The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMinutes - 20031023APPROVED 12/1/2003 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Public Hearing on the Potential Impacts of a Possible School Merger October 23, 2003 7:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met far a Public Hearing on the Potential Impacts of a Possible School Merger on Thursday, October 23, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cedar Ridge High School Auditorium, Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon, Stephen Halkiotis, and Barry Jacobs COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Rod Visser and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker {All other staff members will be identified appropriately below} NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING VI11LL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. 1. Opening Comments -Chair Margaret Brown Chair Brown said that in January 2003, at the County Commissioners' retreat, the concept of merger was introduced. Staff needed eight months to gather information. She said that the presentation would last about 30 minutes. The presentation is also posted on the Orange County website. Also, question and answer cards are available, and if the presentation does not answer everyone's questions, the County Commissioners will take the questions and put the most frequent ones with answers on the website. She stressed that this report is limited and it shows the process and financial considerations and how they are going to fund two school systems equally. There is a lot of information that this report does not cover. This report was not meant to answer every question. Any other detailed information would have required a consultant. Chair Brown said that they would hold one more public hearing on December 4tn The County Commissioners are going to discuss the issue again on November 11tH Chair Brown read the pubic charge as follows: PUBLIC CHARGE: The Board of Commissioners pledges to the citizens of Orange County its respect. The Board asks its citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and with fellow citizens. At any time should any member of the Board or any citizen fail to observe this public charge, the Chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the Chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to this public charge is observed. 2. PowerPoint Presentation -John LinklRod Visser An Analysis of Potential Impacts Resulting from a Possible Merger of the Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Public Hearing October 23, 2003 Major Milestones . January 2003 - Commissioner Moses Carey proposed that the BOCC consider whether Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools should be merged March 2003 - BOCC adopted a CY 2003 goal {Appendix A of report) tasking staff to prepare an analysis of implications of a potential school merger . April 2003 -Focus of merger evaluation narrowed primarily to legal, organizational, and financial considerations September 2003 - BOCC received staff analysis of potential impacts of school merger in Orange County (Jctober 2003 - BOCC conducts two public hearings to receive public comment regarding potential merger of OCS and CHCCS November 2003 - BOCC work session to consider citizen comments and further discuss potential merger December 2003 -additional public hearing Report Availability . Internet - www.co.orange.nc.us; "Possible School Merger" button Public Input Opportunities October 16, 2003 - 7:30pm Public Hearing @ Chapel Hill High School October 23, 2003 - 7:30pm Public Hearing @ Cedar Ridge High School December 4, 2003 - 7:30pm Public Hearing @ Battle Courtroom, Hillsborough E-mail to possiblemerger@co.orange.nc.us Scope of Analysis ^ Report is not a formal merger study or merger plan Draws on statutory provisions, experience of jurisdictions that have considered andlor implemented merger Intent of analysis is to present factual information rather than opinion Examples of questions not addressed in analysis: . What school would mV child attend in a merged system? . What programming, {e._q. elementary foreign lan_guage instruction) would be Merger Consideration in Orange County ^ BC?CC appointed School Merger Study Commission in 1985 to examine potential impacts of merger ^ Recommendations of Study Commission (Appendix E} ^ Equalize per pupil funding countywide ^ Fund construction of new schools based on cooperative facilities plan developed by both systems ^ Encourage school districts to investigate areas where economies may be affected by joint operations such as transportation, food service & maintenance ^ Encourage school districts to pursue areas of educational cooperation such as special services Collaboration Efforts . Since 1988, funding for school construction and renovation projects has totaled $277 million . Includes four voter approved school capital bond referenda {1988, 1992, 1997 and 2001) . BOCC approved policies, standards and funding . Capital funding policy that earmarks annual non-debt revenues available for school and County capital proiects . Construction and funding standards far elementary, middle and high schools . School construction impact fees to offset cost of new school construction . Joint venture in bus transpartationlmaintenancelfueling Funding Equity Between Systems Remains a Challenge . In early 1990s, after examining numerous approaches and tax associated with achieving funding equity between the two scl BCC adopted "Equitable School Funding Goal" . Efforts in some years to reduce or hold the gap from growing impacted in recent years by need to raise CHCCS district tax new school startup casts . CHCCS special district tax accounts for funding disparity . Produces about $12.5 million for FY 2003-04 . Equates to about $1167 per student in additional funds rate impacts ool systems, have been rate to address . Funding equity remains a challenge for the BQCC . In accordance with State statutory formula, local current expense funding far schools is driven by the number of students in a school district . Historically, annual student growth in CHCCS has outpaced OCS, leading to more dollars for CHCCS Methods for School Merger in North Carolina North Carolina Statutes Provide Four Ways to Merge School Systems (Appendix F} Merger of Units in Same County Merger plan developed by boards of education; requires approval of board of county commissioners Merger plan requires approval by State Board of Education Mercer plan may (or may not} be made contingent on voter approval Merger of Units in Adjoining Counties Involves merger of county school units in one or more adjoining or contiguous counties with a city school administrative unit Requires approval of the "tax-levying body far the school units" Merger of units by local boards of education City school unit notifies State Board that it is voluntarily dissolving itself State Board required to adopt a merger plan for the administrative unit No role for school board ar commissioners in merger plan; no referendum County Commissioner Initiated Merger Board of County Commissioners adopts plan for consolidation and merger of local administrative units located wholly within the county into a single unit County Commissioner Initiated Merger Preparation and approval of this type of merger consistent with a school administrative unit initiated consolidation and merger with three basic exceptions: ^ County Commissioners must provide local funding for all students at the highest level of any local school administrative unit in the county during the preceding five fiscal years before the merger Boards of education "shall not participate by preparing, entering into, submitting, or agreeing to a plan" ^ "The plan shall not be contingent upon approval of the voters" North Carolina General Statute § 115C-67 provides that after the plan of consolidation and merger is approved by the State Board of Education, it "shall be deemed to have been made by authority of law and shall not be changed or amended except by an act of the General Assembly." Merger Timetable ^ Individual merger plans detail their own timetable ^ State Board does not specify a schedule for implementation ^ For purposes of this analysis, the following hypothetical timeframe has been used: ^ Year 1 -Board of Commissioner decision regarding merger ^ Year 2 -Should the BCC decide in favor of merger, Year 2 would be a year far transition activities to occur ^ Year 3 -Merger would take effect July 1 School Board Composition and Roles Merger Plan Components Regarding a New Board of Education ^ Merger plan must address structure of merged system board, including composition, terms, organization, etc. ^ Election by ^ District method • At-large method • Combination of district and at-large ^ Elections may be an either partisan or non-partisan basis Responsibility for operation of Schools During Merger ^ In reviewing other jurisdictions' merger studies and plans, there appears to be some variation and flexibility ^ Examples include: . Existing school boards continue to operate for some defined period . Either through the end of the current fiscal year or until the effective date of merger . Interim board may be appointed by BCCC for a period of time, such as one fiscaUacademic year . Focus an decisions that must be made and implemented no later than the effective date of merger . Composition of board tailored to specific circumstances of individual mergers . Typical for merger plan to specify that certain number of interim board members will be appointed from existing boards and that the Board of Commissioners may decide to appoint one or more members of their choosing to the interim board Selection of Superintendent for Merged System ^ Merger plans reviewed by Orange County staff reserved selection of a superintendent for a newly merged system to the interim board of education and the newly created permanent board of education ^ No role for the Board of County Commissioners or the existing school boards State Funding of Merged System . Merged units continue to receive existing State allotments of funds for two fiscal years following the effective date of merger for the following functions: . Central office administration . Vocational education . Special needs . Limited English proficiency (LEP} . For example, although there would be only one superintendent position in a newly merged unit, State funding would continue for two years for any other superintendent positions that may have existed in the other school systems prior to merger Role of State Board of Education in Commissioner Initiated Merger ^ State Board's critical role is to review and approve the merger plan ^ Process for approval . Board of Commissioners adopts a merger plan and transmits it to the State Board for consideration at its next meting . Typically, merger plan reviewed and approved within two meetings of the State Board Approval of merger plan has effect of law Programmatic Considerations * Information compiled by CHCCS and OCS staffs * Comparison of twelve major program areas outlined in report * Program details included at Appendix K Financial Considerations Context Of Financial Analysis Most local school funding {e.g. current expense, capital) is now provided on a per pupil basis . Staff analysis focused on the funding difference between systems related to CHCCS district tax . Post-merger funding must be at highest five year historical per pupil rate upon effective date of merger . Analysis based on reasonable assumptions, but other scenarios are possible . Focus on "scope and scale" of potential financial impacts, not precise figures - "tax rate" impacts rather than "tax bill" impacts . "Hold harmless" assumption does not imply no increases in other aspects of education funding -that would be an annual budget process decision by the BOCC Tax Rate Impact Of Hypothetical School Merger ^ Major assumptions . Effective date of July 1, 2005 . Produce same $1,167 per pupil as CHCCS district tax does in 2003-04 . Uses certified student membership estimates derived from SAPFO forecasting models . CHCCS district tax proceeds replaced for 2005-06 with countywide funding proceeds; district tax rate at zero . Four year revaluation cycle continues, leading to lower required tax rates in later years ^ Estimated Countywide tax rate increase of 17 cents per $100 assessed valuation (lf Merger Had Occurred July 1, 2003) Estimated Tax Bill Impacts Related to Merger . CHCCS district tax assumed at zero as countywide tax increases by 17 cents per $100 valuation . Generally speaking, past-revaluation impacts of merger should be minor on tax bills of properties in the CHCCS district that appreciate around assumed average of 25°!° . Examples of net increase in annual tax bills of properties of various taxable values in the OCS district: . $100,000 - $170 . $200,000 - $340 . $300,000 - $510 . $400,000 - $680 . Changes in individual property tax bills will be affected by actual changes in property value as of January 1, 2005 revaluation Other Potential Financial Implications ^ Affect an percentage of General Fund budget earmarked for education and 48.1% target ^ Future disposition of CHCCS district tax unresolved ^ Combined available building capacity could allow unused space to be filled through student reassignment ^ With addition of new capacity already "in the works", further new school opening timelines could be delayed beyond current 10 year CIP cycle CHCCS Middle School Student Projections Average Projection Model Only Combined Middle School Student Projections Average Protection Model Only Other Approaches To Equalizing Funding ^ Countywide Supplemental Tax ^ Increase Countywide Ad Valorem Tax Rate ^ Financial implications essentially the same as for Countywide supplemental tax ^ Implementation of Orange County Schools Supplemental Tax Hypothetical Countywide Supplemental Tax ^ Could be part of a merger plan, or an alternative thereto ^ BOCC may initiate, or may pursue in response to Board of Education-approved petition ^ In either case, subject to affirmative vote in referendum ^ Proceeds distributed an per pupil basis ^ General Assembly has previously approved legislation permitting implementation of a countywide tax without a referendum Hypothetical Countywide Supplemental Tax ^ Major Assumptions: . CHCCS district tax incrementally reduced to zero . CHCCS "held harmless" by continued funding of $1,167 per pupil . Tax base growth of 3°lo in non-revaluation nears, 25% in revaluation nears (2005, 2009, 2013} . "revenue neutral" tax rate adjustments in revaluation nears lead to lower tax rates in out years . Student membership based on certified SAPFD projections ^ Estimated tax rate impacts 3 near scenario - 16.9 cents 5 near scenario - 16.5 cents . 10 year scenario - 10.6 cents Three Year Scenario to Achieve Equitable Funding with Countywide Tax .Hypothetical ACS District Tax (Appendix P} . Requires majority vote in referendum; maximum rate of 60 cents per $100 valuation . Would take effect fiscal year following vote . Board of Commissioners may initiate election; must call far election if school board petitions . Would operate simultaneously with CHCCS district tax; assumes CHCCS is "held harmless"; BCfCC establishes tax rate annually . One cent on an C7CS district tax would generate less than one cent on CHCCS district tax . Estimated 2003-04 tax rate needed to generate $1,167 per pupil would have been 22.4 cents Hypothetical Tax Rates Necessary to Provide Equal Per Pupil Funding from CHCCS and Possible UCS District Taxes Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: Why are the tax rate impacts cited in the staff analysis smaller over longer periods of time? ^ A: Because of the impacts of revaluation. In fhe year after a revaluation, one cent on the tax rate produces significantly more than it did the year before. The BOGG uses a "revenue neutral" fax rate after revaluation. 1Nhen the tax base goes up, fhe tax rate goes down, fo bring in the same amount of revenue. Orange County conducts revaluations of all real property every four years. There are scheduled revaluations in 2005, 2009, and 2013. Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: Haw would merger affect my tax bill? ^ A. For taxpayers in the CHCCS district, probably not signifrcanfly. For taxpayers in fhe OGS district, since there currently is no OCS district fax, the impact from an increase over time in countywide taxes associated with merger would be significant, from most people's perspective. Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: Would merger undermine the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance? ^ A: No. While some minor modifications might be needed structurally, the major provisions of SAPFO would remain in place. Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: How is the County's tax base split between the school systems? ^ A: The estimafed countywide property tax base for 2003-04 is $9.89 billion. Of that amount, $fi.34 billion (64.1 %) is within GHGGS; $3.55 billion (35.91) is within OGS. Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: Where are the registered voters in Orange County? ^ A. Statistics as of October 7, 2003 reflect just over 80,000 registered voters. 65.4% of these reside within the Chapel Hi11-Carrboro Schools district, and 34.fi% live in the Orange County Schools district. Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: Where do our schools rank in per pupil funding? ^ A: According fo annual reports of fhe North Carolina Public School Forum, Orange County has ranked first among the 100 counties every year since 1997 in per pupil expenditures for current expense and capital. Table 25 of the DPI "Statistical Profile 2003" indicates that among fhe Stafe's 117 school systems, OCS ranks 4th in Ioca1 per pupil expenditures, and 17th in total (state/federal/local) per pupil expenditures. CHCCS ranks 1st and 5th, respectively. Frequently Asked Questions ^ Q: Have voters in the Orange County Schools district repeatedly defeated the creation of a supplemental school tax in OCS? ^ A: Orange County Board of Elections files indicate that since records have been maintained there beginning in 1969, there has been no referendum on this question. OCS voters have neither approved nor defeated a special district fax. 3. Public Hearing" ~At Public Hearings, Commissioners traditionally do not comment in order to allow citizens to have the maximum time to express opinions. Speakers may only sign up far themselves. The maximum speaking time allotted will be 3 minutes per speaker. PUBLIC COMMENT: Chair Brown: Well, I hoped that helped everyone just get a basic knowledge. And that is the report that the Commissioners asked for last January. And we're slowly, as you can see, adding the frequently asked questions -those that we can answer factually, and there's just questions we cannot answer. So we're trying to do the ones that we can as quickly as possible. This meeting is being filmed and it will be shown on the cable channels. A lot of people do get cable; if you don't, we can certainly make sure that you get a copy of it if you would like ta. We also have our County staff that is able to do a presentation if you have a group that would like to hear a presentation. If you would call the County offices and just ask us, and we'll set something up on our calendar to da so. And we also have the website we're getting lots of comments from, and we appreciate that. And I think individually the Commissioners are getting lots of interesting email, so we appreciate that too. I'm just going to start mixing up people on the three sheets that I have. So far there are 60. I'm sure there will be more. They'll be brought up to me. We had about 65 people speak last Thursday and it took us to almost 11:00. So we want to make sure everyone gets to speak this evening. Sa I'd like to call five people's names, and if you would came up here and just move on to the podium to speak right there, that would be great, and just keep moving along with it. She called up the ilrst lrve people. Mark Peters: Yes. Hi again. I speak on behalf of the Seawell Elementary 5GC PTA and Family Outreach Team. After researching the issues, hearing public comment, and receiving input from our constituents, we are opposed to merger at this time. It is clear that two primary problems need to be addressed. First, determining and providing an appropriate level of funding for County schools and second, increasing collaboration between the systems. Solving these two problems does not justify merging the school systems. Seawell's parents and teachers are very concerned about the likely impact of staffing and student reassignment due to our location. It is clear that citizens want a voice and an informed decision about possible merger and are strongly against an imposed merger. We continue to have the concerns we presented in the October 16tH hearing. We will continue to study information as it becomes available. We endorse Neil Pedersen's recommendations of October 9, 2003. I would briefly like to speak on behalf of INFORM by telling you that the INFORM website is at 4schools.us. And now I'd like to speak for myself. Most citizens in the community have expressed shock and outrage that a referendum is not part of this process. In Appendix O of the County merger documents, the County Attorney states that the law allows a straw vote referendum. However, in the County presentation, it is stated that this is not allowed. I would like to know why this interpretation changed. I spoke with Ms. Enscoe, our State House Representative. She was not aware of any prohibition on anon-binding referendum. However, if there is a prohibition, she informed me that the State House could entertain a motion in the short legislative session to allow a referendum if at least four Orange Commissioners vote for it. The House could either modify the current merger statute, or pass a local act to allow a referendum. No Commissioner ran on a platform of merger. If you choose to proceed with a possible merger, then you should find a way to hold a referendum. Would those in the audience who agree please quietly stand? I again ask Mr. Carey to post a list of perceived social injustices, and I'll be back on December 4t" to ask again. In closing, ask you to fund ACS appropriately. Merger has not been justified and at risk are two very good school systems and a whole lot of bussing. We want a vote. Patrick Mulkey: Good evening. My name is Patrick Mulkey. Welcome to Cedar Ridge High School. My wife Robin and I have a son here at Cedar Ridge, and our twin first graders are across the road at Grady Brown. We are pleased with the education of our children are receiving in the County school system. My most experienced viewpoint is as a parent and a taxpayer. And from both viewpoints, I have the same questions. Where da we stand with other counties in this State? I understand the figures given by Mr. Visser, but I have some other ones also. The 2002-2003 budgets and tax survey from the North Carolina County Commissioners Association is the most up to date one I could find. The results show we are ranked number two out of 100 counties with the amount of local dollars provided by the Commissioners. And that does not include the district tax from the City system. Furthermore, according to the survey, the average dollars provided by other Commissioners in the State is $1,056 per student. And we received $2,491, which is a 235% more of the average. The reason I used this survey is citizens here have very little input into any decisions made in Raleigh or Washington. But you Commissioners have to live with us every day. Our students are not the only group that will bear the impact of merger. Working families and those on fixed incomes in the County will be greatly impacted by a substantial increase in property taxes and will have to decide if they can afford to stay or leave. Our diversity will take a major step backwards by merging and building a gated, I repeat, gated (Jrange County. Just look at the cost of living in Chapel Hill and Carrboro versus the rest of the County. Is the City district tax to blame for the shortfalls of the County school budget? Maybe a little. Are our school boards communicating their needs clearly to you so you understand what the requests will be used for? Probably not. The cold hard fact is the buck stops with you, the County Commissioners. You five Commissioners decide what the property tax will be, what the district tax will be, who will receive the monies. Some of you have been on the BOCC for almost 20 years. If there are inequities in our schools due to funding issues, they happened on your watch. Don't give me that buck passing excuse. Don't give me that buck passing excuse that you give the school boards a chunk of money and they decide haw to spend it. You control the purse strings. Merger is the easy answer for lack of leadership. The Commissioners and both school boards need to provide leadership, communication, and make tough decisions. Thank you. John Dallara: Thank you. My name is John Dallara. I'm a citizen in Chapel Hill. I guarantee you I'm not going to be as entertaining as the previous two speakers. I'm a little new to the merger process, and I've learned a lot tonight and I appreciate all of the effort, particularly of the Commissioners and the staff laying out this for those of us who are new to this process. The things I've noticed I think are important for me as a Chapel Hill resident living in the Chapel Hill school system, as I've noticed that our systems seems to be very responsive - a small system. One of my major concerns about the merger is that we'll be dealing with a larger system that won't be as responsive. You know, I see small groups of students or individual schools and the school board responding well to an individual school's or system's needs. And a larger system is probably not going to be able to da that respectively. The second point I think is the funding issue. And when I look at the material provided here tonight by the folks against merger, it disturbs me to see that the Orange County schools, the people in the Orange County school system feel that they are not adequately