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<br />June 20, 2008 <br />Barry Jacobs, Chair <br />Board of County Commissioners <br />PO Box 8181 <br />Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br />RECE <br />JUN 7 8 2008 <br />Dear.Commissioner Jacobs, <br />~~ <br />Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools continues to face increased student enrollment and the need for <br />additional schools. Moms Grove Elementary School will open in August 2008; however, current SAPFO <br />student enrollment projections indicate the need for the district's 11°t elemer~ary school to open soon <br />thereafter. During the past nine months, potential school sites for Elementary School #11~ were analyzed. <br />The process involved school staff, representatives from the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and <br />Orange County, and the district's Long Range Facility Committee. In April, the committee narrowed the <br />selection to two sites; Northside and the Greene Tract Design professionals provided additional analysis <br />of the sites and Northside was recommended. A major factor in selecting Northside was that it <br />represented the best site to meet the schedule of opening the school in 2011-12. On June 5, 2008, the <br />School Board held public comment and discussion regarding a site for Elementary School #11: <br />Community representatives spoke highly of the Northside site for the new school. On June 19 the School <br />Board accepted the recommendation and selected Northside as the site for Elementary School #11. <br />Your policy requires that once the Board is interested in acquiring a site for a school, it is to notify you. In <br />addition, it requires that the Board of County Commissioners appoint~a member to serve as a liaison as <br />the site is acquired and the school is designed. We ask that you make such an appointment as soon as <br />possible. . <br />Since this site is owned by the County and has County facilities on it, we ask for direction as to how to <br />proceed with acquisition if you concur that this is a suitable school site. As you know, we are on a very <br />tight timeline for the opening of Elementary No. 11. We have had informal conversations with County <br />Commissioners about this site and have received nothing but positive comments. We, therefore, are <br />anticipating that the Commissioners will support the use of this site for our next school. We have selected <br />an architect whom we would like to begin design work immediately. Knowing that the Commissioners <br />have only one more meeting scheduled before your summer break, we ask your advice on how to <br />proceed in a timely fashion. <br />Finally, we both received a letter dated June 17, 2008 from the Executive Director of the Community <br />School for People Under Six requesting a meeting regarding the impact of this decision on their pre- <br />school. We agree that such discussions should begin as soon as possible and ask that your office <br />contact mine to begin to identify possible dates. <br />The community response has been overwhelmingly positive for the construction of a school on the old <br />Orange County Training School site. As was stated last night by a community member, the opening of a <br />new school in the historically African-American section of Chapel Hill is an "historic event" We look <br />forward to partnering with you and the community on this project <br />_ _; <br />Sincerely, <br />Pamela S. Hemminger <br />C: Laura Blackmon <br />County Commissioners <br />School Board Members <br />Bill Mullin <br />Neil Pedersen <br />Lincoln Center, 750 S. Merritt Mill Road • Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2878 • (919) 967-8211 • www.Chccs.kl2.nc.us <br />