Agenda 06-18-19 Item 8-a - Minutes

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18 increase will come in at 5%, and the classified close to 2%. She said she will do final 1 calculations once the Senate’s budget is available. 2 Commissioner Dorosin asked if everyone is making a living wage in both school 3 districts. 4 Dr. Todd Wirt said that all OCS employees make a living wage, with the exception of 5 contracted custodians. 6 Jennifer Bennett said CHCCS is paying all a living wage. She said contracted positions 7 were required to provide a living wage through their benefit package. 8 Dr. Todd Wirt said OCS is going to re-bid its custodial contracts, and will be asking for a 9 living wage. 10 Commissioner Dorosin asked if cost comparisons will be done for bringing these 11 services in house. 12 Dr. Todd Wirt said OCS has done these calculations several times, and the costs to 13 bring these services in house around an additional $500,000 to $600,000. 14 Commissioner Dorosin asked if the living wage is covered by the contractor increases its 15 cost for services. 16 Dr. Todd Wirt said yes. 17 Commissioner Bedford clarified that teacher assistants (TAs) are not getting paid for 18 workdays. 19 Dr. Pam Baldwin said TAs were brought back for a few days this year, for professional 20 development, which will continue. 21 Commissioner Bedford said she remembered making cuts to summer programming in 22 CHCS, and now it is down to 15 days. She said she is not sure what OCS has for summer 23 programs, but she is glad that CHCCS is restoring these programs and she is glad that OCS is 24 restoring class sizes in middle school 25 Commissioner Bedford said the State have made serious cuts, and the districts are 26 doing less with less, and there is not enough staff to do the quality work that is needed. She 27 said if $175 does not allow for a continuation budget, she is fearful what will have to be cut next. 28 She said the question of restoring positions has not even been discussed. 29 Dr. Pam Baldwin said CHCCS would have 40 positions that would need to be absorbed 30 through attrition or cut. 31 Dr. Pam Baldwin said CHCCS is looking to write some grants in order to avoid cutting 32 summer programming. She said this programming is so important. 33 Dr. Todd Wirt said this year the budget does meet OCS’ continuation request, and it is 34 seeking to restore some summer programs, etc. this year, but there have been many 35 reductions over the past three or four years in order to meet state mandates and cuts. He said 36 these cuts have been made at the central office whenever possible. 37 Commissioner Bedford referred to capital, and said Mebane is growing. She asked if it 38 is time to look at landbanking in Mebane, especially in consideration of the Economic 39 Development District (EDD) zones. 40 Will Atherton, OCS Board Chair, said absolutely, and OCS is bringing this up now 41 because the problem is inevitable. He said all OCS schools are centralized, and redistricting 42 will not allow for much scale value. He said looking at some of these growth areas will help 43 significantly. 44 Dr. Todd Wirt said the Operations Research and Education Laboratory (OREd) out of 45 NC State, assists schools districts in addressing politically sensitive school planning issues, 46 such as district membership projections, determining the location of new school sites, creating 47 new attendance boundaries, and examining demographic balance in redistricting processes. 48 He said OREd will help OCS in this process. 49