funded; their needs are not adequately being met. But, that being said, I think that given the options we've seen given tonight, there's a lot of smack people in this room, we should be able to find a way to meet the needs of the Orange County system without necessarily going through the whole process of merger, which itself may be inefficient, which may introduce other expenses. We have other options. We have a countywide tax, we have an OCS tax, and other special district taxes, and we have some combination of those methods that may be able to address this problem. Finally, something a little bit closer to my heart is the problem we may run into as a countywide Schaal system if we are forced to have equal funding of all pupils. Now, in Chapel Hill, I've lived there now 13 years, and I've been happily paying a higher rate of taxes than the folks in Orange County for the education that our children get. And I don't mind paying that. And I've known for some years that we have a lot more ESL, English as Second Language students, we have more special needs students than the rest of the County. If we put ourselves in the position of having to force equal funding far all of the students, we may, in Chapel Hill for example, run into the problem of not having enough funding for these particular groups of students, and if the one school system decides that they want to fund more for this, well my view is that they should be allowed to do that. And if we are forced into equal funding for everybody, we may not have that flexibility. Thank you again for your time tonight and the opportunity to speak. Elizabeth Brown: Thank you. I'll say it again. It's a good thing we didn't ask the voters about integration, or every person in here would look the same. Why don't we just move to Chapel Hill? Poverty is a messy thing. So are families in trouble. And poor children from troubled homes can be the most difficult of all -the neediest, the most painful to look at, because we knave how awful their situation is and how good it could be. These kids usually need more resources than those from healthier families. One third of the students in Orange County schools come from families' poor enough to qualify for federal free ar reduced lunch. Imagine splitting the room here into one third, having that many disadvantaged students. Our neighbors in Chapel Hill have only 13% of children in that program. Last year I read regularly with first graders at Grady Brown Elementary. One little boy obviously came from a poor home. He was a goad reader, and he wouldn't let me go when his turn was over. "Can you read with your mom or dad tonight?" I asked. He shook his head. "Daddy was being mean to us, so they took him away." Of course I mentioned this to the teacher and she confirmed that the father had been removed from the home for beating the mother and the children. Every time I walked into that classroom, he'd run over to me. He wanted attention. He had trouble with his temper. Where could he get the help that he needed? The teacher was busy teaching; a social worker comes only once a week because she serves three schools in the County. Last week a speaker asked us why don't we just move to Chapel Hill? And the answer is because of that little boy and hundreds like him. Because our teachers need parents who can volunteer, who can give attention where they can't? Mostly, because I want my children to be in classrooms that reflect the real world -messy, poverty, and all. Because we love our homes and our communities and our hearts don't stop at the rural buffer. Our friends say, "But you knew the schools were lousy when you moved there. Yau chose the long bus rides. You can afford a bigger house in the County." I chose the County schools because I know education starts at home, and I know my children will always be fine. I want them to sit alongside others who are less fortunate. I want them to share. I want them to help others. Same parents aren't here tonight because they don't have enough money for gas, ar they're working a night shift as a second job, or they aren't even aware of this conversation because they have troubles of their own. These kids ride busses the longest. They are the first ones on at 6:15 in the morning and they ride for an hour or more. Then they get to school where they get free breakfast, because they didn't get it at home. Those are some tax dollars well spent. I'm sorry so much of this debate has come dawn to the haves and have- nots. I look forward to the day when all grownups in this auditorium agree that it's time to give equal opportunities to all the children in the County. Thank you. Eleanor Allison: My name is Eleanor Allison; I live on Night Farm Road in Chapel Hill. I have two kids that ga to Grady Brawn School. My kids are closer to McDougle School. It takes about 15 minutes to get to McDougle. And my kids are an the bus for about 4Q minutes going to Grady A. Brown. I would prefer them to continue going to the Orange County School because it's a great school to go to. The Grady A. Brawn has a reading recovery program, which is a great program because both of my kids was in the reading recovery in first grade and it helped them with their reading. We need funding far the program to continue because we didn't get it this year. But if the school merged, we will still have to pay more taxes, and the Chapel Hill schools will pay less tax, which is not fair. We need equal funding for both schools. The children are our future, so why not give an equal funding for both schools? I feel that if we merge the school system, our kids will get lost in the system. Thank you. Christopher McLaurin: Hi. My name is Christopher McLaurin, and I'm the Chapel Hill High School Student Government President. The student government at Chapel Hill High School has taken the official stance that until more information is gathered and more input from students is received, the County Commissioners should delay any vote an merger. At last week's public forum at Chapel Hill High School I shared with you that many students feel that they have not been given a real opportunity to share their feelings and views on merger. This is a major problem seeing that students will be most affected. I am a senior, sa any change to the current setup will not affect me. However, I feel that this is a major issue that requires more reflection and therefore, no decision should be made until all factors have been considered. I would like you all to know that the Chapel Hill High School Student Government is in the process of contacting the Student Government for the other three high schools in an attempt to get together and talk about this issue. The purposes of such a meeting would be to share more information about our respective school systems, understand the challenges and opportunities that both County and City students have, in attempt to reach consensus, a consensus that would be best far all students. We are joining together to bring greater understanding to this issue and hope that others will also move toward working together to solve this issue for the benefit of all students. Ronglin Vllang: Well, I don't speak English well, and if you have a problem understanding speech......... I am here tonight to voice my objection to the proposed merger. That equal funding will yield equal performance is an untested assumption. According to North Carolina Educational Alliance 2002 Report, U. S. per student expenditure ranks the highest in the world, and its performance is on the bottom of the 21 most developed countries. In North Carolina itself, there is a three-fold difference in the cost benefit per ratio among all the school districts. While an idealistic philosophy will only serve to kill the center of excellence. This proposed merger to me is nothing more than a massive transfer of wealth from the City schools to the County schools. The quality and the reputation of Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools even the perceived devaluation of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools will have disastrous consequences to the City, to the County, and to all the communities nearby. So in the end, we are all going to lose. Thanks. Sarah Ringel: Hi. I'm Sarah Ringel, an Orange County resident who attended Glenwood Elementary School in Chapel Hill decades ago, and am now a mother of triplet fourth graders at New Hope Elementary in Orange County, and I'm a local Hillsborough family doctor. I've been really happy with New Hope. The teachers, staff, and principal are great. It's clear that everyone there has one main priority -the best education for all of our children. I challenge you to also hold this priority highest as you weigh your options. We citizens want you to lead us to a better future for our children. We want you to do the right thing, to be open minded and caring. We want you to forget about yourselves and your future and think of what's best for all of the children involved. I've pondered this situation we're in and realize there are no easy answers. It seems clear to me that the solution must permanently solve the unequal funding of our two school systems. It must continue to support the education of the diverse population our County is fortunate to contain, hopefully facilitating individual students to pursue a style of learning which best meets their needs, not one which suits their neighbors. It must be efficient and affordable. It must set our County up to be able to best adapt to the many challenges we are likely to face in the future. The solution cannot be so complex that it is mare expensive than our current structure. It cannot only band-aid the problem so we have to keep repeating this discussion. Obviously, that's happened before. It cannot ignore needs of groups of children. I feel that the only solution, which will fit these criteria, is merger. I realize that it requires courageous leadership on your part. Knowing that you are deciding to take a direction in which many disagree with, but you'll be able to sleep well at night knowing that you did the right thing. Our children will benefit and you'll be designing a system to best serve the future of our whole County. Thank you for listening and serving us in these difficult times. Thank you. Karl Knapp: I'd like to comment on several statements that have been made during the merger debate. In one of its fliers, Fair Funding in County Schools stated that the Commissioners set the Orange County per pupil funding at the level needed to make up the difference between the amount requested by the Chapel Hill schools and the amount raised by the Chapel Hill district tax. If this description is correct, then the procedure clearly is flawed. The per pupil funding level should be set to fully meet the needs of the Orange County schools and the district tax to be used only to provide any additional funding requested by the Chapel Hill schools. At the last public hearing, one speaker stated that a merger is necessary because the Orange County tax base cannot support a district tax. This simply is not true. Over the last ten years, the amount of tax base per student in the Orange County district has increased to the point where it nearly equals that of the Chapel Hill district. The issue is not tax base, but income. The median income of homeowners in the Chapel Hill district is 60% higher than that of the Orange County district. As a result, Chapel Hill residents can more easily afford the higher tax rate. This situation cannot be changed through a merger. Orange County district residents will remain challenged to afford higher taxes, but they will face a 25% increase in their taxes in order to generate the new money for their schools. I think it would be an injustice to saddle the Orange County residents with such a district tax increase while at the same time reducing their control over their schools. Another speaker at the last hearing stated that Chapel Hill students would be in the same situation under a merger that they are right now. I disagree. Under a merger, hundreds of students in the northern part of the Chapel Hill district will face a very different situation. Now they are part of a system of neighborhood schools. Under a merger, they will be part of a system that could bus them up to 12 miles from their home. Mast of these students live closer to several Chapel Hill schools than to any Orange County school. My family, for example, is closer to seven of the Chapel Hill elementary schools than we are to any Orange County school, yet we are likely to be moved. A speaker at the last meeting urged you to erase the invisible line running through the County by merging the two districts. I suggest that merging the two districts will not erase the line, but will just move it south to Homestead Road. Finally, I would like to take issue with Commissioner Corey's implication that we can't and do not need to know everything about apost-merger school system in order to determine that merger is a good idea. Even if we can't know what the effects of merger will be, we should at least try to determine what they are likely to be. For example, although we can't know how minority achievement will be affected by merger, we can analyze how mergers in other counties have affected minority achievement. If the analysis shows that minority achievement declined after mergers, it certainly would argue against a merger in Orange County. Without extensive study of the likely effects of a merger on issues such as minority achievement, the Commissioners may choose to support a merger, only to wind up hurting students. No one wants to see that outcome. I urge the Commissioners to put aside the merger proposal and work to improve our schools through other methods. Thank you. George Griffin: My name is George Griffin. I'm the parent of two children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system. I, like many others, have attended the INFORM sponsored presentation on merger and last week's public hearing at Chapel Hill High School. I've read the articles in the paper, letters to the editors, and the emails flying around regarding merger. I am opposed to merger for many reasons, all of which have been stated by others in the past weeks. Quite honestly, at this point, I am confused by the actions ar inactions of the Board of County Commissioners and am somewhat disappointed. I've been a resident of Orange County far over 20 years. I love living here. One of the truly wonderful aspects of life here has been a caring and responsible local government. The Board has consistently guided our County in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. We wrestle with issues involving land use, the environment, taxation and fiscal issues, health care and social service issues, and educational matters in tireless and in a fair and equitable way. You've always supported the public schools. You spend a higher percentage of our County budget in the schools than any other County in North Carolina. I commend you far your support and service. After the hearing last week, I was encouraged by comments attributed by Board members in the press. Commissioner Halkiotis greeted one speaker by saying, "We really need to have informed decision making, not imposed decision making. And I think that cuts to the heart of the matter." Commissioner Jacobs said, "People need to become acquainted before they become married. There's not that kind of communication yet. You have to first improve communication and understanding, and then you move into along-term committed relationship. I think evolutionary change will be a lot easier to achieve than revolutionary change." Commissioner Gordon said, "The bottom line forme is that we do need to work on equality of funding and collaboration." Commissioner Brown noted, "This is an educational process. We are trying to educate ourselves as Commissioners." After last night's Board of County Commissioners' meeting, Commissioner Jacobs is reported to have said in the paper today, "This Board needs to take more control over the situation. There's a public vacuum in which we haven't stated anything. We are a group that can offer same assurance if there is a method here." Commissioner Brown said that, "We've been very deliberate about collecting this information for eight months." Commissioner Gordon said, "It would be really helpful if we could tell the public what the process is." Finally, Commissioner Halkiotis said, "People are genuinely upset ar generally confused." Count me in. I'm genuinely upset and generally confused. Commissioner Carey, whom I respect, has disappointed me with his comments and actions. He first painted merger as a civil rights issue, an issue of fairness and equity. That hurt. Last Monday, I heard him say on the radio that even if the funding matter was resolved, he still wanted merger to occur. This time he claimed it was a divisive community issue. Please, Mr. Carey, the only thing divisive at this paint is dragging this process out any longer. Thank you very much. Mark Peifer: Hi, I'm Mark Peifer, I have two daughters across the street at Grady Brown, and I, like Patrick and some of the other people here, think it's a terrific school. I'd like to thank the Commissioners in contrast to what the previous speaker said, far actually doing something that I don't think most political bodies would do today -take on an issue where, I think we'd all agree, the majority of the residents in both parts of the County oppose a merger. But taking an an issue that may be right and thinking about it in a very serious way. I think we should focus for a moment on the things that we all agree on. The fact that we're all here in this room today is an indication that we all feel that our children's education is the future far Orange County and it's everybody's tap priority. We all agree on that. The second thing that I think we all agree an, and I certainly do from my own background, is that every child should have the opportunity to have an equal education, regardless of their own economic background. As someone whose father worked in warehouse and had a second job as a janitor and had the opportunity to ultimately teach at Carolina, I think that's really something that we need to strive for all the way across the board. The question is how to get there. And I don't think there's any question that equity in funding is the right solution. There are same serious obstacles to this, and I think that the economic disparities between the incomes in the two parts of the County are a serious problem. And a problem for many people who probably aren't here tonight, as one of the previous speakers pointed out. And unfortunately, that's the way that the State and County has decided that we're going to fund our schools in ways to make it difficult for us to graduate the burden over the income scale. But that's the facts that we're faced with. We wouldn't redraw the district lines today to create two districts in which one included the vast majority of the people with an elevated income and the other did not. We wouldn't do that today, but that's the districts we have today. And that results in the inequity in funding that we see. It seems to me that a lot of the motion now is to agree that equity in funding is a goad idea, but that the way to get there is through a special tax in the County schools that would be decided by a referendum. In my mind, that's really a copout. Because I think the end result of that would be, that referendum would be defeated. Maybe it won't, but it might be defeated, and if it is, then everyone in the City schools can pat themselves on the back and say, "We did our best, but the ignorant people out in the County don't really want to spend the extra money to educate their children, and therefore the current situation is in fact a fair one." I don't think it is. I think that it's time for you as Commissioners to turn our back on these fears we have of joining together two different school districts that are somewhat different, and embrace equity sa that everyone has an equal opportunity for education. Thank you. Anne Lutes: I'm Anne Lutes, I have a daughter at Grady Brown, and another one will start next year. I've heard Commissioner Carey say that he proposed school merger to break down the barriers based on an arbitrary line on a map. So I find it sad and ironic that the prospect of merger has only proven just how high those barriers are. Last week I came to the merger discussion, and I felt like I'd stepped back about 20 years into Cold War Berlin. It was enemy territory. I heard a lot of people from Chapel Hill speak against the merger and they had questions and concerns. But their message boiled dawn to one thing - we have what we want, why should we change? Why indeed, they're into the boats not sinking. I also heard a second message more explicitly stated - Orange County has the schools they want. Well I take issue with that. Orange County does not have the schools I want for my children or for any of the children of Orange County, and I and many other parents and many teachers have come to the budget meetings year after year to tell you that, to no avail. But in spite of our lack of success, I don't think these are the schools you want for the children of Orange County either. We have two systems that are separate and unequal, two systems that foster an us versus them mentality that maintains barriers instead of breaking them down. The people of Berlin figured out almost 14 years ago that they were better off without the wall. Isn't it time we did too? Let's tear down the wall and work together for the whole County. Thank you. Joanna Edwards: Good evening. I'm Joanna Edwards, I'm the President of Sewell PTA, and I'm here tonight to say that the Sewell PTA has taken a position against merging the two school systems. We specifically are very concerned about parent participation. It's been one of our greatest challenges getting parents involved and having them participate in their children's education. It's something we work fiercely and vehemently about, and if you think it's difficult to get parents to participate when they live near the schools, it's almost impossible once their children are bussed across the County. It's unfortunate that this situation has come down to a question of equitable funding at any cost. And I think that the cost to the children is that their parents, unless, many parents in Chapel Hill, I'm sorry, many homes have two working parents which means that unless you are in a position, in many ways, unless you have the luxury of doing this extended drive into Hillsborough, it becomes a hardship for the parents in Chapel Hill who are passing the schools in their neighborhoods to came to the schools in Hillsborough in an effort to create equitable funding. I think both school systems are burdened by stereotypes. Many of the things we've heard tonight boil down to Chapel Hill being an elitist community who wants to protect their property values or their way of life. But I'm here to say that there are many families in Chapel Hill who struggle, and not everyone in Chapel Hill fits that stereotype. In fact, I think that not all of the families in Hillsborough or in Orange County, I'm sorry, fit the stereotype that we've heard presented for those children as well. We da not begrudge Orange County schools, their equitable funding. And I agree that there are many brilliant minds, many that are in this room tonight. And I suggest that we get them an board and allow them to think of other ways to come to a solution. Merger is a radical solution for this problem. One of the parents said tonight that education starts in the home. That's true. And I think that when people are taken out of their communities, they became less effective for their children. And we would like an opportunity to participate in this process. When our schools are not centrally located we create an undue hardship. I guess I should speak also as a parent and just say that I'm just mortified that we've been excluded from this process and I can't make sense of it. And it just feels very excluding and very familiar, and I guess I would concur with the gentleman who spoke earlier and say we want to participate in the process and we would like to have a vote. Etta Pisano: I'm Etta Pisano. I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of the Chapel Hill- Carrboro Council of Parent Teacher Associations. As you all know, the Chapel Hill- Carrbaro Council of Parent Teacher Associations is an organization comprised of representatives from each of the 1 ~ individual PTAs in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Council of Parent Teacher Associations at this time opposes the merger of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County schools. The information presented during the merger debate has not made a convincing case that a merger is the best way to improve the quality of education for all students. Too many questions remained unanswered about how academic programming, resource allocation, facility construction, student assignment, student transportation, community input, and system governance would be handled in a merged system. Without answers to these questions it is not possible to say whether a merger will improve the quality of education and whether any improvements also could be made without a merger. Given the potential disruption of student life and programs and the reduction of local control associated with merger. Other avenues for improving quality should be investigated and attempted before settling on a merger as a course of action. The PTA Council recognizes that there are legitimate concerns aver haw education in Orange County is funded. The PTA Council supports establishing a system of education funding for Orange County that would give each school district the ability to provide funding at a level appropriate to the circumstances of the community served. The PTA Council also urges both school districts' boards of education to identify and implement collaborative programs that will provide cost savings or improve the quality of services. I have copies for all of you. I would now ask for the community who supports this statement to please stand quietly. Thank