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~~~'~I ~. <br />O <br />MERGER OF <br />TIIE CIiAPEL IIILL-CARRBORO AND THE ORANGE COUNT' <br />SCI®OL DISTRICTS <br />Adopt a Goal of completing the decision to consolidate tLe two school svstems no <br />later than December 30, 2003 <br />The Merger decision may be accomplished in one of two ways: ~ (other means may <br />also be available) <br />1) By decision of both school boadds and the Boazd of County Commissioners with all <br />elected boards involved in plan development and implementation upon approval by <br />the State Board of Education. <br />2) By decision of the Board of County Commissioners who will be responsible for plan <br />development and implementation upon approval by the State Board of Education. <br />Note: A public referendum may be used in either process but is not required. <br />Appropriate public hearings will be held regardless of the process chosen. <br />Recommendation for Process: <br />Invite both schools systems to approve a merger decision and plan by July 1, 2003 with <br />subsequent involvement in planning and implementation. If either or both decline to <br />approve of consolidation and participate in the planning for implementation, the Boazd of <br />County Commissioners will proceed with the decision and develop a consolidation plan , <br />for approval by the State, which may include a public referendum no later than <br />November, 2003. <br />While there aze many reasons for not pursuing this consolidation at this. time, I will focus <br />on the reasons why it is timely. This recommendation is not based on the promise of <br />reduced cost of operating the schools in the short run, but may provide for some savings <br />in the capital and operations areas in the future. The financial impact on county school'. <br />district residents will be the greatest deterrent and cause the greatest hazdship, but may be <br />mitigated with a phasing plan for equalizing the per pupil county allocation at the city <br />schools level <br />The questions one must ask at this time are "would we plan for two separate school <br />districts in Orange County today if we had the choice of starting again? " "Would the <br />gap in funding that currently exist grow wider if we continued our current policies? " "Is <br />the current funding disparity hindering or contributing to the equal educational <br />opportunity of county school system students? " <br />Reasons why consolidation of systems is timely in 2003: <br />