Minutes 09-29-2022 Joint Meeting with Schools

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24 Deon Temne said for a continuation budget, the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools have not been funded appropriately by the Commissioners so he thinks that starving is an appropriate word. Commissioner McKee said that appropriately is looked at differently by different individuals and he must disagree. He wants to understand how they are addressing student needs and achievement. He asked if TAs and tutors were added to the staff. He also asked if the focus was on the classroom. Deon Temne asked where that funding would come from for the additional tutors and TAs. Commissioner McKee said that the funding could have come from the fund balance that staff had an increase of pay from. He said he realizes there is a balancing act but he wants to make sure that the focus is on lower-performing students. He said that the presentations on student achievement did not include a focus on lower-performing students. He said that he has been willing to accommodate the needs of the schools but he is uncomfortable hearing that Orange County is not doing all that it can, when the two school districts are #1 and #3 in funded for the state. He said that maybe he is not understanding something, but he can't get by the fact that they are well supported financially in relation to the other systems in the state. Deon Temne said that respectfully, it is like the definition of empathy. He said that people say that you have to walk in someone else's shoes to experience their life but that he disagrees with that because it is impossible to walk in someone else's shoes. He said that he does not think the Commissioners will ever truly understand. He said that when the district is coming to them and saying it's not enough funding, but is met with comments that "it looks like it is enough," shows the Commissioners do not understand and that the district is not being fully supported. He said they are saying its not enough, showing the numbers, and then they hear that the county has their backs, but he is uncomfortable with the word backstop because it is not shown in actions. Commissioner McKee said he would not continue the conversation because it will become circular, but that he disagrees. Riza Jenkins said that because the continuation budget was not funded they had to cover those costs themselves. She said that the question about TAs, those are classified staff positions, and that as a district they did a classified staff study. She said that state raises are for certified staff and must be funded. She said that when they brought the expansion budget request to the Commissioners it was not funded and that would have included the classified staff, including teaching assistants and bus drivers. She said that is why they were so committed as a Board to fund the classified staff because right now they are struggling to hire teachers. She said it is not just a Chapel Hill and Orange County schools challenge it is a national challenge. She said that yes they are the highest funded in the state, but not in the country and they are competing for educators from across the country. She said that is where they have to think and act differently because they must fund those positions. Commissioner Richards said that this is an interesting conversation because the Commissioners encouraged the district to spend down their fund balance. She said that when they set a number they were saying that they had funds in excess of the fund balance target. She said a need was identified, so the county asked them to spend the excess down. She said they were the backstop in the sense that they had a budget and they set a number on what the fund balance should be. She said there were competing needs and priorities. She supported it because they were saying spend it to the 5%. She said that they may need to work together to find where the funds come from. She said that she is struggling with the characterization of the county because they are there in the interest of working together. She said that discussing the fund balance percentage may need to be a different conversation.