you. David Laudicina: I just wanted to comment on some of the phrases and words popping around in all this stuff. Collaboration -I've been hearing about collaboration since I moved to Orange County in 1991. In fact, I talked about it with Moses when the East Chapel Hill School was going to be built. He assured me that the boards were going to get together and we were going to collaborate and be able to utilize that. So I voted far the bond. I would not have voted for it if I had known that I was not going to get collaboration. That's all -hearing nothing is ever done. These last minute promises of collaboration ring pretty hollow given collaboration's history. Besides, dangling a promise of a few slats in the City district schools is not providing equal educational opportunity for all. Bussing - I guess it's ok to send Orange County students on bus rides all over creation, an hour each way to get to schools. Why can't students, far example, southern Orange County district students have an opportunity to attend schools that are closest to them? Their parents are paying now; they will pay in the future far the building bonds to finance Chapel Hill district buildings, yet they are excluded from using them. In the future, without a merger, they will be sending down five cents to Chapel Hill far every one-cent to build County schools. Increased spending does not increase performance - I'm amazed that anyone can stand up here and try and convince us with a straight face, not being able to afford Spanish teachers and not providing the Spanish program to our students won't affect our children's performance? The list of programs the County has not realized because of budget requests not being fully funded goes on and on and continues to widen the educational opportunity Chapel Hill district students enjoy over Urange County district students. Merging won't save any money - I was encouraged to read in the Chapel Hill Herald on Tuesday that studies done on both districts support the premise that merging the schools would cause huge efficiencies and that a merged County school system would better utilize capacity, significantly postponing or avoiding new school construction. This is a direct savings to the taxpayer and mast likely offsets much of the difference between separate school systems with individual district taxes and a merged system with only one tax rate. Most of the capacity sharing doesn't occur until after 2010, giving us plenty of time to equalize the educational opportunity offered in all schools in grange County. A merged systems means we will turn into Cary -look around, development is happening now and will continue to happen. We have that beast over there called the Research Triangle that is going to grow whether we like it or nat. Thankfully, we have elected officials that try to maintain the quality of life we have in the County and support things like rural buffers and sustainable development. We're number one, you're number four. We would love to see that statistic have only one entry -Orange County number one. We need to vote on this merger -merger is the only solution to providing equal educational opportunity in our County. A referendum on addressing merger or a district tax will fail and dooms any chance of resolving this imbalance and will put us right back where we are now. I wonder what would happen if the segregation issue in the 60's were put up for referendum. It wasn't and the right thing was done. Let's take a bold and courageous step now and avoid having to do this all over again in a year or so, and merge now. John Hartwell: Fifteen years ago the County Commissioners appointed a task force to advise us on school funding. The report was introduced by Watts Hill, Jr., who spoke very simply. I quote, "We have to get the money where the money is and spend it where the children are. This is not an expression of philosophy, but a simple statement of fact." Children are spread all over the County. The tax base, however, is disproportionately located in the southern municipalities. It therefore follows that taxes raised in the towns have to be expended across the County as a whole. It frankly seems good to me that our businesses are concentrated in one area, because it allows us to preserve some open countryside. Sensible planning and zoning policies will continue this pattern, I trust. But if we do not spread the benefits of the commercial tax base into all corridors, then we forfeit the right to create differential land use policies. We may not say to one area, "You must remain rural," and then say, "Too bad you can't afford mare in your schools." Those who oppose merger most vehemently do so out of fear. You've heard much from fear this evening, and indeed America is very much in its grip today. Witness our foreign policy, which is similar, trapped by the peculiarly consuming fear of the elite and privileged. How many white school boards passed resolutions in favor of separate but equal systems in the 1950's? I wish I could say to you that more education will cure this, but it will not. Broader education is needed. Let me give an example. Partisans of the City school system often, and likely, site the special district tax as a symbol of the priority this area has historically placed on education. But the implication that this district is somehow unique in sacrificing for public education is erroneous. Any serious talk about deep interests in education and willingness to sacrifice for it should emphasize Rosenwald schools. Orange County had four Rosenwald schools built by rural black people in the 1920's on a matching funds program. Theirs was a nearly cashless society. They grew their own food, sewed their own clothes. A person could go for months without so much as seeing a dollar bill. Yet somehow they raised the money and built these schools. One of which was located within the present boundaries of the City school district. Why don't we talk about it? I say it is because the leaders of the City schools themselves do not know. Their own education was too narrow. And we perpetuate this constricted view, graduating our children and sending them on to a university, and pretending that it is excellence. At this rate, we may soon elect a President who can't find Latvia an a map. In the Buddhist tradition, enlightenment is said to arise when love and knowledge come together. I ask you to proceed in an enlightened spirit, not out of fear, but out of a consideration of what can be passible for the children of this County. Please equalize the funding and stir up the entrenched structures so as to let in some air. Diane Willis: My name is Diane Willis, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Phillips Middle School PTSA. It is our role as a PTSA to advocate for all children. We have serious reservations about the merger process as it is proceeding. We are concerned that a coerced and undemocratic process in which a very small minority makes a decision for tens of thousands of citizens may exacerbate tensions and divisiveness within our communities instead of achieving a unified result. We are concerned that same academic programs may be disrupted or discontinued. We are concerned that the momentum we have developed to address minority achievement will be diminished. We are concerned about having to completely realign curriculum, having just plunged into that process last year. We are concerned about the effects of teacher reassignment and programs at our schools. We are concerned about a loss of control and input from our duly elected school boards who are knowledgeable about our schools' programs and initiatives. We are concerned about the negative effects of administrative chaos through the loss of one or both of our superintendents. We are concerned about redistricting and the lack of stability for our children. We are concerned that a larger district will be less responsive, less accessible, and less accountable to the constituents. We are concerned about the effects of so called equalized funding on the program for exceptional Ed and English non-proficient students, which are more numerous in the City schools and for which State funding is insufficient. We are concerned that increased distance from homes to schools will constrain and reduce parental involvement. We are concerned that bussing across the rural buffer will increase pressure to develop the buffer. We are concerned about the effects of bussing on air quality. We are concerned about much wasted time and long bus rides for some children with inherent increased risk of accidents and we question how you can keep schools balanced with respect to race and economic status in as large a geographic area as Orange County without bussing same children excessive distances. In conclusion, we agree that Orange County schools need sufficient funds to support their needs and priorities. However, merger is an excessive solution to a funding problem. There are many ways to bring necessary funding to Orange County schools that do not require merging the two school systems. The disruption that merger would cause for students in both school systems is extreme and unnecessary. We urge you to implement a less disruptive solution that will benefit all of our children. Thank you. Thomas Volk: Hi, my name is Thomas Volk. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. The statute allows three people to make a merger happen. Unfortunately, the statute is silent as to the level of motivation and consensus in the community required to achieve the successful implementation of such a decision. My own opinion is that unless you take the time necessary to build some degree of consensus, or at least thoroughly review and consider all less disruptive alternatives, the result will be less than desirable. It appears to me ideas are still being generated. At the last meeting, one speaker outlined a plan under which the Chapel Hill district tax would truly be treated as a supplemental tax, thereby not impacting the extent to which the County funding request is met. While it would not actually equalize funding, it would eliminate the negative impact of the City district tax on the County. It appeared to me to have little downside. Lack of collaboration between the systems has also been highlighted as an issue. What if you mandated that a percentage of funds allocated to each system must ga towards its collaboration efforts? What if a committee consisting of representatives from both school boards was put in place for Commissioners jointly allocating that portion of funding? What if the Board of Commissioners were to serve as the arbiters in determining how or even whether to allocate such funding where local boards couldn't agree? Could the concept be codified so as to alleviate the concern that it would only be a temporary solution? Some folks may believe that this is going too far. Some folks may believe that this is not going far enough. The consideration of ideas such as that may begin to lead you down a path to building a consensus. But don't underestimate the value of building a consensus. A final comment on the funding gap -merging the best funded system of over 100 in the State with the fourth best funded system in the State is merely one possible way to address a local funding issue. But it does not seem to rise to the level of solving a civil rights or social injustice issue as has been suggested. It seemed odd to me to elevate it to such status in the local context and then to subsequently celebrate a merged number one ar number two overall funded district for high performance characteristics relative to a hundred lesser-funded districts. That would seem to me to result in more than a slight bit of irony to a neutral observer. Thank you. Deborah Love: I've heard a lot this evening about the hostility and divisiveness of this issue in our community. And I think that we really have a lot mare agreement than we recognize. And I'd like to urge us to focus on the areas where we have common ground. And I hope that the audience will help me demonstrate this. So I would ask you if you would please stand if you care about the education of all children in this County. I would ask you to remain standing if you're concerned about the difference in funding between the two districts. I would ask you to please remain standing if you are dissatisfied with the funding structure that allows funding levels in one district to inadvertently restrict funding levels in the other district. Please remain standing if you believe that the means for corrective Hess, however it's done, should not be subject to the whims of whoever holds elective office at any moment in time. I think we have an awful lot of common ground here in which to build. Thank you very much. And I prefer to focus an that. I think this community is ripe for change. I think this dialogue has increased a lot of people's awareness about the issues. I don't know what the best solution is, but I do believe that we have a lot of educated, committed, creative people in this community who can find the solution that builds on this common ground. And so I'm asking you to appoint a commission of citizens and educators whose charge it is to develop community alignment around the problems to be addressed in a clear and convincing case for action. Number two, to explore all possible solutions, one of which may be merger, if that meets the criteria from the case for action. And three, to formulate concrete actionable recommendations for addressing the problems that are identified. Not big picture motherhood and apple pie recommendations like the 1986 merger report, but concrete blueprint far change. And that we do this in a way that capitalizes on this common ground. Thank you. Debbie Piscitelli: My name is Qebbie Piscitelli, and my two boys attend at an Orange County School. I am of the minority who is yet to make up his ar her mind regarding the merger. I believe strongly that Orange County schools can no longer be tied financially to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools. It is too easy far the Commissioners to depend on the Chapel Hill district tax to alleviate the pressure of staying under 48°!o of the County general fund budget. Several schools will be built in the coming years. Using history as a predictor far the future, each year an additional school is built and opened in Chapel Hill, a greater shortfall will exist in funding Orange County schools' budget. Each year an additional school is built and opened in Orange County, Chapel Hill will be funded aver 100°~. Right now, we are just paying the bills. It is unacceptable that Orange County does not have a foreign language program far every elementary school applause). Given all the data that indicates how a foreign language aids in learning, how children learn best at a young age, and the fact that not only da we live in a multi- linguisticworld; we live in amulti-linguistic County. Every child graduating from the Orange County schools would benefit from a foreign language; whether their future is in a trade or international business. I believe the citizens of Orange County should step up to the plate to contribute to their schools. Ida not agree with the "go tax yourselves" mentality. First, any Orange County district tax will not negate the fact that we would still be tied financially to Chapel Hill. It will not give us the financial autonomy we are seeking. Additionally, a district tax is too political at this time and there is no permanence to it. Merging the two school systems has its own set of problems, which have been written and spoken about often. Some of the problems outlined are valid, while same are pure sensationalism. At least merging would permanently solve the financial problem. I am still searching for the optimal solution far our problem. Ida not want to put aband-aid over the problem and revisit it in another five years. I would like to challenge the citizens of Orange County to come up with a solution to our problem - the problem that Orange County school district is financially limited by the Chapel Hill district tax. The solution must one, be permanent, two, eliminate Orange County school district's penalization due to the Chapel Hill district tax, and three, allow Chapel Hill and Orange County to focus on the needs of their own populations. Finally, it would be nice to truly believe the Commissioners became Commissioners to lead all of Orange County to a brighter future. It is unacceptable for a Commissioner to put the interests of one town ahead of the rest of the entire County. Chapel Hill is only one town in Orange County, albeit the biggest, but it does not solely make up Orange County. Thank you very much for your time. Debbie Miller: Good evening. My name is Debbie Miller. I am the PTA Council representative from Chapel Hill High School PTA. We would like to go on record as endorsing Neil Pederson's recommendations of October 9, 2003. Chapel Hill High School parent volunteers would like to help make collaboration effar#s between the two school systems become a reality. We state that a merger is not the solution to equalize school funding differences between the two school systems. At this time, we are apposed to the merger of the two school systems. Thank you. Jeff Danner: Good evening, my name is Jeff Danner. I live in Chapel Hill and I have two small children; one in kindergarten and one will be starting in two years. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you this evening to speak in opposition of the merger. In the time that's been available to me, I've attempted to educate myself on the issues involved. And what it comes dawn is what we've heard this evening is equal educational opportunity for all students in the County. What I fail to understand and many of my fellow citizens fail to understand is why merger is necessary to achieve this goal. Why, if given equal funding, would we expect that the Orange County schools would not provide an educational experience equal to ar even better than what's currently available in Chapel Hill? All of us in the auditorium this evening should feel greatly privileged that we live in a County that has two of the top school districts in all of North Carolina. That is a situation for which we should all be proud; a situation for which we should all be grateful, and a situation in which we should all be very cautious. One important matter that's came up and discussed this evening is the importance in parental involvement in community schools to help student achievement. It would create a larger geographic area, a more impersonal system, and this could be damaging. I ask the Commissioners to take the conservative approach to take the actions on the table to equalize funding between the districts, allow that situation to play out for a while, and consider at some future date if merger above and beyond equal funding would provide additional benefits. Thank you. Liping Wang: My name is Liping Wang. I live in Chapel Hill. And I have a daughter in Smith Middle School. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of my family, my neighbors, and my friends. We strongly appose the proposed school merger. My family moved from Durham to Chapel Hill two years ago. The only reason far the move is the goad schaol system we have here in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. It is also the very same reason that my neighbors and friends chose to live in Chapel Hill. But we are concerned now that the merger may have a very disruptive effect on our students and our school systems. First, with the merger, inevitably some Chapel Hill-Carrboro students will take a long bus ride every day. Long bus rides are wasted time imposed an our children. They will no longer have enough time to do their homework, to play outside, and to have extra activities. Long bus rides also poses a safety issue, especially for our young children. Second, we believe that academic achievement is well correlated with parental involvement and environmental support. With the merger, there will be less parental involvement because our community school is not just a few minutes away anymore. With the merger, redistricting will inevitably happen and we can see that our neighborhood school will be split. That's something we don't want to see. Finally, one reason for the proposed merger is to reduce the funding disparity between the City and County school systems. However, if the County's district enacts a district tax similar to the one in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, the schools could equalize funding without merging. With the two separate school systems, each schaol system can determine the appropriate funding for its needs. If the merger takes place, it will mean that the same high level of funding has to be applied to both school systems, which would necessitate an immediate tax increase for Orange County residents. Is that really what everyone wanted? We are here tonight to ask the County Commissioners, please do not vote far the merger while there are other means that can be explored. Thank you. Yuling Li: I'm a Chapel Hill resident. I strongly oppose school merger. First, I think merger will put Orange County in a very difficult position. According to the proposal, after merger, Orange County residents will pay a much higher tax than other counties like Wake County. However, we know that Orange County has not established a reputation that people like to pay higher taxes for education. Future new residents will choose to live in Cary, Apex, ar other cities instead of here far comparable education. At the same time, I think other Orange County residents may choose to leave to avoid a high tax. Secondly, I think the idea of a school merger is more like money problem rather than improved education. The topic of school merger started the concept of equalizing each student funding countywide. The factor is each student will receive equal amount of money from the County. Chapel Hill schools get more money because Chapel Hill residents pay a special district tax. So in order to fill this gap between the school systems, I think there are other solutions to explore. I oppose this merger also because both systems have developed their awn features that are different, but they are very good. I love this country because they respect and accept the differences. I request that the County Commissioners to allow Chapel Hill and Orange County schools keep their own differences. I am strongly against the merger. Thank you for your time. Nancy Belding: Thank you for letting me speak. As a parent of two Orange County students, I would like to speak tonight in favor of fair funding for Orange County schools. We have many resources in our system, including excellent and involved parents, but we do need funding far our schools that will offer our children appropriate educational opportunities. These are not things like learning to speak Hungarian. These are appropriate things that we need including a number of reading resource teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, and social workers. Foreign language teachers have already been mentioned. Adequate funding in the County system will always be difficult because of our decreased tax base, which was presented, tonight in the opening statements of why we do have problems. The areas of open land use protect the water resources for Orange County and the Chapel Hill community as well as the Carrboro community. The special district tax in Chapel Hill will always limit the amount per pupil that the Orange County students can receive without over funding Chapel Hill students. We already have some merging of resources in Orange County and Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The school building projects are typically paid for through countywide bonds. Over the next ten years, one projection I saw showed that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system will need $99 million to fund new school buildings while Orange County will need $20 million. As a citizen of Orange County, our tax dollars, 8Q percent of those will go to fund Chapel Hill schools. Anticipation of change and unknown can be nerve wracking for all of us. But rather than dwell on unfounded worries such as long distance bussing, let us focus on the important issues and improving the quality of all the schools within the County and City schools. Thank you. Dianyou Hu: Good evening. I am strongly against the merger. May I ask if anybody is opposed to merger, would you please stand? I came here to speak on behalf of my family and my neighbors and my friends who cannot make it here tonight. While we live in Chapel Hill Chapel Hill is in Orange County, so we also consider us residents of Orange County. So we are proud of being in Orange County, we are proud of living in Chapel Hill. We consider that Orange County and the school system area two very different school systems -City system and County system. Each with its own academic programs to accommodate a quality education to all the students in the County. Did any system fail? Are any of the two systems so problematic so that we need to gather together again and again to fix them? The answer is no. Both systems have been successful. The teachers and the students have been successful. So they are successful. Why don't let the success continue? And why don't we let the tradition continue? Merger will slaw dawn the performance improvement. Merger will damage it. Merger will hurt students, parents, and teachers. In summary, the merger proposal is against people. Therefore, I, on behalf of my family, my neighbors, and my friends strongly oppose the merger. Thank you. Eugenie Kamives: I'm a parent of two Orange County school district children. My name is Genie Komives, and I'm here to speak in favor of merging the two Orange County school districts. This past week both districts published information that again demonstrates the ongoing impact of the current funding disparity. With $1,100 less per pupil per year, we are asked to do more with less. We have twice the percent of children on free and reduced lunch, indicating a much larger number of children who are at risk for starting school disadvantaged. Without the reading