Orange County NC Website
21 <br /> Vice-Chair Greene said she continues to be impressed by the affordable housing <br /> providers and their collaboration. <br /> VOTE: Ayes, 6 (Commissioner Fowler, Commissioner Hamilton, Commissioner Portie- <br /> Ascott, Chair Bedford, Vice-Chair Greene, Commissioner McKee), Nays, 1 (Commissioner <br /> Richards) <br /> MOTION PASSES <br /> 7. Reports <br /> a. Presentation of School Membership Projections and School Capacity Calculations <br /> The Board received presentations from the NC State Operations Research and Education <br /> Laboratory (OREd) on its ten-year school membership projections and from County staff on <br /> utilizing the Woolpert capacity calculation. <br /> BACKGROUND: Over the past year, the School Capital Needs Workgroup and the SAPFOTEC, <br /> a technical advisory committee, have discussed making improvements to the School Adequate <br /> Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO) enrollment projection and capacity determination process, <br /> based on commonly identified limitations of the process. The County has worked with OREd and <br /> Woolpert to develop alternative enrollment projection and capacity calculations frameworks. <br /> OREd and County staff will present these updated frameworks. <br /> OREd Enrollment Projections <br /> The County currently projects future enrollment through a series of mathematical formulas based <br /> on historic enrollment. Through the Certificate of Adequate Public Schools (CAPS) test, the <br /> County receives information from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and the County's planning <br /> departments regarding future residential development, but does not directly utilize that information <br /> in the future year projections. <br /> Through a review of peer counties, County planning staff identified that most nearby counties use <br /> OREd to provide student enrollment projections. Both districts also have worked with OREd in <br /> prior years, and Orange County Schools is currently working with OREd through its ongoing <br /> redistricting process. <br /> OREd utilizes land-use and future residential development projections directly in its ten-year <br /> enrollment projections. It determines the student generation rates of specific neighborhoods and <br /> makes estimates of generation rates of future developments based on similar existing <br /> neighborhoods. OREd has worked with the districts and the planning departments of the County <br /> and all municipalities, including Mebane, to make its own enrollment projections for both districts. <br /> Woolpert Capacity Calculations <br /> The current SAPFO utilizes the building capacity estimates based on state and school district <br /> guidelines as established in 2002. The capacity estimates have been updated based on <br /> renovations, additions, and changes to state guidelines in the intervening decades, but the <br /> underlying base assumptions have not been reviewed in that time. The base assumptions also <br /> have not been updated to accommodate Pre-K and Exceptional Children (EC) classrooms. <br /> As a part of the Woolpert assessment and long-term capital planning contract, the consultants <br /> went through each school building and conducted a thorough review of the size, condition, and <br /> type of each room. After accounting for each type of room present in each building, Woolpert was <br />