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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20060425APPROVED 6/27/2006 MINUTES WORK SESSION Orange County Commissioners Orange County Board Of Education Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education April 25, 2006 7:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a joint session with the Chapel Hill- Carrboro Board of Education and the Orange County Board of Education on Tuesday, April 25, 2046 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, and Stephen Halkiotis COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill and Sean Borhanian COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Rod Visser, and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Randy Copeland, Vice-Chair AI Hartkopf, and Board Members Libbie Hough, Elizabeth Brown, and Dennis Whitling. Superintendent Shirley Carraway was also present. ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS ABSENT: Delores Simpson and Brenda Stephens CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO CITY SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Lisa Stuckey, Vice Chair Jamezetta Bedford, and Board Members Jean Hamilton, Pam Hemminger, and Mike Kelley. Superintendent Neil Pedersen was also present. CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO CITY SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS ABSENT: Edward Sechrist Chair Jacobs said that Commissioner Carey would be late due to an OPC Mental Health meeting tonight. He recognized three OCS board candidates -Susan Hallman, Tony McKnight, and Debbie Piscitelli. Lisa Stuckey said that the chairs are acting jointly tonight, which is different from the meetings in the past. She recognized her board members. Randy Copeland recognized his board members. He also recognized Ted Triebel, another OCS board candidate. Chair Jacobs noted that this would be John Link's last joint meeting with the two school boards. Chair Jacobs thanked Randy Copeland and Libbie Haugh, who will be going off the OCS board. Chair Jacobs said that they have used the school collaboration meetings to drive these joint meetings these past two years. Andy Sachs from the Dispute Settlement Center has been moderating the meetings. Tonight the chairs are sharing the head table as equals, which speaks to the accomplishments of the school collaboration efforts. CountylOCSICHCCS Matters a. SchoollCounty Collaboration Process Chair Jacobs asked Rod Visser and John Link to bring them up to speed. The main charge the group received was to revisit school construction standards, and at one of their meetings they found that the square footage price has gone up 50°~ from 2003-2005. Rad Visser said that there have been three meetings of the school collaboration group in 2006. School construction standards have been the major topic of discussion. The first meeting in February was an overview of the school construction standards. The group decided that it would be useful to get some additional information from other entities that have insights into school construction guidelines and also some information regarding collaborative use of facilities, etc. At the March 20`" meeting, several people came in and spoke on school construction guidelines, what other jurisdictions are doing, and what the State has to say about the guidelines. At the April meeting, they talked about sustainability issues and they talked about joint use of facilities now and what might be needed in the future. Chair Jacobs made reference to two other attachments -attachments 6 and 7 -that this group has not discussed and if the three boards want them to include this at their next meeting, then they can. The plan is to have at least a draft adjusted standards for the joint meeting in the fall. Libbie Hough said that, with an eye to the future and the possibility of a bond referendum, OCS is set for new construction for the next 10 years. She said that she is curious as to what would be in the bond referendum for OCS as it relates to schools. She said that people in the OCS would need to have something to vote for. Chair Jacobs said that they are about a year away from having the debt capacity to entertain discussions of a bond, but the County Commissioners need to start talking about it maybe as early as the beginning of next year. Libbie Hough encouraged the County Commissioners to please think of what the OCS citizens would get out of this as it relates to 5Ch0015. Chair Jacobs said that they might also entertain the idea of haw the standards would apply to retrofitting schools. Dennis Whitling asked if there was a timetable far completing the construction standards. Chair Jacobs said that when they got the charge from last year, they did not want it to drag out too long, but they are looking at possibilities. Dennis Whitling said that he thinks it should be faster and that there are other more pressing issues that should be addressed. He said that both school systems have had presentations on the First School concept. However, the OCS board did not find out about the concept until they read about it in the paper. He thinks that this should have been brought to the table as a passible collaboration item. He said that they need to look at programmatic issues as well as school construction standards. Commissioner Halkiatis said that he and Chair Jacobs were asked to meet with Superintendent Pedersen and CHCCS board members, with some representatives from Frank Porter Graham, who