recovery teachers that went unfunded this year, their chances of catching up to their City school peers are significantly reduced. On the SAT, our students scored an average of 170 paints less than their City school counterparts with only 75°!0 of them even taking the test, compared to 90°lo in the City. Our class sizes in critical subjects like math and language arts are larger. Middle and high school math classes in the County have averaged 25 students per class compared to 20 in the City. Our 2002 dropout rate was three times higher. Yet, we are not all that different. Bath districts have involved and committed parents; witness the turnout at the meeting here tonight. Bath districts have children with special learning needs that are not being entirely met in their current district. Just because we live outside of the City school district, I refuse to believe that our children are capable of less achievement if given equal opportunity. I would challenge you to take five random elementary school kids from each district and shuffle them up and then be able to tell them apart. Yet we fund them differently. You have an awesome decision before you. Opponents of merger come from both sides of the imaginary line that divides our County. And each side has some very legitimate concerns about the impact of merger on their children and their way of life. I've been disappointed, however, at the leadership, particularly by the school boards, in trying to address same of these concerns. Instead, we get literature distributed in the City schools that emphasizes the number of children that could be redistricted and accuses the Commissioners of bad math in determining the impact of merger on their tax rates. Why are they not focused on offering solutions to the concerns that their parents have and in trying to da the best for the children? So here's an idea. I would propose that we put a moratorium on redistricting of students across former district lines in any merger plan that is developed for a period often years. At the same time, schools currently planned for construction in each district get built. This will reduce the capital savings of merger, no doubt. But I would submit that under such a plan, we are na worse off then we are if we didn't merge at all. This plan will allow time for the former County schools to improve educational opportunities so that moving district lines in the future will not be seen by the City residents as such a threatening prospect. Meanwhile, the merged district school board will have ample opportunity to develop the special programs, magnet schools, and alternative schools that would open up capacity in existing schools and increase opportunities for children across the County. Let's be creative in trying to address the concerns of residents of both districts by proposing compromise and alternatives rather than throwing out the futures of Orange County district kids with the bathwater of anxiety and resistance to change that you are hearing from some parents tonight. Please have the courage to do the right thing and eliminate our separate and unequal school districts now. Thank you. Anne Lindsey: Thank you. I think we all know that if a merger decision were left to citizens of Orange County today, there would be a resounding no. City schools parents spoke last week overwhelmingly, and tonight, about their fears. I have spoken to County parents over the past week and I find that there are other concerns from these parents as well. We know haw the no tax folks feel, we heard from them last week, just as we have been hearing from them for decades. But I also heard from one parent who worried that the vocational programs in the County system would be at risk. And I heard from parents who have been so offended by the rhetoric of the City schools parents that they simply say they want nothing to do with the discussion. The divide that separates these school systems runs deep. Stacy Lee's extraordinary statement last week said it all: "It is time to remove this wall that maintains the division so extreme that fear replaces reason." The arguments for merger are many -greater efficiency, broader program offerings, the establishment of funding fairness, better resource distribution, more efficient school citing, and perhaps most importantly, the removal of the two system mythology. This merger discussion is all about exploring our potential, not exploiting our fears. There's no reason to assume that redistricting need happen immediately, and in fact, if we establish magnet schools, we may not need redistricting at all. Quality education will center on quality schools throughout the County. So what is our potential? It is truly amazing. A united countywide system will fully fund for the first time in years the schools that now make up the Orange County school system. A merged system will include an alternative school that serves the entire County and will finally give students now falling between the cracks and the County schools hope for their futures. A merged system can develop magnet schools available for all of the County students. Year round schools, IB program schools, schools with strength in vocational training, schools with strength in the arts, schools with strength in math and science. A Countywide system will provide equal opportunity for children to have foreign language in all of our elementary schools. A merged system will allow all of our schools in this County to have adequate textbooks, media resources, nursing staff, social workers, AG teachers. ,..what a vision for our future. Let's make it happen, let's merge these systems, and make the unified system the best school system in the country. We are smart enough to figure out how to do this with the greatest benefit to all. Thank you. Susan Houck: I'm an Orange County parent, and I heard a lot of City people say no merger last week as well as this week. I think it's easy to just say no, but not very helpful. We need solutions, one of which is merger, to the funding inequity. And the solution should meet, ideally, three criteria: It should fix the funding inequity, it should be binding by law, and it should address the $100 million projected capital expenses far Chapel Hill. I would like for Chapel Hill people to understand why they have unwittingly become involved in our funding problem. A recent Chapel Hill school board document refers to their district as aSelf-Contained Community and also states, "This community identifies strongly with the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, not with other towns and not very much with Orange County." Nothing could be further from the truth. The funding inequity exists specii:lcally because they are not self-contained. Here are some examples that show we do not and cannot live in isolation from each other. The use value tax plan and the Cane Creek reservoir are two examples. The first allows farmland to be taxed at a greatly reduced rate. One hundred million dollars worth of farmland would generate the equivalent of what a $60,000 house would generate in taxes. Approximately 50% of land in the County district is in this program, ar 105,000 acres in the County to 6,000 acres in the City. The reservoir also generates minimal tax revenue due to restrictions on property and density. This reservoir serves City water needs only. Orange County people cannot even tap into this source of water that exists in the Orange County district. I don't think anyone here would argue that we should not assist farmers, and I think we all realize that our quality of life is improved by living in a County that has this beautiful countryside. And I don't believe that anyone would argue that Chapel Hill shouldn't receive this water. But there is a significant cost borne by residents in the County district by way of a lower tax base for these policies that benefit the County as a whole; and that includes the City. And I do believe in the opening statement, we did have a statement that said we did indeed have a lower tax base - 22.4 for Orange County to the 20 cents for Chapel Hill. The law tax base from these policies makes the district tax a poor solution. Additionally, a district tax would not solve the inequity, as it would always have to keep pace with the City tax. The bar, the per pupil funding allocation, is set by the largest, fastest growing, wealthiest district. The fact that the City district tax adversely affects the per pupil allocation for County schools provides another example of haw we cannot say one part of our County is self- contained, unaffected by and having no impact on the rest of the County. Back when the inequity was 5% and the tax was a supplement far Chapel Hill schools, the tax had no impact on us. But now the inequity has grown to 34°~ and is used far operating costs, we are seeing the success of one school system at the expense of another. Children in the Orange County schools are not receiving educational opportunities that Chapel Hill students take for granted. And so my request to the rest of the speakers tonight is to think about problem solving instead of just saying no and to acknowledge that we are all part of the problem, that the funding inequity is not just the problem of Orange County residents. Just say no is too easy. Thank you. Robin Staudt: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I thank you for this opportunity to speak with you again this evening at this second public hearing. My name is Robin Staudt and I live in Efland. With so many eloquent speakers and the fact that last week I spoke to you about many facts, this week will be another story. I come before you tonight as a CSE, Citizens for a Sound Economy, representative as well as a County citizen. I've lived here for mare than seven years and plan to be here for many mare. As a CSE representative, Istand for local control of our schools and property, especially where our children are concerned, time and research has shown that smaller schools and united communities produce a better learning environment for our children. CSE is opposed to merger because the Board of County Commissioners, or Moses Corey's proposal, only serves to bloat the school administration and disrupt up to 1,600 children's lives in the very near future. As you may have Hated, there is a very vocal group, a small albeit, vocal chorus for merger. Make no mistake. They do Hat speak for the majority of residents, parents, or voters of C7range County. They say Urange County schools are under funded. Many people in Orange County say, "How can they be under funded when they are the third best funded in the State of North Carolina?" For those who say our opposition is based on fear, excuse me far this, but I say horse puckey. We are speaking from a commonsense stance. This group FICS, Fair Funding in County Schools, is looking at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools with the desire far all that they have. What's saddest about this whale situation is they desire the Board of County Commissioners to levy a heavy tax burden an the backs of the people least able to carry it. Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district's population makes an income aver twice that of the average orange County residents. The people least able to pay will be the very ones required to pay these tax increases. I, for one, don't understand this. It's a Rabin Haod mentality. At least when Rabin Haod robbed, though, he stale from the rich to give to the poor. Here we have a situation, Commissioners, where you as Rabin Hood, are opposing to steal from the have-Hots to give to the needy. Have-Hots, we don't need merger, just better fiscal management and development of our economic development corridor to greater raise revenue throughout the County, for all of Orange County citizens. And this would include Chapel Hill's benefit. This would alleviate the pressure on the private property owner and render the needed revenue to improve our schools. Thank you. Xiaopei Huang: Good evening Commissioners. I am a mother of a three year old and a six year old. Our family moved here last year from Maryland. We chose to live in Chapel Hill because of the cultural richness this town has to offer. Because of the common goal the residents here pursue, which is to give their children the best education. And of course, because of the excellent City school system that reflects such. Therefore, I am appalled at the idea of school merger. The rationale behind the merger is to achieve equity in funding between the school systems, which are number one and number three in the State. But the County schools and City schools serve different areas with different target population. Far example, there are many more immigrant children in the City than in the County. Therefore, in my opinion, the need for funding is not the same. Now, the one presumed benefit from a merger would be saving money by not having to build a third high school in Chapel Hill. But that comes at a sacrifice of more than 45 minutes of our children's time on the bus every day. I am a full-time working mother, and I live in Lake Hogan Farms. If the merger were to happen where our children are most likely to be redistricted to Orange County schools, which means that they will have to take more than 45-minute bus ride instead of going to Chapel Hill High School, which is just a few minutes away from home. I just cannot imagine that my two daughters will have to spend more than 45 minutes every single day all through their high school years while they could have been doing extra-curricular activities. For example, playing sports, practicing the piano to enrich their lives and to enhance their competitiveness. So, in short, school merger, in my opinion, will impact Chapel Hill and Carrboro unfavorably. It essentially will require the school system to be rebuilt from the ground up and will inconvenience a large number of our children and their parents, especially the working parents. I think mast importantly, it will put our children in a less advantageous position than they are in today. Every parent I talk to at my daughter's schools, in my Lake Hogan Farms neighborhood is opposed to the merger. And here I ask you, the Commissioners, to please listen to our voices and please consider the other viable options to improve the County schools. But school merger is not the answer. Thank you. Artie Franklin: My name is Artie Franklin, Orange High School, class of 1979. The first place that I lived in North Carolina was Cedar Grove. I was a boy scout for six years in troop 822 in Hillsborough, and I have acquaintances, family, and friends in northern, central, and southern parts of the County. I've lived mast of my life in Durham. I work in Durham; both my children were born in Durham; we recently moved to Chapel Hill for the schools. In spite of this, I am not in principle apposed to a merger. I am opposed to the mendacity that has accompanied these merger discussions. References to civil rights and social responsibility have damaged civility and are socially irresponsible. In addition, the misconception that merger is an issue of rich versus poor has encouraged the dissonance between pro and anti-merger factions. Its origins are based in the current disparity in per pupil funding between the County and City school systems. The Chapel Hill-Carrbora school system is first in the State in per pupil funding. But the Orange County school system is fourth, not 104th as some would imply. Viewed in context, this is a proposed merger between a rich school system and a richer school system. In this light, the stated goal of equalizing per pupil funding is meretricious at best. It pushes an exaggerated disparity as the justification for merger. The County Commissioners imposed merger is likely to instigate a contentious politicized school system and will exacerbate the differences between County and City, while negatively impacting all of the schools in the new system. The merger of the school systems should be pursued only if the goal is to promote academic quality, and if the people of both communities support it. For a successful merger, people in both communities must first stand down from the fatuous rhetoric, and instead agree upon a set of common goals and implementations to ensure that a merged system will be the best in the State. With this and recent newspaper reports in mind, I urge the Board of County Commissioners to charge the two school systems' boards of education with the task of jointly preparing a merger plan to be completed for a November 2004 referendum. If the school boards are unable or unwilling to complete the task in time for that referendum, then the Board of County Commissioners should decide the question of merger. Ideally, the decision for merger should be made by the voting people of Orange County, not the Commissioners. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak on this issue. Claudia Tolan: Goad evening. My name is Claudia Tolan and I have two sons in Orange County schools, one in A. L. 5tanback, and one in Cedar Ridge. And the reason I'm here tonight is to speak very briefly in favor of the merger. I heard tonight from mare than one person from Chapel Hill that one of the arguments against the merger was that Chapel Hill's average income is 60% higher than Orange County's income. Sa they are really worried how can we afford to pay for the increased taxes that will happen after the merger. So I guess that what they're saying is that unless we can afford it, we shouldn't expect equal funding for our schools. My reasons for the merger are that our kids' schools are historically under funded. We cannot fund all the problems that our kids' education deserves. We struggle to keep the best teachers because of the lower pay scale compared to Chapel Hill and Carrbara schools. The State law says that per pupil funding should be equal, but we all know it's not. We know that the possibility of passing a district tax is Wan-existent, mainly because only one-third of our residents have children in the school system. And that's why I say tonight that our only hope is to make merger happen. Chapel Hill parents are terrified that the merger will bring dawn the school system. And I say tonight that if we all work together, why don't we make the merger improve both systems, if we work together. I say that if we care about all our kids' education and future and not just Chapel Hill kids' education and future, we will make the merger happen. Thank you. Terry Wong: It's interesting that the concept of merger, which refers to bringing two groups together, has resulted in such a division among citizens. I would like to emphasize that in fact, we all share a common purpose, and that is to have the best available educational opportunities far our children, whether they live in the Orange County or Chapel Hill-Carrboro school districts. There are several ways that we can achieve our common goal. C}ne of them may be merger. However, there are viable and I believe better alternatives. Superintendent Neil Pederson has outlined a well thought out plan, which would preserve the advantages of more localized school systems, yet would provide equalized funding, and would faster collaboration and reciprocation, which would strengthen both school systems. The value of having two smaller school systems versus a single larger system deserves mentioning. This fosters parental involvement and school activities and keeps neighborhoods intact. A merged school system, by definition, will necessitate longer daily travel time far a large number of students. Same parents here will be experiencing flashbacks from the recent redistricting in the Chapel Hill schools. Yet that would pale in comparison to the redistricting map of the combined school system. Why not increase funding for the Orange County schools without forcing the massive redistricting. We are already fortunate to have two excellent school districts, ranked number one and three. Let's build an these strengths. Another problem with the merger is not the merger itself, but the process. A merger can be implemented in different ways. It can be initiated by the school boards and then approved by the County Commissioners. But since the proposed merger is being initiated by the County Commissioners, it would be without the participation of either school board and would not be subject to voter approval. Since Wane of the County Commissioners were elected on any platform regarding merger, this means that the entire merger process would be implemented without direct voter input. This process is also irreversible. once the merger is approved, there is no turning back. If a merger were to take place, the resulting tax increase in the former grange County school district would be prescribed by State law. This means that citizens of Orange County school district would suffer a double whammy. Not only would they not get to vote an the merger issue, but they would also be subject to a tax increase at a predetermined rate that they have no control over. While it may be considered unfair that per pupil spending is different in two school districts within the same County, I submit that it would be equally unfair, regardless of what the law states, for a merger between two highly successful school districts to be affected unilaterally and irreversibly without a voter referendum. I would ask that the County Commissioners not change their goals for increased funding for Orange County schools, but to carefully consider methods other than merger to achieve that same objective. Dr. Pederson has presented a proposal that will accomplish the goals, which you have set forth. His plan will encourage a collaboration building on the strengths of both school systems, and it will preserve the neighborhood quality of our schools. It will also provide more flexibility and autonomy in determining the amount of extra taxes those residents in the Orange County school district will pay. In conclusion, I strongly urge that the Orange County and Chapel Hill school boards commit to a detailed plan of collaboration, and that the Board of County Commissioners give careful consideration to Superintendent Neil Pederson's proposal to increase funding to Orange County schools. Let's improve both of our school systems democratically and in a spirit of collaboration rather than division. Thank you. Carole Andrews: At this time of night I'm going to sound a little redundant, but thank you. I have two children in Orange County schools and it will be three next year. The education of my kids is one of the many important aspects of their lives, and I'm not looking sa much at district ratings, etc. as much as I'm looking to see that my kids are getting the kind of education that I envision for them. I'm really happy with my kids' school. And again, not to be redundant, you've heard the list of the things that Orange County schools went without last year. My whole involvement, and this started because the main thing I wanted to add to their education was foreign language study. I feel that foreign language study should be basic. Today, one in five American homes are speaking a language other than English. It enhances the learning of English itself and works best if started early at the elementary school level. In Orange County schools, there is a waiting list at the middle school level. Every year, it's not funded. My kids are going to lose out because it's another year they didn't get it. I think that the Chapel Hill district tax is putting a cap on what Orange County schools are funded each year. And I ask you if you actually like the tax because you don't have to put out as much every year to reach that little, you know, 49% pie that you are looking at in terms of what you're going to fund the schools each year. Chapel Hill has the population, socioeconomic status to support this tax, but it's affecting Orange County schools and we're suffering because of it. It is limiting what you will give Orange County schools each year and makes my kids, and I feel like, lesser citizens of the County. I've heard a number of times that we should not rush this, and I think that's true in terms of merger, but I don't think sa in terms of funding. I don't think we can ga on not getting the money that we need. I agree with collaboration. I look at the study that was done in 1985-86 and it said that we should be collaborating in terms of education, but I think 18 years is really not rushing things. I think that we need to act. Thank you. John Vltaszak: I want to start off by saying that I voted for all five of you. Although I may not want to say it as loudly in this company. I have a child who goes to school in Chapel Hill. He's at Chapel Hill high school, and I would not wish for him anything other than what he has. He has had all the opportunity in the world. I don't want to take anything away from that school district because I think it's a wonderful school district. But I happen to teach in Orange County. You know, the reason I voted far you is because I think you're goad people. You know, you're intelligent, compassionate, hard- working, good human beings. That's what I want for every kid that I've ever taught. I want them to be a goad, productive, thoughtful human being. And that's why I'm thankful that you're discussing the merger issue. Because issues such as this need to be thoroughly discussed. Let's get everyone's input. If takes a year, if it takes two years, if it takes three years, you won't hear me complaining. I'm really not sure right now haw I would vote if I were in your shoes. I think it's a really difficult issue with lots to weigh. But I've also been reading and hearing that there's another issue that you've been debating, and I'm having a real hard time with that one. It seems to me that since you are the taxing authority of Orange County and the zoning authority of Orange County, and are responsible for the condition of the tax base of Orange County, then you are responsible for the funding authority of Orange County. How can it be that you fund the education of Orange County's children unequally? In fact, from where I view this issue, you have given up same of your funding control to the Orange County Board of