Orange County NC Website
18 <br /> <br />o 80-90 bags of supplemental food are distributed weekly in our elementary schools <br />o 25-30 bags of supplemental food are distributed weekly in our middle schools <br />o 10-15 bags of supplemental food are distributed weekly in our high schools <br />o OCS has 150+ McKinney Vento Students (homeless) <br />o 25-30 ESSA students (Foster Care) <br />• $160,000 to hire two additional academically/intellectually gifted (AIG) teachers. <br />o Budget reductions in FY2018 prevented the hire of these two vacant positions. <br />Resources had to be shifted forcing two of our elementary schools to share an AIG <br />teacher with another school. <br />• $40,000 to offer the dual language program to PreK students at New Hope Elementary. <br />The current dual language program offered to Kindergarten’s at New Hope elementary is <br />very successful and in high demand. Parents and the community have expressed great <br />desire for the program to begin in PreK. <br /> <br />In support of our second foci, Climate and culture, our Board supported and approved the <br />following expansion items: <br />• $150,000 to build in two inclement weather days for classified staff. At this time, when <br />the district is closed for inclement weather 12 month classified staff are required to use <br />vacation and in some cases leave without pay. <br />• $82,500 to reinstate pay for 5 teacher assistant workdays. To balance the budget in <br />FY2019 and not eliminate any teacher assistant position, the district no longer allowed <br />teacher assistants to work on teacher workdays. As a result, Teacher Assistant pay was <br />reduced by 14 days. The district was able to protect all teacher assistant positions and <br />recoup approximately $250,000 to balance the budget. The OCS Board and staff realize <br />the value and importance of these staff members in our schools. It is the goal of our <br />Board to eventually reinstate all of the workdays for teacher assistants. <br />• $192,000 to increase the maintenance technician staff by four. This expansion request is <br />supported by the following data: <br />o OCS currently has one maintenance technician serving 93,000 square feet. Industry <br />standards are one maintenance technician serving 50,000 square feet. <br />o An additional 50,000 square feet will be added to the district upon completion of the <br />Cedar Ridge High School wing addition and 26,000 square feet added with the <br />opening of the Orange County Schools Welcome Center would be in additional to the <br />93,000 square feet currently being served. <br />o $25.8 million capital improvement budget projects ongoing in the district. <br /> <br />Our final focus area, Stakeholder Engagement, received Board support and approval for the <br />following expansion items: <br />• $80,000 to hire a translator to support schools. We continue to welcome an increase in <br />non-English speaking families attending Orange County Schools. To better support <br />these students and their families, adding a translator will aid in our day to day <br />communications and allow us to better meet the needs of these families. We desire for <br />all of non-English speaking families to feel welcomed and valued as a partner with us in <br />their child’s education. <br />• $142,000 to add two equity facilitators to build capacity related to culturally relevant <br />teaching practices. Not only would these positions assist in building capacity surrounding <br />culturally relevant teaching practices but we also envision these facilitators; (1) teaching <br />African American and Latinx history courses at the two high schools; (2) Examining <br />policies, practices and protocols through an equity lens; and (3) Additional support to 13 <br />school based equity teams. At this time, the OCS Equity Department consists of one