Orange County NC Website
CHCCS Superintendent's Budget Request 2019-2020 <br /> Expansion Funding Requests from Local Funds <br /> We are requesting minimal funds for program expansion or new programs in the district at this time. <br /> Our primary focus this year will be on aligning our resources with our strategic plan and ensuring all <br /> are maximized. The following are some points of pride from our work this past year: <br /> • CHCCS has the highest average SAT and ACT scores in North Carolina. <br /> • Our cohort graduation rate continues to outpace the state at 91.6%. <br /> • We continue to average 20 students being selected to the Governor's School. <br /> • We provide 21" Century learning opportunities for our students through our Academy of <br /> Information Technology, Google Apps online learning accounts for all students, <br /> technology rich classrooms,and certified technology specialists in all schools. <br /> • We offer and continue to expand our advanced learning opportunities through AP courses, <br /> gifted specialists throughout the district and our Middle College at Durham Tech. <br /> • We provide our students with Fine Arts opportunities and have state and national award <br /> winning programs in choral,band,orchestra,drama,ceramics, and visual arts. <br /> • We continue to strive for a safe & healthy environment for our students by providing <br /> school nurses, school social workers, counselors,resource officers (secondary schools) for <br /> all our schools. <br /> • We also emphasize healthy living initiatives through our high nutrition standards and <br /> physical activity commitments. <br /> We know the programs we have implemented over the past few years and continue to strengthen will <br /> help our students achieve great things. We are looking within existing resources to sustain this <br /> upward momentum and are not looking to the county to provide any changes required for staffing in <br /> the district for FY 2019-20. We do request funds to help us accelerate our work surrounding equity, <br /> literacy, crisis and mental health services, school safety and expanded academic and enrichment <br /> programing for our struggling students. Below are the efforts for which we request county support <br /> through additional funds: <br /> 1. Increasing our benefit offerings for our staff to include up to 4 weeks of Maternity/Paternity <br /> leave for qualifying staff. Based on our current average numbers annually, $450,000 would <br /> provide funding to support at least 85 employees at 90% or 75 employees at 100%. This <br /> would provide CHCCS with a competitive benefit package to help us recruit and retain high <br /> quality teachers and staff. <br /> 2. Creating a Comprehensive Social/Emotional programming to build a continuum of <br /> services for our youth would require$232,000. Students need to understand how to regulate <br /> their emotions,build positive relationships,make responsible decisions, and understand what <br /> it means to care about self and others. Through additional financial support, Student Services <br /> will be able to create a social and emotional(SEL)district-wide program that will support the <br /> development of aforementioned skills which promotes student success. We will use these <br /> funds to create programming that helps with trauma and socially sensitive training,restorative <br /> practices and provides the supports our students need to learn in a safe and supportive <br /> environment. <br /> 3. Core Equity and Culturally relevant literacy content training for the district. This work is <br /> the cornerstone of our strategic plan and efforts to ensure our district closes all achievement <br /> gaps. We will be collaborating with Orange County Schools in this work so as to create the <br /> cohesive understanding surrounding equity our community expects. We are requesting <br />