Education. Many people run far and win positions an the school board so that they can control taxes. Haw dare they do that? They should be fighting for more opportunities for their students, not fewer. But they are in the position to keep things off of the budget. They don't ask you for them, so you feel like they don't need them. They do need them. You're smarter than that. But you do give them power by under funding the Orange County schools. I know that with the numbers being thrown around so widely, everyone in Orange County knows that you give kids in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools over $1,000 per year more than a child in the Orange County schools. I know it's complicated where the money comes from, but how do you explain to a child, one that I teach, that they don't deserve as much as another child? How is it that one child deserves $1,000 less a year than another? That money can buy a lot of opportunities. Are you willing to tell my student why he doesn't deserve these opportunities? How can this be an issue? Aren't you a little embarrassed that you have been unequally funding these children for years and years? Take five years to figure out the merger issue, but let's be fair. At your next meeting, declare that from now on every child's education in Orange County deserves to be funded equally. That's the least we can do, and then we can argue about merger. Thank you. Shang Yin: Hi. Good Evening. My name is Shang Yin. I am the principal of the Chinese School in Chapel Hill. About 300 of our students meet every Saturday at Philips Middle School and participate in Chinese language classes, art, music, SAT, etc. I'm also a father of two students at Seawell Elementary School. Tonight I'm grateful far this opportunity to speak in front of you an behalf of my many parents, teachers, and students who live in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district -some who may not have the opportunity to speak tonight because of their limited time. We are strongly against the merger. We believe that both school systems are excellent. However, it is no accident that we call Chapel Hill-Carrboro our homes. We choose to live there for a very specific reason. Firstly, the combination of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community investment in time, effort, and special district tax that are resulting academic excellence. Secondly, specialty programs such as English as a second language that helps us overcome our initial language barriers. Thirdly, advanced programs that provide optimum challenge to the creativity and intellect of our children. I am sure all of the above are true as well far those who specifically choose to live in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. We are strongly against merger for the following reasons. Number one, as good as the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system is, we can make it even better. We can make it the best in the nation; we can make it the best in the world. However, the merge will freeze the funding gross that will have a negative impact to our children's academic programs. Number two -merger will result in redistricting that will defeat the purpose in which we choose to live in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Number three - merger is not the solution to the funding issue in grange County school system. (Jur children should not pay the penalty for the funding issue. Number four -being smaller, both school systems can be mare agile in developing specific programs for our children to compete and be the best of the best. We strongly support collaboration between the two school systems. As to why it hasn't happened, we urge you as our leaders to look into it and be the champions for collaboration. If you agree with me, please stand up quietly. We may represent a small portion of the community. However, we urge you to be kind, logical, and sensible enough to put yourselves in our shoes and seriously consider our plea to do the right thing. Do not merge the two school systems. Thank you. Karen Styres: Hi. I'm Karen Styres of Chapel Hill. Basically, I have not seen any compelling evidence to justify a merger. In fact, the available information indicates social, educational, and financial costs that outweigh the fewer, more narrow benefits. Lacking factual justification, some of you have resorted to claims of civil rights, social injustice, bigotry. Moral blackmail and character assassination fire up a crowd, but they don't justify a merger, especially when those terms don't apply. Civil rights issues occur with a breach of constitutional civil liberties. The County has not been discriminated against. Lower funding has resulted from their citizens not voting for special taxes. That's simple democracy in action. Another misused term labeling bigotry of parents who specifically bought homes and paid higher taxes in the City that now want to keep their children in those neighborhood schools. This isn't bigotry; it's getting what you bought. If I bought a Jaguar, but I gat delivered a Ford, I would still demand the Jaguar. They're both perfectly good cars from the same parent company. No bigotry, same issue. Admittedly, there may be some benefits from the merger. Increased funding could potentially improve County academic offerings and performance, though I doubt that. ~f the 117 school districts, the County ranks number four in local funding, yet doesn't score in the top 30 on SAT scores. Twenty-five districts have much lower funding and better SAT performance than the County. Perhaps we should spend same time assessing what their secrets are and apply those. Now, with a merger, you may find same cost reductions. City students may be able to take advantage of the County's excellent career programs. Those are a few possible benefits, and there may be more. But many negatives are obvious. In this down economy, taxes will increase for everyone. City tax rates may go down to 17%, but frankly, I pay tax bills, not tax rates. To raise the necessary funds, the 17% tax rate must be offset by a 25% increase in taxable property values, netting a 5% increase in taxes from the City. Five percent above the current rate. Where will that come from? Speaking of tax hikes, what will be the impact on people with fixed incomes and citizens struggling financially that a lot of the folks from the County district are worried about? How can they afford this tax rate? I've heard that the merger is about the children, but it seems to be about same, not all, of the County students at the expense of a wide variety and a majority of students across the rest of the County. As a wrap up, even though I don't have a complete list of issues that need answers, with no in-depth analysis you can't begin to assess the weighting of the pros and the cons on doing a merger. So what I would ask is, given the magnitude of this irreversible decision, take the time, really determine the problem, assess what the passible solutions and alternatives are, look at the pros and cons and the impacts of each of those solutions, and you know what, the right answer will be obvious from that assessment. Peter Morcombe: Goad evening. Thank you for this opportunity to express my opinion an the merger. My name is Peter Morcombe and I've lived in Orange County since 1987. I have one son attending New Hope Elementary in the Orange County schools. Citizen opposition to this merger is overwhelming, and neither of the school boards involved has expressed support. The merger issue has come up several times during the past elections, but not a single board member or County Commissioner advocating merger has ever been elected. If popular support is lacking, why is the merger even being considered? On November 4, 2003, new members will be elected to four-year terms to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Board of Education. A law enacted in 1991 gives County Commissioners the power to overturn the will of the voters by recalling these school board members before the completion of their terms and to remove bath of our districts superintendents. This may be the law, but can a law that permits such highhanded action be constitutional? While the 1991 law has seldom been used, it was the basis for the 1993 merger of the Durham school systems. As with the Orange County merger, the action was proposed in an off year, with no County Commissioner elections, without proper support or the backing of either pre-existing school board. The result was two years of complete chaos in the Durham schools and a dysfunctional school board that continues to this day. The promised economies of scale never materialized and while the Durham schools have improved in some respects, well informed people such as Meyers, who supported the merger; do not attribute these improvements to the merger itself. In Durham a scandal involving the misappropriation of funds persuaded many people to support merger. In Orange County, there are no such scandals that would justify the decapitation of the existing administration. If the Commissioners decide to ignore the voice of the people and the school boards, the result will be divisiveness even more strident than occurred in Durham. Please do not drag our children through this briar patch. Now every cloud has a silver lining. The best thing that came out of the 1993 merger of the Durham school systems was that the voters were still angry in November 94. Bill Bell last his seat on the Durham Board of County Commissioners and two republicans were elected -Tommy Hunt and Ed Devito. Great. I have the greatest respect for Moses Carey and it grieves me to see him committing political suicide. What a shame that he's doing it for such an unworthy cause. You Commissioners have the paver to bring about this shotgun wedding. You also have the power to cut it off. And that is what the community is asking you to do. Arlene Furman: My name is Arlene Furman, and I'm a parent of two children in the Orange County schools. And I actually had a speech prepared, but I'm going to speed things up a little. I think there have been some really great speeches in support of merger. I ditto those speeches. And I leave the educational fate of my children in your hands. Thank you. Libbie Hough: I am Libbie Hough, a parent of two children in the Orange County school system. I'm a member of the Orange County Board of Education. Before I say anything else, however, I will say that I'm sharing my personal opinion, not a formal position of our school board. I'm glad that throughout Orange County people are talking about equity in education. For some time, I've perceived this as merely a revenue issue. I looked to the Chapel Hill district tax as the source of the disparity, and therefore it seemed logical to have our own tax. But there is so much more to this picture. It is not my job to address residential growth patterns, balance commercial development, while maintaining a rural landscape; however interrelated they may be to this entire issue. It is my jab to advocate for the educational needs of the children of Orange County. I believe that as long as there are two school systems in our County, the bigger, faster growing system will always win. The bigger system gets a larger share of the budget pie, and I understand that. But what I cannot understand is when the bigger system's supplement, which is factored into the equation at budget time creates inequity of any sort that mare people aren't saying, "Enough is enough, let's break down the walls." It has been proposed that an Orange County district tax would take care of our problem. However, I believe that it can only go sa far in challenging the mechanisms we have in place that foster inequity. Even if by some fluke a district tax were to pass, some could say, "Well, we fixed that," and move on. But even if we had a tax, inequity would exist; it would just be a little easier to ignore. Bottom line - a district tax is short term thinking when what we really want is a long term solution guaranteeing that all children in our County have access to the resources they need and that teachers are more adequately supported to do their jobs. With regards to collaboration within our current framework, I sadly admit that I am a skeptic. I suspect that collaboration looks more attractive now that merger is being seriously discussed and supported, and I suppose that is human nature. But if it's human nature to resist working together when we perceive you have the choice not to, wouldn't it also be human nature to pull away from such an agreement once the perceived threat of something much worse has past? If you think that all I'm talking about is having more money, then perhaps I need to clarify. I believe our County must focus an challenging any practice or policy that creates inequity or perpetuates belief that within one County, any community is self- contained, just because people are different, that they don't value education, or that some children have more potential or are more worthy than others to realize their dreams. Which leaves me with the following questions: Which option promotes a true countywide approach to education, maximizes tax dollars appropriated for this purpose, encourages to take a new lank at how we're meeting the educational needs of our children no matter where they reside, challenges our preconceived notions of those who are different from ourselves, and invites us to change institutional practices that have the unexpected outcome of creating inequity? Forme the answer is merger. Mary Copeland: I'm Mary Copeland, and I've been a resident of Orange County far 72 years. And I'm proud that Orange County has two of the best school systems in the State. And I sit here listening tonight, and you would think that Chapel Hill was utopia and we were the ghetto. And I don't understand. We are better funded than Alamance County, Person County, Caswell, and actually, I think we're better funded than Durham. But we're comparing ourselves with Chapel Hill because they get a nickel more than we do. I think if you have kids at Christmas, and na matter what you give them, they see a brighter bicycle next door and they've just gat to have one like that. I'm proud of our Orange County schools. And they say we're under funded, but the County Commissioners gave northern Orange 85% of what they asked for in their budget. Our new superintendent came in and found $1.2 million more. That made northern Orange completely funded far what they asked. And you know when they came to you with a budget, it's a wish list. And I think if northern Orange is sa bad off, then you need to look at where the funding is going and not merge the schools. Don't tear up the children's lives and the parent's lives. We need smarter school districts instead of larger. And I hope you'll vote against the merger. Thank you. Pang Yao: Good evening. I have two questions for the Commissioners and for everybody here that's still awake. First, does it make sense that we let five Commissioners make the decision for us about our own children's education? I'm an immigrant from Taiwan where democracy just started about 20 years ago compared to the long 230 years of democracy in the United States. We learned democracy from this country, and I looked forward to being a part of it. But how shocking it is when I found out that a decision that would have a long lasting impact on 17,000 students, including two of my own, can be decided by three Commissioners and not by us -parents who will be directly affected by this process -not by school boards, not by teachers who are responsible far educating our children. This is not only undemocratic, it is backward, and it is ridiculous. I do not think we elect the Commissioners to merge schools. It is our children. To merge or not to merge? Let parents and teachers and not you Commissioners decide what's best far our kids. Second, why am I here? It's 10:15. Well, it has something to do with Commissioner Moses. I think Commissioner Moses has made it abundantly clear that he wants the school systems to merge. I really admire his courage on his tough issue. And he's entitled to this, his opinion. After all, this is a democratic society, isn't it? Mr. Moses, 20 years of research has concluded that more money does not necessarily translate into better education. Bigger is not always better. And the diversity and flexibility provided by two school systems is actually a strength. What about the concern about bussing kids around if two school systems were merged? Chapel Hill Herald just reported that a merger would eventually move 1,600 students in the City school. That's a big number. Would this fact ever change your mind about school merger? But why am I here trying to convince you that merger may not be a good idea? After all, it's you Commissioner, but not me or the majority of the people sitting here who brought up this idea. So with all due respect, you should be the one who bears the responsibility to convince me and the people in bath City and the County that merger would be good far the majority of us, that merger will make students from the County school better, that merger would make students from the City school better, and that merger would not bus my kids around and deprive them of precious time they could use to study, to play, and to have a few minutes of more sleep. Show me your analysis and convince me that merger is good for us. If you can't, don't do it. Dear Commissioners, in my humble view, it is bad enough that a bad law has put you all in this awful position to decide the future of more than 17,000 kids' education. But it would be far mare worse and even disastrous if this decision would be made in a hasty and not well thought out matter, as I'm afraid this merger process is apparently heading to. I urge you all to abstain from executing your authority on this issue. Let the parents, teachers, school boards, and this community decides what's best for our kids. Thank you. Christopher Lyu: Thank you everyone for hanging in here. It's late. My name is Christopher Lyu. I experienced firsthand about the disaster of merger. Ten years ago I lived in Durham, and I experienced the same things. There were so many discussions and public hearings, and I went to a couple of those. And the result was a disaster. I moved my family to Chapel Hill six years ago. And now here I am, I'm in public hearings again talking about merger. I'm really concerned about this. I want to admit that I was not aware of the funding issue between the City and County schools until recently. And I can understand same County school parents' frustration about not getting enough funding when even the County schools is among the top five best funded. Now we all wanted more. However, I am very concerned about the proposed merger. I think that the whole process, it's just that, not giving the people enough time. And there are a lot of people like me; we don't understand the whole issues here. I don't even know that there's this disparity, and they really have my sympathy for this issue. And I think it's a big issue and we should try and resolve it. But this is too complicated. There is no doubt that it would cause so much impact on the lives of so many people in Orange County. It would involve raising big taxes, redistricting, changing property values, and many other real issues, not just fear, let me tell you. It will affect real people. It's going to cause a lot of problems for many people. We were talking about taxes, some people will have to pay more than $200 on their property taxes, it will eliminate neighborhood schools, long bus rides, all of these are real, it's not just fear. And I am really concerned about all of this. Now I think that the citizens of Orange County should have the right to know the impact of merger on their lives. The cost benefit analysis should be done to evaluate the benefits of merger and its cost and the citizens should be educated about the results. Do the benefits of merger outweigh the costs? Are there any better solutions? And after that, an informed decision can be made. But this should be a decision made by the general public, not by the Commissioners alone, because we are the ones that are going to have to get all of this impact, and it's going to affect all of us. You've been asked to do the right thing, Commissioners, and I think the right thing is to listen to the majority of the voices here. It's overwhelming. And you know what people have been saying here tonight and the last public hearing. So I urge you to listen and listen carefully. Marc ter Horst: I'm Marc ter Horst. I'm a little nervous, so bear with me. This merger issue, well by the way, I'm in Chapel Hill in one of the northern communities. The whole issue concerns me, and it also concerns me that Orange County's got the funding problem that it does, although I admit I don't completely understand it. Anyway, I'll try to go through my fractured notes here. With more education funds, there will be more teachers to teach foreign languages, agricultural, science, music, art, etc., that can benefit bath districts. But in order to increase educational opportunities in bath districts, more taxes are needed in both districts. So I ask that what would be the true tax increase to bring some of the opportunities that are available in Orange County to Chapel Hill school system. The debate often sounds like people in Orange County wanting to sort of force the rest of Orange County to pay more taxes for education via from a referendum or a merger. I would like to say that it also becomes an issue with the Board of County Commissioners, because as I understand it, they have the means to change the base funding for both schools. And as far as a referendum is concerned, some people say it won't be permanent, however in Chapel Hill schools and Carrboro schools, it's existed far 7Q years, and at least, forme, that seems fairly permanent. I also want to mention that a merger can be reversed, although it's highly unlikely. And it seems that a forced tax in Orange County would create more sort of resentment between Orange County people, those that don't want tax, and those that do. And that sort of reminds of this notion of invisible barriers or boundaries. And I do see differences between Orange County school system areas and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system areas. There are differences there, and merging the schools won't change those differences. I know people don't like to hear where us relocated people came from before, having only been here for three years. But in the Chicago area, where I grew up, there were rich school systems and there were not so rich school systems. I came from a not so rich school system, and I did well in college and graduate school. So, anyway, I don't see that as important. The merger does seem a means to an end. It's straightforward solution, but problems still exist with the merger as they would with any solution, and I urge all of the Commissioners to keep an open mind in this matter. Thank you. Linda Daugherty: I'm Linda Daugherty. I'm here tonight because I strongly believe something that Commissioner Moses Carey has said -that this issue of a funding disparity between our two school systems and a possible merger is about civil rights and social responsibility. It may not be so obviously an issue of inequality because it is about socioeconomics and not race. But we should feel no less a sense of social responsibility in correcting it. A separate district tax for Orange County will never fully address the funding disparity between the two school systems. It will not address the fact that the two systems operate in communities with very different tax bases and that in Orange County one third of all the school children, 33%, are eligible far free or reduced lunch, versus 13% in Chapel Hill. It will not change the fact that Orange County residents are helping Chapel Hill pay for numerous new schools that Orange County children will never be allowed to use. As we heard from a parent last week, it may very well be true that the children who do best in school come from families with two highly educated parents in the home. But guess what? Most children are not so lucky to come from such ideal families. Are we to leave all the disadvantaged children to fend far themselves, tell them that the odds are already stacked against them, so why bother? I don't think so. It is up to the public school system to ensure that every child, regardless of their socioeconomic status, family makeup, parents' level of education, or their address has the same quality of education. Money makes a difference. It helps every child regardless of where they come from by providing them with the same educational opportunities. It levels the playing field. As an Orange County parent, I am frustrated and depressed. Five years ago the parents at my child's school went to the County Commissioners and asked for funding far foreign language teachers far all the County elementary schools. One teacher far one schaol was funded. Five years later, despite repeated requests every single year, we still have one Spanish teacher at one elementary school. I don't want my child ar any other child in the County to be told that when he gets to high school, he should be satisfied with taking a vocational or technical education course instead of the AP course he wants to take. I don't care that Orange County schools are considered to be the fourth best funded in the State and Chapel Hill is the first. Does anyone in this roam think that they should be told to be satisfied with the status quo? That they should not have high expectations for their schaol system? We need to expand our children's opportunities, not limit them. We have all heard that many parents in Chapel Hill bought houses in town because they'd been told they had a much better schaol system than the County. And I don't think that's a perception to take lightly. It's the reason we're here tonight. I understand the parents in Chapel Hill put a lot of time and money into their schools to ensure their achievement and make them the best they can possibly be. But the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school