have made presentations to the CHCCS board. He said that Chair Jacobs suggested that the Frank Porter Graham representatives talk with the OCS board about presenting the First Schaal concept to their board. Liz Brown agreed with Dennis Whitling and suggested that school construction standards could be done by a consultant and they could focus on funding and programmatic issues. Otherwise, there is no point in OCS continuing with collaboration. Commissioner Gordan arrived at 8:00 p.m. Mike Kelly asked if the OCS board would like to subscribe to the CHCCS newsletter and Liz Brown said yes. AI Hartkopf said that in the past, the collaboration group has came up with good items for discussion in areas of funding, usage of facilities, and being a better community citizen. He feels very positive about the collaboration efforts. Randy Copeland said that in his mind the school collaboration group has discussed school construction standards a lot and they do not seem to know what they are talking about half the time and they turn it over to the staff anyway. He said that a lot of things covered in collaboration meetings are covered in joint staff meetings. He said that they need to let staff have more leeway as to what they want to see done and then bring it back to the boards. He said that he has proposed having more joint meetings between the two school boards before the board changes the first of July. Chair Jacobs said that there was a list of topics that they wanted the collaboration group to work on, and it was set out at the beginning. Page 3 has the accomplishments in 2004. His sense of the school construction standards is that they are at a point now where they can ask staff to take the information and come back with proposals. There are policy decisions that need to be worked out such as shared recreation spaces to be built into the school construction standards. There have been chronic points of contention in the community regarding this. Libbie Hough said that she did not attend the last collaboration meeting but she did talk to Superintendent Carraway about the meeting and she seems to remember that there also needs to be a discussion about equity. She said that they need to move mare quickly on developing the definition of school equity and what it means to both school boards. She said that one of the reasons she supported discussion of construction standards was to address equity via construction standards. She thinks that the group accomplished all ten items that the two boards generated, but she is still not seeing a working definition of equity and the funding gap being addressed in a substantive manner. She wants to see a commitment to addressing how education is funded in this County. Lisa Stuckey said that she does not recall the collaboration group taking school equity on as a charge. She knows that it was proposed. She said that they talked about pages 2-3, which was the list of things they were charged to do. She said that they talked about collaborating with after-school programs, having more preschool programs in the County, and the First School initiative is something they {CHCCS) are pursuing slowly. She said that this group was not asked to solve the equity problem. Chair Jacobs said that the school collaboration group did spend a considerable amount of time talking about a new paradigm about equity, but they were not given this as a charge. He said that the Chairs and Vice-Chairs talked about funding outside the per pupil and they agreed to keep looking at the idea perhaps for health and safety positions in an equal way to each district. He said that the collaboration group could do whatever the three boards tell it to do, but he does not think that school equity is the charge at this point. Commissioner Gordon said that she thinks that the group may have not been given the charge of school equity. She said that the paint is, haw it will be done. If it is not the responsibility of the school boards nor the collaboration group, then the County Commissioners have to do it, but they want to be in partnership with the school boards. She said that we all need to be rededicate ourselves to this effort. We need to have a plan far defining equity on which we can all agree. She would define it as fairness. She said that we should have a meeting to discuss just school equity and what fair funding is, what the goals are, and how we are going to achieve them. One possibility that has been discussed is whether we should slowly raise the countywide tax and slowly lower the district tax and hold CHCCS harmless. What do the school boards think about that approach. Lisa Stuckey said that she is hearing a lot of discontent about the process. She said that she and Commissioner Gordon served on the Schools Facilities Task Force years ago and there have not been any meaningful school construction standards. She thinks that this needs to be in place and that the school collaboration group has made a lot of progress in moving towards it. She would not like to abandon this work at this point. Randy Copeland said that the OCS board was frustrated because Gravelly Hill's funding had to be cut based on what the CHCCS middle school got three years ago. They were not able to get water containment, day lighting, solar capability, etc. He said that a lot of people in the rural part of the County would take the typical "box" school as long as it was safe, clean, and as long as it had good staff, and they would be happy with it, but the