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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 06-07-2000APPROVED 411 712 0 0 1 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET WORK SESSION JUNE 7, 2000 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met with the Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Boards of Education on June 7, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr., and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Alice M. Gordon, Stephen H. Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Rod Visser and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Elizabeth Carter and members Gloria Foley, Roger Waldon, Elizabeth Williams and Superintendent Neil Pedersen. ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Susan Halkiotis and members Keith Cook, Rick Kennedy, Brenda Stephens, Delores Simpson and Bob Bateman. NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. CHAIR'S REVIEW OF SCHEDULE/TOPICS Chair Carey welcomed everyone to the meeting. The County Commissioners reviewed the proposed schedule of topics far the remainder of the budget work sessions. Commissioner Gordon suggested having a draft resolution of intent ready for the June 15t" work session so the County Commissioners could decide an the items as listed in that resolution and approve the resolution on the 20`h. Jahn Link said that the Landfill Enterprise Fund deliberations could be delayed until after the summer break. This fund is operated through a separate revenue stream that is not part of the general fund budget. Commissioner Jacobs noted that there would be four meetings held in the Government Services Center and one at the Southern Human Services Center. The Board decided to change the location of the June 15th work session to the Southern Human Services Center. The meeting on the 20t" will be held in the F. Gordon Battle Courtroom. Chair Carey asked if the County Commissioners wanted to set any parameters for the June 13tH budget work session. Commissioner Gordon suggested discussing only those items on which decisions must be made. Commissioner Brown said that she would like to have another presentation from those departments that are requesting new staff resources. The department budgets will only be discussed by exception. The Sheriff will be available to talk about the COPSFast program. FY 2000-01 SCHOOL BUDGETS a. Manager's Remarks -_ Chapel Hill-Carrboro CItV School Board Requested Budget John Link summarized some of the remarks he made at the public hearings about the rationale for the funding of the school systems. One of the driving forces in this year's school budget relates to having more than 700 new students attending the two school systems next year. The recommended per pupil amount is $2,395. This number addresses three major areas -debt service, teacher pay increases, and the increase in the number of new students. The Orange County school system received 94.1 °l° of their requested amount, based an the Manager's recommendation. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system received 96°~ of their requested amount, based on the Manager's recommendation. The total recommended funding far education is 53.9 million dollars, and the percentage of the general fund is 49.4%. He said that one of the points of decision and discussion on the part of the County Commissioners is how much of the total general fund can go toward any one function, including education. The Commissioners asked the Manager to pursue a target of 48.1 % of the total general fund, but he felt that this could not be achieved based on the number of new students and the expected increases in teacher pay, etc. He summarized the 'blue sheet' in the agenda packet far the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools current expense appropriation. Commissioner Brown made reference to the per pupil allocation and said that the district revenue far the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools generates $10,000,000, but that is not made part of the per pupil amount. She asked why the $10,000,000 was not part of the per pupil number. John Link said that the per pupil amount is the same for both school systems. When the district tax is addressed, part of this amount is added to the per pupil amount allocated. b. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board Presentation Elizabeth Carter, Chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board, thanked the County Commissioners for what they do for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. She said that the school board, of course, is not satisfied with the allocation. She summarized the process they follow in developing their budget. The school board reviews the requests that are received and cut wherever possible. She asked the Commissioners to give some consideration to the original recommended budget from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. She said that she personally supports the one cent for affordable housing and also the needs of the senior citizens. She supports additional soccer fields and realizes that there are other needs in the County. Superintendent Neil Pedersen highlighted the system's record of achievement as listed in the handout, including some national recognition for accomplishments. He summarized the reductions that were made before the budget was presented to the Commissioners. The total reductions were $714,726. He painted out that the total local budget for the school system was up 6.78% on aper-student basis, and this is the lowest that it has been in the last four years. Related to the state mandate of increased teacher salaries, he clarified why the school system said 8°~ and the Governor said 6.5°I°. He said that 6.5% was the average increase that is projected by the state. He said that the increments were larger in school districts that have younger, less experienced teacher populations. These schools districts have been advised to budget more than the 6.5%. He summarized some of the specific items that were in the requested budget such as compensation, teacher supplements, proficiency standards and minority student achievement, technology, curriculum enhancement, etc. In regards to reductions and savings, he said that they were being a little aggressive with charter schools in the sense that they are not providing for any additional enrollment. They did appropriate $900,000 from their fund balance. He made reference to the article that was distributed that was in the News and Observer about a teacher in Chatham County and her financial struggles. c. Board of County CommissionerslChapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board dialogue Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is disappointed in County government and the situation we find ourselves in. He said that we missed something about the State mandate of increased teacher salaries. He noted that the Department of Public Instruction has been wrong in their predictions of students. He said that he supports the one cent for affordable housing and he supports both the budgets as presented by the two school systems. He would