system is not a private school system. It is a public school system, and public schools are here to serve the entire public, not just one self-contained community. The County Commissioners need to look beyond the individual here and determine what is the best solution for the entire County. What solution will serve the greater goad and not just satisfy an individual level of comfort ar need. And from where I stand right now, merger looks like the only solution that will ensure that every child in the entire County has access to the same quality of education. Thank you. Greg Britz: Hi. Why are we here? Apparently to discuss the idea of merger. But merger is a solution. What is the problem? I've heard the phrase funding disparity mentioned as the problem, but what does that actually mean? Every day I open the newspaper I see the disparity described as the extra $12 million that Chapel Hill receives from their district tax. This is not the disparity. The disparity occurs because of a flaw in the policy used to fund the two districts. This flawed funding policy places a cap in the amount of funding that the Board of Commissioners can provide to Orange County schools. The problem will continue to get worse every time the district tax is raised. I won't go into the details because it sounds like a few people have started to understand that. There are other flaws that lead to inequities. One is the fact that 2t~°lo of Chapel Hill's tax base is commercial, yet all those revenues go to Chapel Hill schools. When you compare the actual per pupil dollar amount of tax paid by residents in each district, after you back out the commercial revenues in each, Orange County residents actually pay $50 per pupil for every penny of tax levied, while Chapel Hill residents pay less, at 48 cents per penny of tax. I've heard a lot of talk about subsidizing the Orange County schools, and I think it's in the reverse. Two -the fact that all school construction costs are funded equally by all County taxpayers, yet half the bond issue to pay for this high school here, Cedar Ridge, construction, is coming out of much needed capital improvement money for Orange County schools. Chapel Hill has never had to dedicate any of its district revenues to its own new schools. Third -future capital needs, which many people have mentioned. This is a big and important issue. Chapel Hill schools are projected to need $100 million aver the next ten years, while Orange County needs $20 million. But why am I and other parents standing here explaining the problem? We didn't come here asking for merger. We came asking for fairness and equity in the educational opportunities for Orange County students. Where are the voices of our Commissioners and our school board members who have a legal obligation to represent the interests of the students in the Orange County system? The Board of Commissioners need to come clean and be honest about the existence of these flawed funding policies, recognize they've existed for far too long, and make a commitment to fix the problem. We understand the political realities behind these flawed policies, and we also understand that no one set out purposely to create this inequity. We understand the political expediency of the status quo, and that a majority of County citizens in both districts have supported the flawed funding policies for different reasons. But I'd argue that none of these citizens would have supported this flawed funding policy if they understood the fundamental unfairness behind it. Now is the time for the Commissioners to face facts, to embrace the reality of this flawed funding policy, explain it to all citizens. Only then can we have an informed and intelligent debate about the solutions that will serve the best interest of all of Orange County's public school children. Tim Godsey: Hi. I'm Tim Godley. I have been following the merger debate very closely and I have attended nearly every meeting. I wonder if I could get some CE credit for all this stuff. I have met with same Commissioners and other staff and I have enjoyed the free exchange of information. Therefore, I feel that I have a pretty good sense of what the problems are and what the facts are. One thing is for certain. No matter whom I speak with, pro or con, it is obvious this issue needs further study. My family and I went through a redistricting process last year, which was pretty gut wrenching, and I had hoped that we would never have to ga through that again. My, how time flies. But in all fairness, I think Steve Scroggs and his group developed a fair process. I felt that I could participate, that I had a say in the process. We could even submit our own plans if we wanted to. All the spreadsheets were available, etc. In addition, a variety of people were on the redistricting committees that were not on the school board. I don't feel that way about the issue of merger. There are a lot of unanswered questions about merger -bussing, redistricting, academic programs to mention a few. But the most basic question to me is where will our children go to school. Na one can answer this question. We the public want this information. I think the Orange County Board of Commissioners could benefit from a public relations consultant. I would recommend a slogan similar to Radio Shack -you have questions, meaning the public, we have answers, meaning the Commissioners. Instead, we have questions, you have no idea. How come there isn't accountability or an audit of how the school boards spend money they are allocated. This came to mind when a number of Orange County parents reported that there aren't enough schoolbooks far their kids. If Orange County is one of the top funded school districts in the State, where is all the money going? We all want what is best for our children, but we can't make any decisions without all the facts. Merger is not the solution. Please be imaginative and let us be a part of the process and let's fix the funding problem together. By the way, if you figure out where my son Eric will be going to school, can you give me a call and let me know? Anne Gregory-Bepler: My name is Anne Gregory-Bepler. I am a full time high school teacher. I do not teach in Orange County or in Carrboro or in Chapel Hill. I'm a single mother. My son does not go to schools in Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro, but I da live in Orange County within five minutes of a high school, a middle school, and an elementary school. Why does my son not go there? Why do I not teach in these schools? As a teacher, I value education probably more than almost any of you, except that I know how much our children mean to us and we will do anything we can to get the best we can for them. However, I am fortunate enough to have a higher salary than I would if I were teaching in Orange County. My son, in my opinion, is probably getting a better education than he would five minutes from where we live. I'm somewhat ashamed to say this. My only point is that there is always room for improvement. I am more than willing to pay more taxes even if my children or my son never goes to an Orange County school. I do not make a lot of money. I think we have to choose our priorities. I have chosen to drive an old car and live in a modest house. But I have chosen education and I would like it if perhaps all the people in this room think about really and truly what everyone wants far his or her child. Thank you. Charles Mascarella: Good evening members of the Board and people of the public who remain. I oppose the merger. I've read a lot of information on the Orange County Internet. As a matter of fact, my son and I, who had to leave earlier, have over 254 pages, which includes the Analysis of Potential Impacts Resulting from a Possible Merger of the Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Within that, I ran across this little paragraph. It has to do with tax. And the folks that say that we shouldn't have a referendum on taxes must have forgotten our history because we were born far apposing taxes that we could not have direct control over. North Carolina General Statute 115c-512 provides that in a specific set of circumstances a merged school system automatically causes any supplemental tax operating in one of the pre- merged districts to become applicable to the entire resulting merged district. This expansion occurs without approval of the voters of the districts. Although this section of law does not apply to Orange County, it is conceivable that the special legislation approved by the General Assembly could modify the provisions of that section to make it apply to Orange County. In such circumstances, then a merger between Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools would entail the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district tax becoming inapplicable through a newly merged Orange County school system without an election on the matter. You know, I did not vote for you. I wasn't here. Quite probably wouldn't have anyway. I'm of the firm opinion, in having a lot of experience dealing with schools, not in this state, but in another. Forty-two years to be exact. That when the people are in charge -officers, officials, state, county, parish din Louisiana, that's where it was} -that do not pay attention to the majority of the people, you risk not being in next time, especially if you are voted upon. Thank you for your time. Li Xu: I'm here on behalf of my family and all my friends who live in Chapel Hill. We live in Chapel Hill because we like the schools there. My family recently maned from Seattle. There are six independent school districts in the county where Seattle is. All but one has the size similar for Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district. Both educators and the parents believe bigger is not better. Smaller is a more efficient way to get things done when it comes to your children's education. This county is the most ethnically and social economically diversified County in Washington State. Among these six school districts, same have higher test scares than others. However, nobody ever proposed ideas such as merger. Almost everybody agrees that a smaller school system with community schools are the best for their children. Districts with lower test scores put more of their resources in identifying and solving the problems. They put children in education or after school activities. They also rely on the school community far many volunteering work to give the children in need more tutoring services. I went and signed up far helping children with math. Every district has the confidence that children are best served in a tighter knitted caring community. That attitude pays off. Last year, among all states that have half or mare students took the SAT test for high school graduates, Washington State ranked number one in test scores. Among all counties in Washington State, this County, with its six school districts, scored highest. This is a success story for community based school systems. This kind of school system makes it a lot easier far parents to work with teachers and be involved in their children's education. Merger will make it harder far parent's involvement in our schools. Merger will bring unnecessary disruption to existing school systems and our children's education. The whole process merger wastes human and financial resources that could be used in mare meaningful ways for our children. Merger also promises nothing for both school systems. Solutions for problems of any system lie in the heart of that system. Please dear Commissioners, before you use this law that requires na public referendum to make a decision affects almost everybody in this County, think of other alternatives to merger. Be clear that there are other ways to solve the funding issue, and that combining two school systems is definitely not the answer to the real problems. I was told that the merger of Durham City and County schools bring down the whole system. I would like you to provide a successful merger story that is comparable to the passible merger here. Please be responsible to the public you are supposed to represent. As a new American citizen, I would like to see the democratic process that is regarded as the only way to handle public issues in this country. Thank you. Jennifer Jansen: Goad evening. My name is Jennifer Jansen and I have a third grader and a first grader at Seawell Elementary School, plus a preschooler. I would like to focus on one of the consequences of a potential merger of the two school districts, and that would be redistricting. My neighborhood sits in the northern corridor of Chapel Hill and children in this corridor have been targeted to be redistricted to Orange County schools in the event of a merger. I have same experience with redistricting that I would like to share. Last year I participated in the City school redistricting process on behalf of several neighborhoods. I attended every meeting open to the public and listened to hundreds of speeches. Redistricting sends a shudder of fear through most parents in Chapel Hill because it is disruptive to our children's education and to our relationships with the schools that we have so carefully cultivated. It is an incredibly divisive process that puts neighborhood against neighborhood. The domino effect of moving one neighborhood to another school can impact almost every school in the district. We are still healing from this incredibly difficult process. I can summarize the hundreds of speeches presented at the public hearings on redistricting because there were Gammon themes running throughout the speeches. Number one -parents wanted their children to stay at their current schools. Everybody was very happy at his or her current schools and it was a real testament to the success of the City schools. Number two -parents wanted neighborhood schools for their children, which meant they wanted to get the closest school to their home. And number three -parents did not want long bus rides for their children. These were the requests that City parents demanded far their children during last year's redistricting. And countywide redistricting effort will divide our County to a much greater magnitude than even this merger discussion has. Let's look at a potential elementary school redistricting scenario. As a matter of fact, Seawell would be decimated, losing almost all its current neighborhoods. When children move out of Seawell, children from Estes will move in to fill empty seats at Seawell. Children from Carrboro will move to Estes; children from McDougle will move to Carrbora, and the domino effect continues to touch each elementary school in the district. Making room for the children moved out of Seawell into the County schools may require shifting children in the County system, thus the domino effect continues. Now if you throw in achieving diversity in each school and balancing the socioeconomic status, you will need to shift kids throughout the County. Teachers and support staff will shift to accommodate the moving populations of children. Every person in the County will be impacted from the redistricting and the merger either by moving children or teachers. This scenario would be repeated at the middle school and high school level also. Perhaps the greatest impact from a merger redistricting will be experienced by the children in the northern corridor in Chapel Hill who move to schools in the County. These children will be removed from the world, as they know it and their current neighborhood schools and communities to completely unknown and unfamiliar communities in the County schools. This is asking too much of these children. Let's remember all of the children in this process -the children far which we want equal opportunities, and the children for which you are asking to sacrifice too much. Equalized funding can be achieved without merger. Commissioners, I would urge you to avoid the disruption and destruction caused by a County redistricting by equalizing funding and not merging the school districts. Thank you. Melissa McCullough: My name is Melissa McCullough. I'm an Orange County parent. I've been real pleased with the education that my children have received at New Hope. My daughter rides the bus about 35 minutes home and amazingly enough; I still get to her school to volunteer. As I read the merger report, I was struck by a number of important points, which for me began to point to the benefits of the merger for these systems. No other plan really provides all these benefits, not even a separate but equal plan. Each school system has its strengths as well as its needs and shortcomings. Some of these include that merger will enable the special programs, the special programs together that neither of the school systems could afford individually. And merger will enable us to benefit from the other strengths. Orange County can provide vocational education and global languages could be provided at the Chapel Hill schools, for example. There are such economies of scale that we can save both systems money and therefore have a more efficient use of our tax dollars. There is the efficient use of school space so we can save money by not having to build extra schools until farther into the future. In the rural buffer, the watersheds, the preservations of the farms are a great amenity to Chapel Hill and a great detriment to Orange County in terms of our tax base. Yet it's funny haw some concentrated tax base like Stone Ridge can kind of sneak into the Chapel Hill system. Basically I think it boils down to that merger will give our kids the chance for equivalent quality of education while at the same time giving our citizens the best value for our school dollars. We can afford much mare for our children for the same amount of money together than we can individually, and that best serves, I believe, the children. Thank you. Randy Sellers: Hi. I'm a Chapel Hill schools parent and I believe that there are ways besides the merger to offer the best opportunities for every child in Orange County. I'm very concerned about the upheaval merger would cause. My family was reassigned in both of the last two Chapel Hill-Carrboro redistricting. We dread the redistricting process fora 400 square mile school district. Dr. Pederson's report out a couple of days ago clarifies the magnitude of the potential reshuffling. Models to save capital expense in the merger report assume a large number of Chapel Hill-Carrboro system kids are sent to Orange County system schools and some kids the reverse direction. Any capital cost savings through merger would be borne on the backs of these kids that would be uprooted and bussed, many of them long distances. Other upheaval includes diversion of attention of administrators away from important initiatives such as closing the achievement gap and the potential turnover of school superintendents who are loved. I support improving or equalizing funding throughout the County. However, Dr. Cindy Smith's presentation at the INFORM forum of an extensive review of educational research could not find a link between per pupil equivalent funding and improved student performance except in the single case where a specific program was helping and the funding for it was removed. In that case the performance suffered. I think all of those here still concern ourselves with funding, but her work does suggest that an obsession with exactly equal per pupil equivalent funding throughout the County is probably misguided. There must be other factors at play affecting student performance. One relevant question is how money is used once it's allocated. According to Chapel Hill News, the Orange County system has an equal number of administrators, officials, and management as Chapel Hill-Carrboro, yet there is one half the number of students as Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Perhaps there could be a redirection of Orange County system funds from some of these positions towards funding program shortcomings such as language classes. One of the hoped for gains from merger is improved access to programming options across the County. Dr. Pederson's thoughtful letter to the Chapel Hill school board on 1019 outline significant, specific programs of collaboration of all systems, including establishment of middle college andlar more extensive dual enrollment programs, taking advantage of the strengths of both systems. College fairs could be combined or advertised across both systems without merger. All the tax possibilities I've heard about as alternatives to merger result in a lower tax rate than the 17 cents per hundred-dollar tax outlined in the merger report. The 17-cent estimate is artificially low because it leaves out any costs of equalizing program offerings across a merged system. People of this County deserve a shot at voting in a less expensive option to improving funding to schools before a permanent merger is forged upon us. Thanks. Christopher Gelpi: Hi, I'm Chris Gelpi. I'm a professor of political science at Duke University and a father of two kids in the Chapel Hill schools. I want to make four paints tonight. The first is that I believe that this process is proceeding too quickly. According to the executive summary of the staff report, and I'm quoting, "Many important related educational programming -attendance zones, bus transportation, and other issues - would need to be examined carefully as part of a more formal analysis in merger plan or during the transition period leading up to the effective date of merger." And I don't see how that you can, in good conscience, plan or vote on, how you can vote on such a merger without having some kind of plan. We can't wait until the transitional period to make these kind of difficult decisions and tradeoffs. My second point is that there will be difficult decisions and tradeoffs. Again, according to the staff report, each school district has its different programmatic strengths. It's not the case that Chapel Hill schools fund everything better than Orange County schools. So even if funding were increased to Chapel Hill levels, same cuts would have to be made. We cannot have the best of both systems at the cost of the Chapel Hill system. My third point is that I understand the concern aver unequal funding between the systems and I'm sympathetic to this problem. But I believe that it's important to separate the issue of equal funding from the issue of merger. There are a variety of ways, some of which were presented earlier here this evening that we could bring funding into equality across the systems without merger. And some of these involve the referendum across the County that the presentation tonight noted that the County had never actually been asked whether they would pay those funds. In addition, your own report also says that there are ways to do this without a public referendum. Again, the General Assembly, as your reports notes, has previously approved legislation permitting the implementation of a countywide supplemental tax without a referendum. This seems to me disingenuous to justify a merger on the basis of unequal funding when these kinds of other options have not even been explored. Gther than the unequal funding problem, it seems to me that little reason has been put forward for the merger. My final point is that I think we need to have a vote. If those who are pro-merger can't persuade either the voters of Grange County or the General Assembly to equalize funding, how can they, or you, in good conscience, go forward with something like this? I understand the historical reasons behind the procedure that allows you to move ahead without a vote, but this is a misuse of this law. Enforcing a merger to equalize funding because that's what you can force through seems to me unfair, undemocratic, and potentially unwise. So we need a vote. Without a vote, what you are proposing is, for my tastes, too close to taxation without representation. Thank you. Eric Dumain: My name is Eric Dumain and I'm here tonight as an Grange County parent to ask you to begin the courageous, albeit unpopular process of merging the two school systems. As you mentioned before, the issue is about money and the funding inequities of the two school systems have been addressed by several speakers tonight. But it's also about improving community perceptions and making redistribution of resources available to more people. When my wife and I moved here about 11 years ago, I was told by several native North Carolinians that basically County schools are where the farmer's kids go and Chapel Hill is where the professor's kids go. And I was kind of stunned by that kind of comment, and at the time I didn't have kids, and I really didn't consider it very seriously, but it indicated that there was an invisible line that had been drawn a long time ago. It made me wonder why are the rural kids not worthy of the same equal opportunities as the kids that perhaps live in the City. I live in the County and I frankly don't want to have to move into Chapel Hill to receive mare equal educational opportunities far my children, and I do have a child now. And frankly, I can't afford to move into Chapel Hill, if you see real estate prices aver there. There's too many middle class people in Orange County that are well educated that simply are thinking the Orange County schools may not be for my children, and they're going to go to private schools, they're going to divert money from the Orange County school system, and they're going to take their parental commitment and involvement with their kids' education to the private school with them. And that's a big concern I have. There are many people in the County that are thinking that way. There was some discussion tonight about a lot of concern from Chapel Hill parents that redistricting will happen with the merger. And frankly, that's already happened with continued growth within the City school system, so I think, frankly, that's a fact of life whether we have a merger or not. The growth in Chapel Hill from people within the County and with people moving from other areas, it's just going to happen mare and more in the future. Frankly, I want to stay where I am. I want to support the school that I live closest to, which, by the