constituents in Chapel Hill would never stand for that. He said that he does not think they will ever see both school systems getting the same, but if OCS was funded at the level of CHCCS, they would have money running out their ears and nowhere to spend it. He said that there are two different groups in the County and he does not believe that there will ever be equity far everybody, because there will always be a group that is not happy. Commissioner Gordon said that if you fully fund the OCS budget, the amount is a lot different from the amount needed to make the budgets equal. Fully funding the OCS budget would be about 4 cents on the tax rate, but equal would be about 17 cents, depending on the year. She said that the reason you need to have a plan is that the OCS board would have to say what it thinks is reasonable in terms of a target. She said that all three boards need to discuss this. She said that she has never heard the CHCCS board say anything negative about the OCS being funded as long as CHCCS is held harmless. All three boards need to reach an agreement an equity. Chair Jacobs said that he has heard the question of whether the school collaboration meetings are of any value to the OCS, some interest in finishing the school construction standards, some question about whether the school construction standards can be applied equally, some difference of opinion about whether the issue of equity should be discussed at the collaboration group meetings ar discussed by all three full boards. He said that it seems that they could finish the school construction standards and then possibly the school collaboration group could tackle programming ar equity. Dennis Whitling said that he agreed with Commissioner Gordon that the CHCCS parents at public hearings on the budget do support funds for OCS. He also agrees with the paint that all three full boards need to get together to talk about funding in a 2-3 hour setting. He suggested dealing with programmatic issues within the callabaration group. The new paradigm items could also be part of the overall discussion. He said that August ar September should be the time to discuss this, but that does not mean that something could not be done this budget cycle in dealing with the equity situation. He said that something different needs to be done. Commissioner Foushee agreed with Commissioner Gordon and Dennis Whitling and said that she had hoped that this equity issue could have been resolved by now. She said that it is incumbent upon them that some group - either a subset of all three boards ar the collaboration group -begin some type of discussion to bring back to this full body an outline on how to proceed with fair funding as opposed to equity. She said that they need to move beyond talk and emotion. They all agree that there is a way. She hopes that they can identify a group to take this on before the fall. John Link offered that if the three governing bodies do discuss equity, then they need to look at the numbers and how they affect all citizens. Both boards have asked for an increase this year. He pointed out that they would have to talk about specifics. He said that if there were some other revenue source besides property tax, it would probably generate some money that would go a long way toward the issue of equity. Mike Kelly agreed that equity should be discussed between the three full boards. He asked the Board of County Commissioners, that during the budget cycle, that it send a clear message to all why they make the decisions they make with the budget, especially the school budgets. AI Hartkopf said that there is a reality here that you cannot escape -the district tax referendum for OCS did not pass. He said that if you raise the ad valorem tax rate and lower the district tax, the net of that is that the Orange County people that voted against the district tax in the County will still be paying the same amount of money. He said that this is not representative government. He thinks that they are smart enough people to come up with another way. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has been around for four bond referenda and it was the people in the southern end of the County that carried the day for the children in the northern end of the County when it came to school capital facilities. He said that progressive people in central and northern Orange County voted for the bonds, but they were outvoted by those who were against the bonds. There were even school board members putting up "na bond" signs. This is not progressive. He knew that the OCS district tax would not pass, but the people had the right to speak. He said that he would like to see the school boards have taxing authority. He would be more than willing to meet on school equity, but he will not meet on a Saturday. He said that he is not going to do anything to hurt the CHCCS for the benefit of someone else. Chair Jacobs made reference to taxing authority and said that the Board of County Commissioners wants to get through this budget cycle before they take on any new issues. Chair Jacobs said that there are two proposals that he has heard: a proposal for a group of people to come up with an outline for the bigger group to discuss, or a proposal for everybody to meet as one big group. He suggested making a decision about this before moving on to the rest of the agenda. Jamezetta Bedford said that she does not want to hash out equity as a school board member and that it is a County Commissioner