Agenda - 06-21-2022; 8-a - Minutes

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14 1 of Orange County Schools' staff showed the top reason they would consider staying would be a 2 raise in pay. She said the OCS budget request seeks to address long-standing issues with the 3 way school staff is paid in OCS. She said one of the worst examples of the unfairness in the 4 OCS pay scale is that hourly workers don't receive a raise until they have worked in the district 5 for 22 years. She said classified staff perform numerous tasks that make it possible for 6 administrators and teachers to do their jobs. She said turnover in these positions is 7 unsustainable. She said it is not easy to learn the interworking of a school from scratch, but 8 classified staff are not paid accordingly. She said fully funding the OCS budget request is a vital 9 responsibility to this community and impacts all other areas of the Commissioners' work. She 10 said her organization is committed to pressuring OCS to spend their budget responsibly and 11 holding them accountable to investing in school staff. She said Orange County should be 12 leading the state in innovating education, not losing students to charter schools and online 13 corporate education. She requested the Board fully fund the OCS budget request. 14 Ashley Sherman said she is the school counselor at Ephesus Elementary and has been 15 with CHCCS for 10 years. She thanked the Board for their work and expressed appreciation. 16 She said she is the only counselor at her school and serves 400 students, 90 colleagues, and 17 several hundred family members. She said this is double nationally recommended average 18 counselor to student ratio. She said in the past couple of years she has been hit, stabbed, 19 punched, had a fire extinguisher sprayed on her, and run into traffic to try to prevent a student in 20 crisis from being hit by a car. She said it is not news that working in schools is hard and 21 compensation is not keeping up with the demands. She said she has seen a spike in mental 22 health concerns in students and colleagues. She said she loves her job, it is important, she is 23 good at it, and she is here tonight because she wants to be able to keep doing it. She said she 24 is also here for veteran colleagues who make less now with inflation than 20 years ago, those 25 who have put in 15 years of service and will not receive an increase for another decade, those 26 who have to use donated leave time to stay home with newborns, and the 23 colleagues that 27 have reached out this year for mental health referrals to cope with the impossible job they are all 28 doing. She said most importantly, she is here for students and families that are losing educators 29 who cannot afford to stay in the job. She said the CHCCS budget request is a first step in 30 addressing the unprecedented school staffing gap. She said it isn't fair that this need has fallen 31 to the Commissioners because in a perfect world the state of North Carolina would be leading 32 the way in across the board educator compensation. She said Orange County is lucky to see 33 increasing revenues and have the ability to meet school needs head on. She said CHCCS 34 budget request includes salary increases and family leave benefits which will demonstrate a 35 commitment to schools and directly support students. She asked the Board to amend the 36 County Manager's recommended budget to fully fund the CHCCS and OCS budget requests. 37 Brian Link said he is the president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Association of Educators. 38 He said all in attendance want the best for school teachers, students, and staff and asked the 39 Commissioners to keep the image of support in their minds when making budget decisions. He 40 said there is a historic amount of building taking place in Orange County, valuation of homes 41 are at historic rates, unemployment is at historic lows. He said those in education are told the 42 budget doesn't look good, but these circumstances are as good as it is going to get. He said 43 there is also historic inflation, record turnover rates and vacancies, the highest cost of living for 44 one adult and one child in the entire state of North Carolina, record concerns about 45 dissatisfaction in schools, mental health and safety, EC teachers are leaving in droves, and 46 students have gone 100 days with a teacher. He said while the budget is better than past two 47 years, it isn't historic. He said the Board gave a higher percentage in the 1980s and 1990s, and 48 what is presented now is the smallest increment other than during the Great Recession and the 49 2000 Crisis. He said this is inadequate and Orange County needs to follow Durham and Wake 50 County, who are funding more in education and are willing to raise taxes to do it. He said the 51 Board has had great initiatives like Broadband and the 203 Project, but that has meant no