced lunches. <br />He said that the proposal is to have 100 students to move from Central to Hillsborough <br />Elementary. He said that the school board is committed to exploring this. <br />Commissioner Nelson said that this process sounds fair and open. He said that there <br />was a group of people that came to the Human Relations Commission meeting about this. <br />There were some issues raised about race and class. <br />Chair Carey said that AI Hartkopf left a message that he had other commitments tonight. <br />Chair Carey made reference to the list of bills that the school boards are asking the <br />legislative member to support. He asked both school boards to write the legislative delegation <br />supporting Medicaid relief and the Real Estate Transfer Tax. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that the Real Estate Transfer Tax can generate $10 million <br />for Orange County if approved. He said that, having been through a merger discussion, he <br />would like to commend the OCS for taking on this issue of merging two schools and for the <br />process. <br />Ted Triebel made reference to the letter about the bills and said that it was also sent to <br />three or four other legislative representatives. He suggested that joint letters to the legislative <br />representatives (two school boards and the BOCC) would have much more "throw" weight. <br />The boards agreed to do a joint letter. <br />With no further issues to address, the meeting was adjourned at 9:44 PM. <br />Moses Carey, Jr., Chair <br />Donna S. Baker <br />Clerk to the Board <br />