responsibility. She said that they will never agree on equity. Randy Copeland said that the OCS board's response to the County Commissioners when they asked about equity was basically that, if on paper you could take away the district tax and then say that they are equally funding the two districts, they have succeeded in equity. This is his personal thought. Chair Jacobs said that they are continuing to get conflicting messages. He said that what the County Commissioners heard from the two school boards several months ago was that they wanted the County Commissioners to deal with equity. He asked haw to proceed. Mike Kelly said that the position of the CHCCS board was that this decision was for the Board of County Commissioners and Lisa Stuckey said that is what they decided. AI Hartkopf said that his comments of a few months ago were reflecting the fiscal reality of the Board of County Commissioners this year, and throwing equity on top of that is a recipe for a bad outcome. He said that the OCS board said that the decision is up to the Board of County Commissioners. He said that this year the OCS has a strong needs list sa they need to deal with that, but it is still the Board of County Commissioners' ball. Liz Brown said that she thought that Commissioner Gordon was going in the direction of sitting down and discussing how to fund the schools. She thinks that this is different from people sitting down to define equity. Perhaps the OCS Chair and Vice-Chair could sit down with the Board of County Commissioners and talk about equity. She is willing to talk about this sooner rather than later. b. School Funding and Budget Drivers OCS BUDGET PRESENTATION Superintendent Carraway said that as they went through budget this year, they looked at the district strategic plan, the high school reform plan, the middle school plan, and they also looked at Dr. Madeline Grumet's Excellence in Education Report. The school board presented at a public hearing on April 17t" the budget, which is attachment 8. They identified four critical factors that are driving the budget requests: 1. Dropout rate - it has increased for 2004-05 and the dropout rate is higher than the State's dropout rate. This is very serious to them. They think that this is a matter of a lack of adequate programmatic support and resources to assist them in keeping students in school. They want to continue same of the programs and expand them. 2. Student achievement -there is a decline in student performance as students transition from 5t" grade to 6t" grade. They also need to address the significant achievement gap. 3. Maintaining momentum -Over the last two years, the district has engaged the students by offering Middle College, International Baccalaureate, 6t" and 9t" grade transition programs, elementary Spanish, etc. They must continue these programs and expand these programs to meet the changing needs of the students. 4. Gravelly Hill Middle School -There are staffing needs and one-time startup costs to supply the school with supplies and materials. The OCS board is scheduled to vote on and approve the budget at the next meeting an May 15t. This budget will officially come to the Board of County Commissioners. Lisa Stuckey asked about the net increase of 19.38% and what this translates into far per pupil allocation. Superintendent Carraway said that she would get that number for her. Commissioner Halkiotis asked what OCS was asking from Orange County for start up costs for Gravelly Hill and what they were planning to pay from fund balance. Superintendent Carraway said that they have to determine how much would come from fund balance. They have a limited amount of money in the fund balance because each year they have pulled money out of it to address needs. Commissioner Halkiotis asked if OCS was asking for $2.2 million for startup costs and Superintendent Carraway said yes. Libbie Hough said that some of their fund balance they have used to address instructional needs at both existing middle schools. Stanford and 5tanback need to be brought up to the same level as Gravelly Hill. They have taken $400-500,000 out of the fund balance to address these needs, and that is not reflected in this document. Commissioner Halkiotis said that usually these requests are made more in advance. He said that this question was asked of an OCS staff member over a year ago and he told the Board of County Commissioners that the $2 million far Gravelly Hill startup casts would be coming from the fund balance. He said that they have never funded startup costs for any school in the amount of $2 million. This represents two cents on the tax rate. Randy Copeland said that two years ago they had a large fund balance and they were strongly urged by the Board of County Commissioners to spend it down because it was above the norm that was set, so they did. He said that this is the reason for the request of startup costs for Gravelly Hill. Dennis Whitling said that this is a consequence of the last three years of not doing things correctly. They could have stood still as a district, but they chose not to do this and to use the fund balance and move forward as a district. AI Hartkopf said that they continue to take the results of the Grumet report very seriously. CHCCS BUDGET PRESENTATION Superintendent Pedersen said that they have five budget drivers: 1. Salary increases -driven by the General Assembly 2. Costs associated with projected student enrollment growth - 338 students 3. Planning for the opening of