way is not Grady Brawn where I'm districted now, but it's McDougle Elementary in Carrboro. want my daughter to have the best public school education she's entitled to, and I think it would be great if she went to school with the farmers' kids and the faculty's kids. Diversity in our schools is supposed to enrich the process of education. It's more than just racial differences; it's about socioeconomic and family backgrounds in both systems, which I don't believe are found to the fullest extent in the County and the City. So again, I urge you to go for merger, and I thank you far your time tonight, and to please consider the haves and have-Hots in Orange County and to narrow that gap. Thank you. Allison Worthy: Thank you all for staying. I'm Allison Worthy, and I have two children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school system. And I consider myself to be representative of the average Chapel Hill parent. I'm an active volunteer in the schools and community, and am relatively well versed an school matters. I attend meetings of our board of Ed, and even the occasional County Commissioners meeting and public hearing. And I've had many conversations with other parents about the merger issue. I'm here tonight to address comments that I heard at the last public hearing at Chapel Hill High School. I'd like to go on record as saying that not once have I ever heard a disparaging comment about the Orange County schools ar students in any of my conversations. To the contrary, mast Chapel Hill parents I've spoken with are sympathetic to the needs of the Orange County schools. They may even be a little envious that you have smaller classes at the elementary level, but understand that your tradeoff for smaller class size was Spanish. We too have had to make tradeoffs in Chapel Hill. This is not about social injustice ar unequal access to quality education. This all boils down to limited resources for both of our districts. I would urge you not to take the path of least resistance by imposing merger on our schools districts at this time. Please take the time to consider the alternatives, specifically Dr. Pederson's proposal, and remember that the ultimate goal here is to best serve the children and the citizens of both of our districts. Thank you. Michele Burris-Ward: Hi. I'm Michele Burris-Ward and I've got two sons in the Chapel Hill school district. You know, sitting out here, I've gat a prepared comment, but I've been struck by all of the historical references that have been made, and seeing the buttons that say, "separate, but unequal". You know, I was a history undergraduate, and one of the things, my son and I were watching the news a few weeks ago, and President Bush made a reference to the forest fires in Los Angeles and California as being a holocaust. And we had a discussion about that and I said, "Holocaust should never be used to define anything other than what the Holocaust was because it dilutes what the Holocaust was." And similarly, with this whole civil rights issue, using this term as civil rights and what the issue is, which it is not, dilutes the real Plessy versus Ferguson and the real Topeka versus Board of Education in my opinion. And I don't think that does us justice historically. So my prepared comment says some pro-merger forces have claimed civil rights to be the impetus for this proposed merger. Not one of us who consider ourselves liberal and choose to live in one of the most liberal towns in the United States, Chapel Hill, would ever oppose civil rights. Webster's defines civil rights as those rights guaranteed to the individual by the constitution. The right to vote, exemption from involuntary servitude, and equal treatment of all people with respect to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and to the protection of law. Whether a district is the first highest funded or the fourth highest funded in the State is not a civil rights issue. Chapel Hill residents choose to pay an additional tax. Change County residents choose to not pay an additional tax. That is the issue. The pro-merger group is using a classic political tactic; use false logic to emotionally charge an issue in order to avoid both talking about the facts and finding realistic win-win solutions. This is effective because facts are basically tedious. I'm sure you all feel that way this evening. And coming up with sound solutions takes time, creativity, and effort. But bring up civil rights and anyone in opposition becomes a bigoted anti-civil rights evildoer. There are numerous options to be explored prior to making such a rapid and radical change, a change that will negatively effect both the property owners of Orange County and the students in Chapel Hill with little to no proof that merger is the definitive solution. one could argue that the civil rights -enjoyment of property and protection of law - of Orange County property owners could be violated by being forced without a public referendum to pay more for property taxes, and that the civil rights -enjoyment of life and liberty - of Chapel Hill students could be violated by having to ride a bus 34 miles round trip to Efland to go to school when they could ride a bus two miles to a Chapel Hill-Carrboro school. Maybe ultimately the solution will call for merging the two districts. But this frenzied, arrogant, and reckless drive under the guise of civil rights must be slowed down. Please Commissioners, as trusted and elected public servants, you have an obligation to your constituents, all of us in this room, to work methodically and diligently, not emotionally and haphazardly, to clearly identify the legitimate needs of our students, and to find a solution that will benefit all of our children in Orange County. Thank you. Georgia Gamcsik: The last time I spoke I told you that I had made a choice when my children became school age to move out of Durham to Chapel Hill. I really wasn't aware historically of what had gone on, but it was a little bit eye opening when I looked an the Orange County website and saw the Durham merger documents. I didn't have to go much further than the date because essentially I moved to Durham in 1997, and the Durham schools merged in 92-93. My children needed to begin looking at schools in 1998. What I found was this -the County and City schools were merged to provide equal opportunities to children in the City and County and combine resources for school operating costs. What that said to me was that six years after the merger of Durham schaals something wasn't working. Something went horribly wrong. The school my children were districted far in Durham had a no better than 60°l° pass rate on EOGs in both reading and math. In fact, that school, along with others, was in danger of closing because of a lack of progress in these areas. I'm not sure how long you're willing to wait for schools to show improvement in what they perceive to need to be changed, but five years is way too long. I can also tell you that many aspects of community life were severely disrupted. City residents resented sending their children to unfamiliar neighborhoods not in their communities to learn. Why not bring necessary resources to their schools? Why did the children have to go and be caught in a major reshuffling? Not only that, but where is the accountability? Who is assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the past-merger process? Who was there to be accountable to foresee a smooth transition and make modifications where necessary? The beauty of Orange County is whether you live in Chapel Hill ar the County; it's a no-brainer. All of our schaals enjoy well above average statewide achievement. But if the delicate balance of excellent teachers, parental involvement, the hard work of our superintendents and school boards is disrupted, will we be able to maintain the level of success we have now? I hope the Durham schools are thriving. But do we want to embark on a process, which may not deliver its promises, and in the meantime potentially create further divisiveness in our communities? I'm not willing far my child to be placed in a position of spending nearly half of his 12 academic years enduring this kind of uncertainty. Our children deserve a well thought out deliberative process which includes a clear mechanism to fix things when they go wrong and a reasonable effort to anticipate needs that a merged system would call for. Alice Anderson: My name is Alice Anderson. My husband and I live in Carrbora and we have two children. One is a fourth grader at McDougle Elementary and one is a seventh grader at McDougle Middle. I've not been asked to speak by any group; I'm here only representing my husband and myself. I have come tonight to ask you to consider alternatives to merger. My children have always walked to and from school. They walk or bike the 'h mile both ways every single day, five days a week. The only exceptions are when it's really cold, really wet, or when one of them is not feeling 100°~. Walking is a lifestyle choice that we have made for our children. I'm here tonight because it's a walk I want to preserve for my fourth grader when he gets to middle school. I'm also here tonight because my children attend two excellent schools. Merging the school systems would fix problems that don't exist at McDougle schools. If funding issues negatively impact Orange County schools, then please, by all means, fix those issues. But don't fix them at the expense of other kids. Don't replace aten- minute walk to school with a 45-minute bus ride. My husband and I voted for each one of you, and we elected you to fix our problems, not create them. Chapel Hill schools aren't broken, so please don't fix them. Please consider alternatives to merger. Thank you. Kelly Monroe-Porco: I saw this on the road today, and it woke me up. She was referring to a sign. It's a sign, right up with all the voting signs, but there's no endorsement on it. Therefore, it's an illegal sign. And I brought it tonight because my argument du jour for merger is the fact that we have many farces working against the students of Orange County. And that's what I want to talk about tonight. And I want to talk about the fact that we need your help, as our elected public officials, to make the right and not politically safe decision regarding equitable funding because of the forces we have working against us, and here they are. Our students are victims of a district tax that determines what their school district will get. They're victims of some administrators and same school board members who lack vision and who adamantly appose change because they fear they will be out of a jab or position of power. They are the unwitting victims of a group that consistently opposes new taxes far anything, and continually votes against bond issues. Ironically, those people spoke in this very building tonight that they tried to vote down, and it's a good thing we didn't listen, folks, because we'd be out in a field tonight if we listened to CSE. They are victims of a political system that's funded by a wealthy majority of voters who are almost impossible to oppose because they will use their voting power to influence or get rid of anyone in office who opposes them, and I'm sorry far that. They're victims of people who make blanket statements and use propaganda like this sign to hide behind, because they don't posses the courage to stand behind their own convictions and sign their handiwork. I'm a member of FICS, I've put out a lot of documents and I've put my name on them because I believe in what's on that document. So despite what many will tell you about democracy and fairness in letting the voters decide this issue, I want to remind you that issues of fundamental fairness are decided in our court system far a reason, and they're decided by you far a reason. Everyone knows that if we always let the majority decide, many sound laws and policies designed to protect would have never been put forward. It's up to you Commissioners to be the arbiters of fairness and come up with a solution that does not necessarily benefit taxpayers, school administrators, politicians, or any other adult bias, but one that benefits opportunities far all children. Thank you. Donna Jones: Good evening. I'm Donna Jones; I'm a parent of two bays at Hillsborough Elementary, the only year round elementary school in the entire County. I've experienced two mergers in the last ten years -Burroughs Welcome and Glaxo and Glaxo and Smith Klein/ Beechum. I realize these are not schools, but there is learning gained from each one and I'd like to share some with you tonight. The reasons businesses usually merge are for continued revenue stream, to gain more assets in their research and development, or to increase size, which usually gives them an edge on the competition. During the transition period, about three to five years, as we became a new company each time; yes, there were tradeoffs; yes, there were uncertainties; lots of curiosity; lots of skepticism with new colleagues. But in the end, who benefited? The patients; patients with acute and chronic diseases who now have access to more quality medicines and more opportunity for access to quality medicines in the future. Employees like myself benefited by learning new skills, understanding a new culture, tremendous building of new relationships, and leading best practice standards. The community benefited by the growth of this fine company and its ability to share financial, commercial, and human resources with the residents. If you asked me in 1995 if I wanted to merge with another company equal or greater to mine in size, I would have said, "No way." I was totally comfortable in my earner of the world. Tonight I'm here an behalf of the children in all of Orange County. The measure of excellence should be access to any educational opportunity that's possible within a countywide public school system. I am confident there is a win-win agreement for everyone here tonight. Please have the crucial conversations with the State legislators or any other decision makers that influence the current budget formula and ask what can be done and ask why not. Structure a plan that outlines concrete resolutions to end the competitive nature of funding inequities the districts have endured. I urge you to explore new possibilities. To name afew -magnet schools of choice at the middle and high school levels, pilot programs, which involve shared curriculums and shared personnel resources. Exhaust all options, forge new ground, and show the people of this fine community you are accountable for change in June of 2003 when the dollars for school budget are finalized. All of us in this roam have at least three things in common - we are all human beings, we care about the future of the children, and six simple letters we all place in the box marked "County" on our applications, our insurance forms, and our voter registrations: O-R-A-N-G-E, Orange. Thank you. Jim Williams: Thank you for the opportunity to express the following perspective on possible merger, which reflects my family's views and those of the tremendous majority of my neighbors. My wife Kim and I have been residents of the area for the past two and a half years, and we have two children in second and sixth grades at a K-8 school within 3/4 of a mile of our home in Carrboro. And we're also about 3l4 of a mile from Chapel Hill High School. We strongly oppose merger of the City and County school systems, at least under the current hurried approach. In sum, we believe that the issue of equitable funding for both school systems can be resolved separately and expeditiously and that no compelling reason far merger has yet been presented. Indeed, the weight of arguments against merger within the current process seem overwhelming. The merits and demerits of the proposed merger of the City and County school systems absolutely requires more in depth analysis than has been undertaken to date, which has left so many important questions unanswered. A thorough examination of possible alternatives and which course of action would be best for the citizens and children of all parts of Orange County is essential and has also not been done yet. There should also be a direct and definitive demonstration of public support for merger before such a drastic action is considered for a vote by the Board of County Commissioners. We support a change in funding for the County schools that would provide apparently needed additional resources, provided that the additional taxation to provide such funding is supported by those taxes. We believe a merger should not be voted upon by the Board of County Commissioners until a thorough study has been made of the effects that merger could have on the quality of education in bath school systems. If either system would be harmed, obviously State law would make such a merger unacceptable. In particular, there appears to be a high potential for harm to the City schools from a merger. We foresee a climate of parents and students becoming disaffected from a system that would probably involve forced bussing to faraway schools, curriculum compromises from current plans, and reduced levels of funding from what would otherwise pertain. Such an image offers a stark comparison to the current system that has achieved a nationally recognized level of excellence. A merger would also harm the County schools. Teacher turnover is already an issue in both systems, and a merger would markedly increase the danger of losing the best teachers because they would not want to go through the disruptions and hassles of merger, with its inevitable teacher and student reassignments, redistricting, and long distance bussing. We should not farce our children to attend schools that are an unreasonable distance from their homes. No parent in either school system wants that to happen, and the chances of that happening are much higher in a merged system than they are at present. There is already not enough time in the day for our children's activities. I hate to imagine our children deprived of time to participate in sports and after school activities as they suffer on the bus for hours in the day, or even to get their homework finished. A great distance from home to school will also hamper the ability of even highly motivated parents to participate in their children's education, which would be a great loss to the quality of our schools. In closing, I would also like to mention that I would like to congratulate Dr. Keith Cook, Chairman of the Board of Ed of the Orange County school system for taking a persistent and strong public position in favor of increased funding but against merger. I appreciate the reasoning he has expressed at previous public meetings. At the same time, I would like to know where are the voices of our elected officials in Chapel Hill and Carrboro local governments. Why aren't you speaking out against this merger, which is so obviously opposed by, and not in the best interests of your citizens? Ne left a copy of his remaining commer-ts. Tommie Stephenson: I'm Tommie Stephenson. I spoke at the last hearing. I'd just like to think that I'm speaking for the northern Orange County residents and their children. I want to just take a moment to add to a previous speaker. I too am living a transition in my child. I am a federal contractor for the Medicare program, and not only am I dealing with the government's vision of how they want the program to be administered, but I've also experienced the goad experience of having goad leadership through this transition. I add that when I'm speaking of leadership from you guys and from us that are here speaking and anyone else who's involved in this decision that's very tough to make equal financial abilities for the students and our school systems. I want to be sure that you clarify the impact of a merger on the children and their educational opportunities, and please make it clear for our northern residents. You did do something on the financial presentation, I was glad to see. Please assure everyone that our children's daily school schedules will be minimally disrupted, school assignments will keep the children near their geographic location to minimize long bus rides, and allow teachers and parents to be involved with their schools. Remember, lots of parents have jobs without flexible schedules to allow them to accommodate a routine parentlteacher relationship in person. Myself, I work 25 miles away as a result of the transition and it's very difficult, but I have a great teacher, I have a great principal, and we work very well together. I'm very dependent an daily written notes and telephone discussions. Explore all the resources that will allow students, teachers, parents, and administration that will need a sound, collaborative support system, to ensure our children's academic and social education. It is clear that the financial needs of educational administration will dictate our future system, for it is very out of balance between the two systems. This financial system is supported by taxes that will have to be increased in same way to balance this funding gap. I'll mention again that 17 cents would be a financial burden to our northern Orange County residents, but it was good to hear a clarified statement tonight about the tax increase would be spread over a period of time. Real brief, I encourage you to seek the necessary sound leadership that will ultimately be the success story for our students achievements, both academically and socially, to fully support the administration and provide an equal educational opportunity with adequate funding available to meet each child's individual needs. Do not rush your decision. Unforeseen circumstances will result without an alternate plan. And students will suffer the mast, not the taxpayers. So I request that all Orange County residents be heard, have an input, and also to choose their children's academic and social needs, and to also have a choice of year round or traditional school. Cyndy Risku: My name is Cyndy Risku. I'm a Chapel Hill resident and until recently I didn't realize how bad a thing that was. If the Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school district tax limits and actually produces less funding for the County schools, then can it simply not be imposed and not collected? I believe the purpose of the district tax was to supplement the funding received from the County Commissioners, not limit the funding from them. I would also like to know are these funds that the County school system is not receiving actual real money or simply hypothetical. If both school systems requested $5,000 per pupil, and there was no Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school district tax, would both school systems actually in fact receive the requested $5,000 per pupil? This information is vital in deciding the pros and cans of merger. Is the Chapel Hill- Carrboro city school district tax honestly taking funding away from the County school system, or is it being used as an excuse? Also, is the County ready for the dense development that would be sure to follow a merger and the higher property values and the higher property taxes and the countywide tax? We know about all of this firsthand in Chapel Hill and Carrboro and would hate to see this happen to an unsuspecting county. Chapel Hill-Carrboro system has grown faster than schools can be approved, funded, and built and faster than trailers can be moved onto the new school grounds. Chapel Hill-Carrboro has been behind the eight ball far years when it comes to this. Yes, we have some new schools and we also have some of the oldest schools in the County. We have children in facilities that need to be upgraded, and we have children in trailers. The district tax was necessary just to bring the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system to this level, and hopefully be able to improve upon it as necessary. We have voted to pass the school bands time after time irregardless of which school system gets what because we value education, plain and simple. My husband and I chose to live within Chapel Hill town limits, to pay the housing premium, the higher tax rates, the additional school tax, as we felt this all a necessary sacrifice to ensure a high level of public education for our children. My kids have been redistricted twice and are now in private schools, yet another sacrifice. I had every intention of bringing both children back into the public schaol for high school as our neighborhood is literally right next door to East Chapel Hill High School. However, if the merger were approved, according to the Board of County Commissioners, we would be targeted for yet another redistricting. "Students moved would mostly be in the northern quarter of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school district that includes the areas along and to the north of Dairyland Road, Homestead Road, and the Weaver Dairy area." It is completely nonsensical to target students who have a school right in their awn backyard to redistricting. It is statements and possibilities such as this that have Chapel Hill-Carrboro parents panicked and angry. These two schaol systems have always existed side by side. