Agenda - 09-20-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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J7,f • 9 . .P0 --q71 Presentation to OCC 20 Sept 94: Louise E. Cole 967-4314 Community Pride;when you have a school in your neighborhood,it brings a certain amount of community pride. It also raises the value of the surrounding land and it lends a certain amount of community involvement. In the whole Chapel Hill school system there is no school in a predominantly mixed race neighborhood. What are our administrators trying to tell us? Are we becoming a Village of Snobs? Information I've received from the 1992 Tax Watch Proposal: Lincoln Center has 69,282 square feet of space with a gymnasium,cafeteria and 10.7 acres of playing fields. Fifteen thousand ft2 of this space is being used by the Head Start Program(supposedly being moved to the new elementary school). Do you realize that that gives 1358 square feet of space to each of the 51 administrators at Lincoln Center? If you conservatively gave each child 120 square feet,you could house 577 students,teachers and staff at Lincoln Center. If you were more liberal and gave them 140 square feet,you could still house 499 children. These renovations could be completed in less than a year therefore releiving the overcrowding at the elementary level one year earlier than the proposed new school. Lincoln Center was built with cinder blocks,brick and mortar. The building is in extremely good condition. Tax Watch's proposal to renovate it at the cost of $1 Million,possibily$1.2 Million now in 1994 is most reasonable,and should be very carefully considered. One of the reasons the School Board nixed this idea was the high cost of office space in Chapel Hill. This is no longer a valid excuse. With technology today,mobile units could be placed in clusters on any one of the spacious grounds of the schools at a very minimal cost for the 51 administrators. Several other town buildings have also been proposed. State Law prohibits the use of Certificates of Participation for building new schools. "Someone"got a waiver for this and you are prepared to raise our taxes without a Bond Referendum. Have any of you looked at the Economic Indicators of our immediate area? Tax Watch's proposal was right on the money with it's demographic study,looking ahead 2 years hence. Not so the School Board's. Are you aware that IBM is in the process of decreasing it's staff by 2000. in the triangle area? Duke Hospital is reducing it's staff by 1500 in the next 18 months,Durham County General,by 200 shortly,and Northern Telecom is in the process of reducing it's staff. American Airlines has cut back numbers of flights. There are others reducing or closing. Supposedly these Certificates of Participation will partly be funded with 70%of Orange County's Sales Tax Base over the next two years. I feel a pinch coming on with the new Wallmart being built just over the Orange County Line. The Tax base will go to Durham County,not Orange County. With six children,I for one will be shopping there. Home Depot will also be opening in Durham County soon. Speaking of Tax Base, why go to Raleigh for an Architectural Firm when we have several right here in Orange County. Wouldn't the$800,000.00 help our tax base if it was paid to a business and people here in our own county? Why are we increasing other's tax base when we need it to pay for this new school? The State of NC has mandated that by the year 2000 only 100 school boards will be funded,that's one per county. Also with the "goals 2000",all schools in all systems have to be equitable. I do not doubt this elaborate,architectural masterpiece won awards for design,but can we afford to upfit and upgrade all of the schools in our county to this standard of opulence? Why are we not thinking about a merger of the two school districts? The year 2000 is fast approaching. Our infamous School Board is constantly complaining about how important it is to be progressive,and they are willing to do it with our tax dollars. May I remind you that on a National Level, Outcome Based Education otherwise known as"Curriculum Restructruring"in Chapel Hill,is failing at a dismal rate. Schools have poured Billions into new schools, restructuring etc only to have lowered SAT scores and an increase in the dropout rate. Nationally employers are saying, "Send us someone from High School that can fill out an application!!!". OBE and it's cohorts are failing Nationally;and right here in"River City".