Carrboro High School 4. Implementation of Seven Period Day High Schools 5. Continuation of Current Services {Inflationary increases and passed-on costs) He gave some information an the CHCCS fund balance, which is estimated at 6°fo. He said that if the County were to fully fund the OCS budget this year, then it could fully fund the CHCCS budget and probably reduce the district tax. Lisa Stuckey said that their budget calls for them to utilize $950,000 of their fund balance. She said that CHCCS is required under the statute to specifically request that funding be through the special district tax in order for it to be granted. She said that as their board has grappled with this, they have recognized the political implications, and they all feel that they do not want to unnecessarily offend people, but they are advocates for the citizens of their district. They have come to a consensus to ask that their entire increase be funded through the special district tax. They want to leave the County Commissioners with as much flexibility as possible. Liz Brawn said that the fact that another school board in the same district would even think of doing this, it shows to her that they need to discuss this and collaborate. Dennis Whitling asked about the seven-period day and if this is a one-year deal. Superintendent Pedersen said that their board approved aseven-period hybrid schedule but many courses would be blocked. Dennis Whitling asked about the district tax and using it for the entire increase and Lisa Stuckey said that their board wants to request the entire 4.7% through the district tax. Dennis Whitling agreed with Liz Brown and said that this is what the discussion that has been going on for three years is really all about. Mike Kelly said that the full discussion from their board was that they were advocating far full funding of their budget and to provide options for the County Commissioners. He said that in no way did they ask the County Commissioners to only raise the district tax. Commissioner Halkiotis asked Lisa Stuckey for clarification of the funding request. Lisa Stuckey said that in the past they have not requested special district tax funding and they have left it to the Board of County Commissioners because they were not aware of the need to request a specific amount far funding through the special district tax. She said that they are concerned about not requesting funding through the special district tax, because they do not want to tie the County Commissioners' hands. Commissioner Halkiotis said that last year was an interesting year because it was the first time in 19 years that a Commissioner voted against the budget -Commissioner Carey. He respected the vote because of the one-cent increase in the district tax. He asked far the County Attorney to present something about this in writing and the legal aspects. Commissioner Halkiotis asked Superintendent Pedersen about the fund balance and he said that they are projecting a fund balance of $2.7 million after appropriating $950,000. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to subsidies for child nutritional services and how this would be funded -through money from the County or the district tax. He said that he is opposed to this because it is not reflecting the true costs of putting meals together for children, and then they are getting some reimbursements back from the federal government for free and reduced lunch children. He asked if they were subsidizing the meals for people who can afford to pay those meals. Lisa Stuckey said that they have raised the lunch costs. Mike Kelly said that he agrees with Commissioner Halkiotis on this issue and the board has moved in that direction of increasing the price of lunches to reflect the actual costs. They are also going to try and include some Orange County produce. Commissioner Halkiotis said that people who have worked in child nutrition have been extremely poorly funded in all school systems across the State. AI Hartkopf said that he hears the plan coming out of CHCCS and he said that it puts the funding of schools in the hands of the Board of County Commissioners. He said that the County Commissioners have demonstrated an enormous amount of goodwill in funding schools. Superintendent Pedersen said that a major item that drives profitability on their food services is the number of children on free or reduced lunches. Superintendent Pederson made reference to the district tax and said that once they receive the money, they do not earmark it one way or the other, so he cannot answer whether the subsidy comes from the district tax or the property tax. Chair Jacobs asked if CHCCS was paying a living wage and Superintendent Pedersen said that they were, but they need an update from Orange County. Donna Dean-Coffey said that they are in the process of updating the living wage and Rad Visser said that it was $9.34 for 2005-06. Commissioner Halkiotis said that in 2003-04 the CHCCS fund balance went dawn to $25,513, and he asked what it really did to them. Superintendent Pedersen said that they took strong measures in spending constraints, there was an effort to get collectibles before June 30tH and they restricted encumbrances at the end of the year. Commissioner Halkiotis asked if that was the year they had to send money back to Raleigh and Superintendent Pedersen said yes. John Link made reference to the handout entitled, "Emerging Funding Considerations for County's General Fund," and the color legend. There is a