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school did not secede from the County system taking with it all of its assets. If the County system has indeed not received the funding and staff and facilities it's requested and needed, then why have the County Commissioners been voted in term after term? Why are fingers being pointed at Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents with anger and bitterness? Why are you not held accountable for not following through with the merger study recommendations of equitable funding and collaboration? Why are you not asked why you have never put forth a district tax referendum? What have you done far all these years to equalize the school systems? You are the people that should be held responsible, and pressed for answers and solutions. Merger is not the panacea for all of our problems, both Chapel Hill-Carrboro and County systems. It will hold only logistical chaos. Sam Brooks: A lot has been said about this not being a democratic process and I want to stress that I feel very strongly that you are following all the democratic processes, beginning with those that are approved by the North Carolina General Assembly decades ago, making the decision to halt the establishment of any new administrative units, which are school districts, within counties. Year by year, decade by decade, many counties have faced this issue. The primary reasons far merger, according to Steven Scroggs of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system, is either money or race. And obviously, in Orange County's case, it's a matter of money. Many school districts have successfully merged. There are now only 117 administrative units in our 100 counties. And because a couple of those counties have more than two districts, it means that there's about 13 counties left that still have more than one. In the case of Durham, where we've seen merger, it was played out in the newspapers far over a decade, and a lot of that rhetoric caused the problems that made it difficult for Durham residents to successfully and smoothly make a change. While that process was difficult, that difficulty was brought about as a result of the rigormortis that set in as a result of the inflamed rhetoric. One of these fears is the one of redistricting, which we've heard a lot about just this evening. And it comes from many of our newer residents. A lot of these residents I've worked with as they've moved to this community and I've helped them become established in the City ar out in the County. And I feel that those who have made the most successful moves from states and Gauntries far away from here are those who've looked upon it as a positive experience and one where they've made a good decision. And I'm hoping that they will continue to have those sorts of feelings. It is too late for Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County residents to be leaders in the merger process across our state. It is not too late for our leadership and the residents of our community to take a leadership position in making it a smooth and positive experience for all of our children and all our residents, acting in a way that shows a desire an the part of everyone to provide for all of our children a great experience. I am very proud to know Moses Carey and to appreciate the courageousness that this step took far him as well as for the remainder of the Board to move forward an this and help the people of this community learn about this process. I encourage you to continue your steadfastness and your courage and to vote for merger. Thank you. Rick Kennedy: My name is Rick Kennedy. I have three girls in Orange County schools. And I just want to step back far a minute and say again that if you want a good example of what happens when you blow past staunch citizen opposition, you are sitting in one. The bond for this school was voted down two to one in Orange County Schaal district. But when you look for people now that say that this was a mistake, you're going to be hard pressed to find many people like that because they know this was the right thing to do. When you look back and see where would we be if we didn't have this school; we have 940 students in this school today. The money we put into our schools make the foundation upon which our children build their futures; it's for our community, it's for our nation. And you can only neglect it for so long and then it all comes crashing down. It may not be there now, but we can get there. And people again and again say that we don't need to invest in schools, and they are wrong. When they compare us to the rest of North Carolina, they're missing the big picture, because our competition does not stop at State borders. It's not nationwide, it's worldwide. You ask one of the 60- tobacco farmers left in Orange County what happened. It wasn't Halifax County, it's worldwide competition. You ask the mill workers what happened, it's worldwide competition. My favorite example, the New York Yankees. The quintessential American sport and American team. Forty-four percent of their players are foreign barn. We face worldwide competition, and we prepare our children as best as we can. It's not education; it's preparation for the competition for the challenges that they will always face. When it comes to the questions that people from Chapel Hill ask, there are two types of questions -the ones that are to clarify, and those you respect when you answer, you try and calm the fears of parents that worry about what's going to happen to their children. And the other type of question is only to obstruct and obscure, to harass and to delay, until the five Commissioners will do what they want. The answer you give them will not matter. It will not change their opinion about merger. And for those questions, you can just keep moving on. You give them an answer and they'll give you half the distance to your goal. The next question, the next answer, half the distance to your goal. And you have the appearance of progress. You will get closer and closer but smaller and smaller steps until you will never get there. And we need to get there. It matters for our kids, for the thousands of kids in Orange County schools that don't have the opportunities, that aren't going to be prepared like they need to be prepared. There are no small steps in great affairs. Merger is a step we need to take to get where we want to go. When we educate, we prepare all of our children, not just same. Dana Thompson: Good evening, and thank you for your patience. My name is Dana Thompson. I have three children in the County district. Money is not the key issue tonight. The central issue is equity. And the mare we study the status quo, the grasser the inequity we find. Last week, new school information was released. And what captured the attention of the newspapers and residents in Chapel Hill was the number of City students who might attend a County school. But what has gone ignored and unreported are the nearly 3,500 students who live in or near poverty in our County. Where is the compassion, where is the equity, when the thought of affluent City students someday attending County schools raises a fiercer outcry than the state of want and neglect that 3,500 of our students live in every day, right now? These children are not invisible. The numbers are right here in front of us - if you can't see them, it's because you choose to ignore them. The inequity is not just in the economic segregation between the two school districts, but also in how our two systems are funded. Chapel Hill's outcry is that bigger is not better. Really? The bigger City district with the bigger growth rate comes away with a bigger and bigger chunk of the budget pie every year. And to paraphrase Dr. Seuss, it appears that Chapel Hill is "figgerin' on biggerin' and biggerin"' far years to come. Seventeen thousand is too many far a merged school district? Well, that's the number that the City district will be approaching years from now anyway. And who will pay for all this biggerin'? Why, the County residents will pay for the new schools in the City district, although we will never be allowed to use them. One hundred million is what the City district is asking for, and it's also asking for County residents to foot the bill through bands. This inequity permeates our community. We've been told recently that Chapel Hill is aself-contained, self-reliant community. Funny thing, though, is that the City depends an its rural neighbors far its most precious natural resource -water. You can't grow and you can't thrive without it. OWASA has seized thousands of acres in rural Orange to create Cane Creek reservoir. Property owners have lost their land or their right to use their land, millions of dollars of property have been lost from the County tax base, and residents in the area cannot even draw water from this source. Rural residents are charged with protecting the watershed for their City neighbors. The inequity is clear: the County bears the cast while the City receives the benefits. In the late 80's, the County oversaw a groundbreaking study that destroyed many misconceptions. And I'm not talking about the merger study of '86. I'm talking about the tax equity study of '89. In that year, the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and Orange County funded a study that was performed by UNC's Institute of Government. It found that rural residents subsidize City residents. That's right. For every $1.00 that a rural resident pays in taxes they receive only 86 cents back in services. But for every $1.00 that a resident in Chapel Hill pays, they receive $1.10 in County services. The time has come for neighborliness to be a two-way street. If we're going to share the bill, we've got to be invited to the banquet. And I say this Thanksgiving, let's break with tradition, and let the children be at the head of the line. Let's fix the inequities in our County, and let's start with the schools. Vicki Hill: Someone said earlier, I didn't like this, separate, but unequal. And I asked what that means last week at the hearing. And what it means, what I was told it means is unity, we want to be one community, and we don't want to be separate. Cannot we all unite as one community and tailor a plan that meets the needs of the children of our future? A plan fairly funded without weakening one district over the other? Your leadership has demonstrated courage and innovation. Thanks to your generous support and the resourcefulness of our educators everywhere, our students in both districts are reaching new highs, but challenges remain. We have diverse student populations in our schools. Chapel Hill has students of 50 languages and offers various language programs. In Orange County, the Hispanic population is growing, but only one elementary school has a Spanish teacher, and the request for six teachers has been denied. Statistics show that non-English speaking students drop out before ninth grade. What happens to them? It's not fair to them, nor is it fair to our students who miss out on the enrichment of being in culturally diverse schools. We want to see Spanish and French teachers in our elementary schools and not have students wait until seventh grade to access a class that teaches Spanish and French as a language. Highly experienced teachers in Orange County schools are nearing retirement, opening doors to entry-level teachers. Entry-level salaries in Orange County schools are not competitive with adjacent school districts, so hiring and retaining the educators will be a challenge, costing more in the long run. We want to see funding disparity fixed. Orange County schools have not had a funding increase in the past four years. We've built two schools but did not add maintenance staff at the district level. There is one person who drives the bush hog to maintain the fields and grounds for 11 schools in this district. A separate district tax -will it be permanent or challenged in an election year? It won't be enough to accommodate growth or replace buildings older than 50 years. But wait, the population of Orange County has about the same number of school children as it does seniors. Of what benefit is this discussion to people who have no children in school? I suggest this scene of the future -wake up to the radio, the DJ went to the year round Hillsborough Elementary where students wrote and produced the morning news every day. On the drive out of town, you pull your transporter into a central station for recharging. The computer mainframe operator attended Estes Hills. Next stop, a specialty store with gifts, flowers, books, and your favorite coffee. Greet the owners, both graduates of Orange and Chapel Hill High. The last stop, a quiet setting in what ten years ago was thought to be a dividing line across the County. There sits aone-story residence with a second story porch where many people are seen sitting and enjoying the view and making ice cream. Designed by high school students in a joint project among all the high schools, your son and daughter were part of the design team. Entered to be led down a corridor by a robot modeled after a robot built in 2002 and taken to national competition by high school students from Orange and Cedar Ridge. You see other robots cleaning the rooms - a nurse, nurse's aide, doctor -graduates from the oldest elementary school. Checkout medication for a patient. A light is on in the next room and you enter. Hi mom, I'm ready to join you in your water aerobics. On the way, I'll tell you what the kids did in school this week. The children are everyone's future. I urge you to move forward for fair funding. Kristine Stolakis: I'm Kristine Stolakis. I'm a 15-year old student from Chapel Hill High School. I would just like to bring up that I'm the second student to talk tonight, which I think is really sad because this issue that you're talking about, the most people it affects is the students and no one is here to represent me. Right now I think I see one other student here, who I know, who happens to be my best friend, and she's here because we're giving her a ride home. Sa the fact that this decision is irreversible and that so many questions are left unanswered really bugs me. I'm an active member of student government and I've had so many kids come up to me and ask me what happens to our cultural arts and our AP programs and am I going to be bussed to a high school like 50 miles away. All the questions that you list up there and say you don't have answers to. And I'm going to go back to my school with no more answers and that really bothers me. You guys talk about how the students are real important in this and you want us to be active in politics. That's all I've heard about since I was little, you know, involve yourself in the community and politics. And I can only involve myself so much, but you have to meet me to halfway. And I'm relatively into this and people that aren't, aren't hearing anything at all. My friend works at a place with a lot of Orange County kids, and a lot of them barely know about the merger. And I think that you need to consider this before you ga and make this decision that's going to affect everyone and everyone doesn't really know what's going on. Thank you for your time. Lisa Stolakis: Just briefly, I just want to say I'm speaking here only on behalf of myself as a parent. I've lived in three school systems. The first system had 2,000 kids, the second school system had 70,000 kids, and then here. And when we moved here a few years back we did look at the larger school systems and I must say that there were pros and cons, but from the deepest depths of my soul at midnight here, I will tell you that it is better in the long run to keep smaller school systems. I've lived in three; I've been a very active volunteer in all three. In the professional side of my life I was a community health educator far aver 15 years, and I've probably taught in more schools than I can remember and in every setting that one can imagine. And I will tell you that in all my years of teaching, in all my years of coordinating health programs, as late as this is, I will say that Mr. Carey, I have a high respect for your desire for equality, I really feel exactly the same way. I used to write grants and try to provide programs equally across the board in my previous life. But for all the years I spent teaching, there's two things I know to be true in heart. The first thing is it's not just about the money, it's about neighborhood schools, going to school where you live, living where you to go school, volunteerism, parental input, supporting teachers and staff, and just being part of the community and neighborhood school system. And the second point I want to make is that I taught I couldn't tell you how many kids. The bottom line, tired children don't learn, no matter how great the program is. If you increase transportation time of kids, it just adds to their fatigue. As it is now, they don't get enough sleep, and we all know that. So I think you really have to seriously look at adding transportation time for the kids. And that to me is really the biggest concern that I think a lot of parents have. I know it's midnight, but if I was to pick one thing that I think is a big concern, it's the lack of knowledge and the lack of being able to answer the question, "How far will my child have to ride the bus". That's what it comes down to for a lot of folks and, "Where will my child end up". I think those are really important questions that you answer before we seriously jump ahead. And I really appreciate you staying tonight and I appreciate all the people in the audience staying tonight. Thank you very much for your time. Atul Peres da Silva: Good evening, my name is Atul Peres da Silva, and I'm a dad from Chapel Hill. Two points I have and I'll try to keep them brief. The first point - I was born and brought up in probably one of the poorest countries in the world. My mom and dad struggled to put food on the table. But the one thing that my mom and dad always insisted was to have a good education. And to me, having money is not the answer. It's family, it's community, it's friends, and it's hard work. That's what counts. You can have all the money in the world and you can have the worst students. Money is not going to buy you education. To me the biggest crime that we have committed is we have not addressed the question of equity in funding. We are trying to answer one question with another issue. Please salve the question of equity in funding, but don't make merger the issue. That's not the issue. The issue is if you are interested inequity in funding, resolve it by all means. There is a lot of uncertainty out there, and by trying to answer one question by raising another problem, you're fooling yourselves. You are five very intelligent people. I think you can make the choice and figure out what's important. Point number two - I live in the northern corridor, and I can pretty much assume that all five of you don't have children that are age five or six. If you do, I'm amazed. Hopefully you don't. So I'm going to start by asking all five of you to close your eyes and to pretend it's 2005, middle of August, and all five of you are still in office, and eve of you have made the decision last year in 2004 to go through with the merger. Tomorrow morning is the start of the new school year, and each of you has asix-year- old child. Close your eyes and think of going to your child and saying, "Honey, tomorrow you've gotta get up and go to school and we're so excited because you're six years old and you've just finished kindergarten and you're going to first grade." And they look at you and you say, "But you know what? You've got to get up 45 minutes earlier." And they look at you and they say, "But why mommy, why daddy, why do we have to get up so much earlier?" "Well, because I made the decision, you're going to have to drive longer." And they look at you with tears in their eyes and they say, "But why mommy, why daddy? Why did you make us have to drive so much further?" I want you to think of that when you make your decision. Don't think of your political career, don't think of where you are today, and don't think of where you are tomorrow. But think of the future and think of the children, because they are the future and they will decide where we go in the future. Jim Henniger: My name is Jim Henniger. Can we just promise we're not going to bus? No bussing. Now we've got a whole another conversation going. My grandfather came to Chapel Hill in the 1920's and bought the dry goods stare on Franklin Street. It became the Andrews Henniger store. My father grew up in the Chapel Hill school system, graduated from Chapel Hill High when it was aver where the dental school is. So I've been through three mergers now, this is my third. I'm getting to be kind of an expert. My first one was in the 60's; it was a court ordered merger. I was living in Durham. My oldest son went through the merger there. There are a lot of commonalities going on and one of those is emotion. We've all seen that. Another one is, in each case you have a majority that empowered and is happy with the system the way it is, but they don't understand that the status quo is causing the problem for the minority. It's an unintentional consequence. In this case, we have an unintentional consequence of something that was passed in 1908, before my grandfather's time. It was a time before women had to vote. It was a time of Jim Crow America. It was a time in which it was perceived that the educational needs for boys and girls were different. African Americans and Whites were different. And that for county and city schools, or village at the time, were different. Well, you know, Chapel Hill is not a village any longer. There is very few of us who would actually say that educational demands on our children are any different from each other. They are the same. I think the first thing that we have to do. I've heard a lot of great ideas. I think the first thing we've got to do is kill that old district tax. Where do we move from there? I was just looking at assets this community has got -two great school systems, great teachers. My daughter goes to school at New Hope. She thinks her teacher is the best in the world. I agree, she's here. What I want to suggest is this, that we take our assets that we have in this community, and we've got the University sitting over there, which we haven't talked about tonight, we've got a school of government, we've got a school of education, and we've got a lot of really passionate parents, which we've seen tonight. And let's put them all to work and see what we can come up with. But first let's take care of the equity in funding, and then we've got a little time to work with. Let's put our assets to work far us and dream what we can have and not what we can do to each other. Thank you. Keith Caak: I'm Keith Cook; I'm a member of the Orange County school board. And I think I'm well versed in budgets, and funding issues, and student achievement, and the many issues that the school community goes through everyday. And I do know that our school districts have mare in common than we have differences. Our elementary programs are quite similar in offerings, in content, and both use research-based approaches to teaching. On the secondary level, both districts have challenging and diverse offerings for students including many opportunities for post-secondary credits. More advanced placement options in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, but fast-forward in Orange with international baccalaureate to be implemented soon. Both districts offer community college credits as well as diverse choices in career and technical education. And both make industries certification possible in a number of areas such as web design and XP. Both systems have active student organizations at the local, regional, state, and national levels, and both offer a wide variety of athletic options. Both of our school systems are recognized as leaders in the State in the innovative use of technology as a tool for instruction, assessment, and communication. Special education and English as a second language, elementary, and middle after school programs, pre-kindergarten, reading recovery, accelerated reading, alternative education programs, web academy, and nova net instructions are all important elements in the learning environments in both of our school districts. Our school district is not broke. It's not broke at all. And all we need is some additional money. It doesn't take merger to do that. What it takes is some additional monies. One of the suggestions that is on the table is the district tax for our school district. I firmly believe that Orange County schools can make it an a district tax of ten cents. I don't know that we need to have the exact same amount of money that Chapel Hill school system gets because we don't have as many students as they do. And before we even go into the fact that there is a district tax, Chapel Hill already gets $10 million more than Orange County schools does every year anyway because they get more students. There are 4,000 more students than we get, so automatically, last year's budget, they got $27 million, we got $17 million. They get that automatically because they have the children. It's not just the district tax that does it; it's the fact that they get more children. Are there some things we need to work on? Sure there are, and you've heard parents talk about them all evening. We've talked about educational opportunities and we've been working hard at getting Spanish teachers in our schools. We've been working at reading recovery and we know that the reason why we can't keep up with some of the teacher's pay is that all we need to do is take care of our supplemental pay. And we're trying to explore areas and opportunities. We can do that with a district tax. And a district tax will solve our challenges. Orange County schools are not broke. We do a lot of good things. So if we start at zero, without having any additional funds at all, there is no way in my mind that I think we could spend six million dollars on the programs we need to raise the student achievement in our district. But what we do need to put in place is to be able to use a strategic plan that we have never been able to do, because it's hard to make a plan when you don't have any money at the end of trying to put the plan together. It's very easy. It's awin-win situation for our students, our community, and for our schools for us to have an additional tax. Our citizens need to have opportunity to have a vote on that. Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district have voted on that all along, because they vote it in there by moving to that school district. They understand that when they ga there, there's a 20-cent district tax that they have to live with when they move there. Our school district has never had an opportunity to have that vote, but we should have that before we move any further. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to adjourn at 12:20a.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Margaret Brown, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board