Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
r <br />f <br />To: The County Commissioners <br />From: Charles Foskey <br />Subject: County --wide School Bond <br />Date: December 11, 1991 <br />I write from the perspective of a past member of the Chapel <br />Hill- Carrboro School Board and a member of the School Capital <br />Needs Advisory Committee, but this letter represents only my own <br />views. I do not purport to speak for the School Board or the <br />Advisory Committee. <br />I commend you for the selection of $66 million as a bond <br />target, because any lesser amount will leave the two systems with <br />significant shortages in classroom and support space and <br />overcrowded conditions for our students. I am keenly aware that a <br />bond of this size will represent a significant, but I believe <br />reasonable, tax increase for the citizens of Orange County. <br />Massage will require political courage and leadership from each <br />of you. <br />As you make your final decisions I ask that you consider the <br />following points. <br />o Go for the May referendum date for the school bonds. The <br />two school systems need early funding approval to maintain <br />current momentum to get the schools built when the students <br />need them. A November date for the referendum means <br />construction delays and that the citizens` education <br />campaign would be diluted by presidential, congressional <br />and other campaigns which would be running simultaneously. <br />o Equity in funding for physical facilities does not mean <br />that each year the two systems would spend the same amount <br />per pupil for construction. It means that at the end of <br />each new project, the two systems should have approximately <br />the same quality of physical plant and approximately the <br />same square footage per student at each of the three levels <br />- elementary, middle and high school. In order to maintain <br />physical plant equity among the two systems it is highly <br />likely that the system with the greatest growth will <br />require the greatest gross and per pupil expenditures. <br />Equality of facilities must be the goal, not equality of <br />construction spending. <br />o The projections are real. The students are coming. Not <br />facing up to the problem now will force Chapel Hill- Carrboro <br />and probably Orange as well, to spend heavily on expensive <br />mobile classrooms which do not provide satisfactory class <br />room space during their relatively short life span. <br />