Minutes 05-10-2022 Budget Public Hearing and Work Session

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12 yourself and with each other." He had a better understanding of the challenges ahead of him as he had enlisted in the Delayed Entry Program of one of our military branches." At this point the comment time expired. Margo Ginsberg said she is the parent of a student at Ephesus Elementary in the CHCCS district and a homeowner. She asked the Board to fully fund the CHCCS budget request. She said in the past year the County has collected $6 million more in sales tax than was projected. She expressed her disapproval that the Commissioners have not approved CHCCS budget request. She said the funds are essential to providing the highest quality education to children. She said almost 50% of funding to pay teachers and staff comes from Orange County and is determined by the Commissioners. She said students have gone without needed services and instructors because of a historic number of open positions that have gone unfilled. She said the recommended portion of the budget for education is 1% lower than the Commissioners' own target and is 10% lower than what the Wake County manager is recommending. She said CHCCS is no longer in the top three for local supplement pay for teachers and staff. She said it is imperative to remain competitive in compensation in order to recruit and maintain the best quality educators. Lindsay Bedford read the following: "Good Evening Chairwoman Price, Vice Chairwoman Bedford, and County Commissioners. My name is Lindsay Bedford and I am Chair of the CHCCS Special Needs Advisory Council (SNAC). I come to you tonight to ask you to please fully fund the proposed budget that Dr. Hamlett and our Board of Education have brought before you. The education of many of the exceptional children, or EC, in our district is in crisis. EC students, the most vulnerable in our schools, have been disproportionately impacted by the great resignation. This is true across our nation. An NPR article published on April 21 spoke about the crisis facing special needs students, and highlighted Hawaii's efforts that started in 2020 to hire and retain more EC staff by increasing their pay by $10,000. In 2019, 30% of EC teaching positions in Hawaii were vacant, now the number is 15%. As you can see from the data I have provided to you tonight, 1/10th of the students in CHCCS receive EC services. Yet, 1/3 of the vacant positions in our district are those of individuals who provide direct services to EC students. There are occupational and physical therapists who are leaving because our state still considers them classified employees and pays them as such. There are general education teachers who are trying desperately to pick-up the pieces for students who are rapidly regressing academically, behaviorally, and socially, but do not have all of the necessary training and dozens of other students to educate. There are students in our district who have gone the entire year without certified EC teaching staff. Instead they are being served by a revolving door of hopefully long-term substitutes who show up every day and give their best, but are not trained in the specialized skills needed to provide our students with the Free and Appropriate Public Education that they are entitled to. A week ago, I sent you a petition that was signed by over 200 CHCCS community members supporting Dr. Hamlett's proposal to provide a 2.5% increase for EC teachers and an additional 2.5% for adapted curriculum teachers. In this petition, there are 88 narratives - stories of how vacancies have negatively impacted families, but also stories of how valuable our teachers who are here are to us. I hope that you took the time to read the document and will consider the stories you hear firsthand tonight. Our nation is in crisis. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is in crisis. The profession of teaching is in crisis. It is time for our society to show up and value our teachers for the monumental work they do every day. I believe in Orange County and I believe we value our children's education and thus our teachers. It is time for us to be brave and bold to support the future of our community."