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20 <br /> Attachment 2 <br /> Idiom- <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> NORTH CAROLINA <br /> Date: October 19th, 2021 <br /> To: Board of Orange County Commissioners <br /> From: Brennan Bouma, Sustainability Coordinator <br /> Steven Arndt, Director Asset Management Services <br /> RE: Orange County Community Climate Action Grant- Project Descriptions,Scoring, and Comments for <br /> School Application <br /> For the 2021-22 funding cycle of the Orange County Community Climate Action Grant program, $536,665 in <br /> funding was budgeted to support climate action projects that will benefit Orange County residents both socially <br /> and financially. For this grant cycle,the Board of Orange County Commissioners have reserved half of the total <br /> funding for this grant program ($268,332.50)to be awarded to projects submitted by either of Orange County's <br /> two public school districts.The remaining half($268,332.50)was to be made available to all other eligible <br /> "general" applicants in this round. <br /> During the time this round of grant funding was open for applications over the summer, County staff reached <br /> out to staff at both school districts to notify them of the grant funding opportunity and offer assistance. Orange <br /> County schools staff passed along this notice to other school staff and the Director of Facilities and Construction. <br /> No grant applications were received. When the grant period opened,the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools were <br /> in the process of hiring their new Sustainability Director.The new Director was hired 2-3 weeks before the grant <br /> application period closed. County staff worked with them to create a project idea that might be ready in time <br /> and they were able to submit a proposal totaling$68,616. No funding allocated for the schools has yet been <br /> recommended for approval. <br /> Following the scoring and eligibility guidelines of the Board of Orange County Commissioners (BOCC),the <br /> application that CHCCS submitted was reviewed and scored by the Commission for the Environment(CFE) and <br /> the Human Relations Commission (HRC).The BOCC asked the Human Relations Commission to score all <br /> applications on the Social Justice and Racial Equity criterion, as this pertains to their expertise and because the <br /> racial representation of the CFE as a whole does not yet reflect the racial diversity of Orange County.The HRC <br /> and the CFE discussed the scoring process, reviewed application materials, and shared thoughts on each <br /> application over the course of two monthly meetings and on September 13th each of these Commissions voted <br /> to pass their final scoring and comments on each application along to the BOCC. <br /> In light of the Board's interest in supporting school climate action projects and the special challenges facing <br /> schools as they operate during a pandemic,the current grant deadline for school projects will be extended <br /> through the end of November. County staff have already begun reaching back out to the schools to offer direct <br /> assistance in generating project proposals for this extended FY2021-22 round of funding as well as the FY2022- <br /> 23 round of funding set to open later this year. <br /> P.O. Box 8181 * Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 <br /> Telephone: (919)245-2625 <br />