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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: June 26, 2003 <br />Action Age ~d~a <br />Item No. ~_ <br />SUBJECT: Purchase Price for Options to Purchase Property for Orange County Schools' <br />Middle School #3 <br />DEPARTMENT: County Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />OCS Middle School #3 Capital Project <br />Ordinance <br />6/17/03 OCS Attorney Letter <br />Area Map <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Moses Carey, ext 2125 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider approving the amount to be paid for options to purchase parcels of <br />property for the proposed site of the planned third middle school in the Orange County Schools <br />(OCS) district. <br />BACKGROUND: Funds in the amount of $18.5 million were included in the successful <br />November 2001 bond referendum for the siting and construction of a third middle school in the <br />Orange County Schools system. During the past year, Orange County staff have been <br />assisting the Orange County Schools Board and staff in identifying and analyzing the suitability <br />of possible middle school sites considering land use, public utility, and other criteria established <br />by the Orange County Board of Education. The BOCC appointed Commissioner Moses Carey <br />to serve as the Board's liaison with OCS on this project, in accordance with the November 2000 <br />"Policy on Planning and Funding School Capital Projects': As Orange County Schools are <br />already over capacity at the middle school level, they are eager to site and construct the new <br />middle school, with a projected opening date of August 2006. <br />North Carolina General Statutes provide that it is the prerogative of the Board of Education to <br />select school sites. The statutory role of Boards of County Commissioners in school siting is <br />limited to approving the purchase price of the site. NCGS §115C-426(f) states, in part, that:: <br />No contract for the purchase of a site shall be executed nor any funds expended therefor <br />without the approval of the board of county commissioners as to the amount to be spent <br />for the site; and in case of a disagreement between a board of education and a board of <br />county commissioners as to the amount to be spent for the site, the procedure provided <br />