like to see how a webmaster could be shared with the two school systems, County government, etc. He said that a webmaster would not be a full-time job for just one agency. He made reference to charter schools and Neil Pedersen said that they were paying for 117 students. He encourages joint cooperation with County government and other agencies. Commissioner Brown supports cooperative and joint collaboration with positions that could work for the County and the municipalities. Roger Walden said that next week at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schaal Board meeting, they would be looking at a facilities report and the future. There has been excellent collaboration between the school staff and the County staff. Gloria Foley pointed out that the webmaster would not only be creating sites but also looking at how technology could save money and achieve efficiency. She suggested having someone come in and create the websites and then hire someone that would work far all three entities to maintain the websites. Commissioner Brown supported this idea saying that this was the recommendation from the Information Technology Committee. Commissioner Gordon asked if any of the expansion items had priorities over other ones and Superintendent Pederson said no. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the Schaals Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and said that it could help to determine future student population. He believes that at some point the three entities, the two school boards and the County Commissioners, need to look at how to deal with school funding in a more holistic way. He gave several scenarios -continue how it is being done now, have a district tax for the Orange County system, collaborate on positions or functions between the two school systems. He feels that to keep going through this same exercise where no one goes away satisfied is not the way to continue business. He would like to see a work group talk about these budgeting issues ar set up a different group using the Institute of Government to help with the process of looking at issues to see if there is same new way of budgeting for schools and other County responsibilities. Commissioner Brown asked if the school systems had any comments about the writing test scares that were in the paper. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that the scores seemed to be erratic. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools are trying to have a strong writing program and he feels that over time the scores will increase. Commissioner Brawn feels we can plan in late August to set up a series of meetings to get to some of these issues. The staff can work over the summer to set the agenda to discuss technology, mandates, etc. Chair Carey said that a group also needs to meet on capital funding for the schools. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the idea of putting together a group is okay but we need to learn from the mistakes we have made in the past. He does not think the process looked deep enough to see what was under the surface. He feels there needs to be more investigation in the process of budgeting for schools. d. Manager°s Remarks -_ Orange Countv School Reauested Budget John Link pointed out that in most years, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school system has grown at a rate much greater than the Orange County school system. He said that in order for the Orange County school system to receive 100% of its request, the per pupil allocation would have to be $2,544. The recommended funding from the general fund is almost one million dollars less than what was requested. The base amount of money for Orange County schools is not rising very quickly because there are not as many new students. He said that he was having a hard time coming up with something innovative in allocating more money other than examining the idea of the Orange County school system pursuing a district tax. e. Orange Countv School Presentation Susan Halkiotis, Chair of the Orange County School Board, thanked the County Commissioners for their comments. She made comments after the Superintendent made his presentation. Superintendent Randy Bridges highlighted some of the accomplishments of the school system. Six of the schools were identified as exemplary schools and two were identified as schools of distinction. The test scores have also been going up. Eight of the schools went to the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities Accreditation program, and all eight were successfully accredited. He summarized the vision statement, mission statement, and system priorities of the Orange County school system. The mandates included in the Superintendent's recommended budget included an 8°~ teacher salary increase, utilities, Charter schools, two ESL teachers, and partial start-up costs for Pathways Elementary. The mandates make up 75% of the recommended budget. The expansion items include two additional core teachers at A. L. Stanback, a Reading Resource teacher at Hillsborough Elementary, as well as other needed positions. The expansion items make up 18°~ of the recommended budget. He said that the budget request that the Commissioners were seeing was cut way down from the requests that were received from the schools. He said that there was a shortage of $243,358 to cover the mandates and the start-up costs for Pathways Elementary. He said that if Pathways Elementary was opened this year and the mandates were funded, none of the expansion items would be addressed. He asked that the County Commissioners increase funding far the Orange County schaol system to cover some items in their expansion budget. Commissioner Gordon asked if there were any items in the expansion budget that were priorities. Superintendent Bridges said that the priority was the reading teacher at Hillsborough Elementary School. Susan Halkiatis said that their budget has been funded at 94.1 °~. The requested increase for this year has been funded 55.5% in a year that they are starting up a new school. The Orange County school system does not have enough money to start up the new Elementary school. She thinks that a mistake was made to set a target at 48.2% of the County's general fund for the schools. She said that this allocation would have yielded $3,333 per student. The growth in the schools was not taken into account -the new schools and additional students. She made reference to the joint meetings between the school boards and the County Commissioners and said that the purpose of this was to let the County Commissioners know ahead of time what new initiatives were on the horizon. She said that mergers, district taxes, or district-wide taxes are solutions for the future but not for this year when they are trying to open new schools. She feels that the schools have been very deliberate and efficient in planning for the new elementary school and high school. She made reference to the trees that were cut on the Grady Brown property in the clearing activities for the new high schaol. She said that an ordinance was overlooked and it would be mitigated. The Orange County School system