Agenda - 12-15-1987 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CAPITAL NEEDS PAGE 2 Joint school/community operated facilities. We can all be pleased--we will all be surprised--if the actual costs turn out to be less than requested. Allow me to give you a personal perspective on the present over-crowding. Our daughter is in the third grade at Carrboro Elementary School . There are over 600 students in a facility designed for 484. It is at least 25% over capacity with two temporary classrooms. Most classes are over the state limit of 26 (but below 29) . A couple of additional students in the wrong grades will require realigning virtually all the classes. Imagine how disruptive that would be in the middle of the year. The cafeteria and library are hopelessly overcrowded. The Assistant Principal 's office is in a former broom closet . One special class has Just moved from the hall to a converted food storage area. The physical overcrowding is not the worst . Staff and counselors are so overwhelmed that students cannot always get needed attention . As third grade teacher Miles Reck , speaking for the faculty, told the School Board last week, it is those already at high risk for problems that are particularly shortchanged. Short-termwproposals to relieve the overcrowding .L ,_ include making classrooms out of the stage or the gym (but they don't say where the gym classes will then go) . Such plans are born of desperation; they are penny wise and foolish and would destroy the integrity of the building�ound Possibilities also include moving the sixth grade to a Junior high school . Our son, after seven years at Carrboro, started Phillips Junior High this year . Nominally it is not over-full , but tell that to the seventh graders In the middle of the day . In order to shuffle everyone through , they begin lunch at 10 :30AM. Our son isn' t hungry then, but he is starving by the end of the day . Would the sixth graders have to eat at 9:45 or LOAM? Perhaps they could Just eat their lunch on the bus on the way to school . It is a very serious dilemma for the School Board. I know that you are concerned---as you should be--with both tax rates and equity for both school systems. Citizens of the Chapel Hill -Carrboro district have been willing to pay higher taxes for the quality of education they want . That is a large part of the reason why we moved Into the district from another county. Chapel Hill -Carrboro should not be penalized for Its extra efforts.