will approach the contractor. However, if the contractor does not cooperate, she asked if they should sue, and if sa, if taxpayer's money should be used. She asked that a packet be put together for outside contractors so that this mistake does not happen again. She said that the Orange County school board was faced with a decision of whether or not to leave a new school empty or to open it and not fund again the expansion items that have been on the list for a number of years. Keith Cook made reference to the record of achievement that Chapel Hill-Carrbara City Schools talked about this evening. He said that the Orange County Schools have enough money to pay bills and that is it. The Orange County school board is concerned and they want to have the same achievement that Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have. He does not feel that items like new school startup costs should be part of their budget, but that they should be a separate item. He said that the citizens who spoke up at the public hearings were asking the County Commissioners to raise taxes in order for their children to continue getting a goad education. He asked that the County Commissioners look at what has been allocated to the Orange County Schools and increase that amount so they can do more than just pay bills. Rick Kennedy feels that the County Commissioners are holding the schaol system back and undercutting the kids. With reference to the special district tax, a new Elementary School could be built each year with the $10 million that would be generated. Chapel Hill has the benefit of having water and sewer and the rural buffer and can expand their growth. Orange County does not have these benefits. He made reference to the mistake that was made with the trees at the new high school site and compared it to the damage that has been done on Eubanks Road and other places in the County. He said that Orange County Schools should not keep paying for this mistake. Brenda Stephens said that she remembers the President's State of the Union Address in January where he said that if we demand more from our schools, we must invest more in our schools. Delores Simpson said that we are here far a common purpose. What the Orange County School Board has asked for is reasonable and certainly not as much as is needed. The School Board has concluded that these are the things that are needed. She asked that the County Commissioners reconsider what was presented by the school board. Bob Bateman said that the school board voted unanimously for the budget that was presented. The school board felt that the Superintendent and staff did a tremendous jab in preparing and presenting the budget. He believes that the County Commissioners have a fund balance that can be used. He said that maybe when opening new schools, the County's fund balance could be used. e. Board of County CommissionerslOranae County School Dialoaue Chair Carey said that the County Commissioners not only have passion for children but also far all of the needs of all the citizens in Orange County. Commissioner Halkiotis thanked both school boards for coming and for the job that they da. He said that no one truly understands what goes on inside the schools except for the people who work in the schools. He said that education has to be the foremost and primary consideration. Commissioner Jacobs asked if projections have been done on what the change in the impact fee might be depending on different amounts. He also asked when the student generation study would be finished. Jahn Link said that the student generation study would probably be completed in the next month to six weeks. He said that at the Schools and Land Use Council meeting next week, there would be a report on the development of accurate projections and determining what the capacity should be at each school. The report will also address how the County tells the citizens that in order to be able to build the schools and have funding for operating the schools that only so many units of development will be allowed each year. Parents da not want children to be in mobile units or to go without supplies. He said that the allocation to the schools was simply a mathematical equation. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the non-appropriated fund balance and how that was determined. It was answered that the non-appropriated fund balance was not available. He stated that he does not feel any member of the Board of County Commissioners was trying to hold back any students in either system. He noted that no one was criticizing the schools for not having a district tax. Also, he said that the comments about the trees that were cut on the new high school property were not a criticism. He feels that the schools and County Commissioners need to take a different approach an funding schools. Commissioner Brown made reference to the issues brought forth on opening the new Elementary School. She asked if the school board has ever talked about a district tax. Susan Halkiotis said that it has certainly come up in discussion, but it has never been on the agenda to discuss formally. She said that there was strong division on the issue of a district tax. Commissioner Gordon said that she would look at the budget very carefully before deciding on the final budget. The figure that struck her in the first public hearing was the increase in student population. A lot of the big issues in the County's budget have to do with growth and that is why she thinks it is important to work on things like the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance. She encouraged the representatives of the Joint Schools and Land Use Council to attend the June 14tH meeting. f. Fox Hill Farm Deannexation Geoffrey Gledhill said that he spoke with Representative Hackney and Senator Kinnaird today and he determined that there has not been a bill introduced that would deannex all of Fox Hill Farms. He further determined that, at the urging of the legislators, a committee substitute has been prepared by bill drafting and it is the intention of our delegation to introduce the committee substitute to the existing bill that would deannex all of the property. He feels that all of the Fox Hill Farm property will get through the process and be deannexed unless it becomes controversial. He will communicate the Board's support for the committee substitute for the bill and let the legislators know that if it becomes controversial the Board does not have an objection to the other bill. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to a letter from an attorney and said that he did not like the tone and the demands of the letter. Commissioner Gordon thinks that the Board should support the committee substitute. Commissioner Brown also would like to deannex the entire property. Geoffrey Gledhill said that he thinks the County needs to get rid of this annexation however it can. ADJOURNMENT With no further items for the County Commissioners to consider, Chair Carey adjourned the meeting. The next regular meeting will be held on June 13, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Moses Carey, Jr., Chair Beverly A. Blythe, CMC