split based on operating and capital and between the school increases and County increases. Section 1 was Emerging School Operating Items, which would have to be funded in one year. The first item is funding necessary to address the increase in new students. The net increase is 316 students, which represents $883,536. The numbers do not reflect an increase in per pupil. Item 3 is the increase in the County's debt for school-related buildings. This is a $3.2 million increase. Item 5 is the one-time startup funds for OCS Gravelly Hill Middle School. This does not include the ongoing startup funds, which reflects the central office personnel, the local teachers, equipment and supplies, etc. Item 6 is the operational increases far OCS Gravelly Hill Middle School. The Sheriff has indicated that, with this school and far the OCS Partnership Academy, he will need two additional School Resource Officers, which is item 7 for $130,000. Item 8 is the operational increase for Carrboro High School for $406,892. Item 9 reflects the anticipated increase in costs for the Governor's Salary increase for locally paid teachers, plus 3°~ for other personnel. The total increase for these items is $9.2 million, which is 7.71 cents on the tax rate. Section 2 represents school funding equity, section 3 represents planning money for CHCCS Elementary #10 (na number yet}, and section 4 reflects the full funding of the County Capital Funding Policy from last year. This would put in place another penny for the school capital funding. This leaves the subtotal of emerging County and school funding considerations (sections 1-4} at $10.4 million or 8.71 cents on the tax rate. Section 5 is Emerging County Operating (Non-Capital) Items Where Full Funding Could Not be Phased In Over Period of Time. John Link said that this does not include the total numbers for all of the departmental increases or any new staff positions. The County's share of the debt service would be $1.1 million. The increase in Medicaid is expected to be $370,759. Then there are operational increases for new County facility openings -Chapel Hill Senior Center, Central Orange Senior Center, Durham Technical Community College, Fairview Park, Justice Facility, Northern Park, and 5portsplex Operations. Item 36 includes the full funding of the present 4% in-range salary adjustment that the County Commissioners approved this year. Items 42-43 are the anticipated increases in health insurance. Beginning with item 45, they are anticipating addressing transfer of development rights, updating school construction impact fees technical report, telecommunications study for EMS, payment-in-lieu fee technical report update, and rental space needs for temporary relocation of court-related functions. Section 5 totals $5.3 million, which is 3.9 cents on the tax rate. Section 6 includes $900,000 for removing the hiring delay. He will probably be recommending that the hiring delay be continued in some form. The Green Tract payback must be executed at some point in the future and it is $607,375. Also included is the Orange County Rescue Squad Request and elevating the per capita funding for library services. Other items in section 6 do not have a number, but the County Commissioners have stated the importance of addressing the items. Section 7 includes the Efland/Buckhorn Community Water and Sewer, which must be completed for Gravelly Hill Middle School to open, and Orange County campus of Durham Technical Community College Green Building Initiatives. Section 8 is the increase necessary to fully implement the County's Capital Funding Policy, which is $1,200,000. The total potential impact of sections 1-8 is $20.8 million or 16.8 cents on the tax rate. He said that the revenue picture does not include $20.8 million of additional funding. Dennis Whitling said that for years they have heard the guideline of 48°~ for funding schools and he asked where this came from and if there was any discussion of changing that guideline. Rod Visser said that this was a detailed process involving elected officials. The historical context had something to do with it. It is a target and not a cap. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to the list of non-departmental agencies that the County funds that serve the students of both school systems. The total amount was close to $2 million. He asked that this list go to both school boards. He said that people need to see the additional monies that are put out to non-departmental government agencies that are providing services across both school systems to all children. Chair Jacobs said that the equity line is zero right now for the per pupil, but it will go up to some degree. He asked who would like to volunteer to be part of a small group or volunteer to organize the three boards getting together to discuss equity. Libbie Haugh asked why they would need to define equity when she defines it as fair. She thinks that they need to define how to get there. She did not vote for the district tax in Orange County because she did not think it was a fair and equitable way to address the school funding issue. She said that there is full understanding that there will be a tax increase if they get a higher funded budget. She said that they need a plan and it does not need to include the entire representation from all three boards. She said she hoped that CHCCS would want to participate, too. She suggested having two members from the Board of County Commissioners and three members from each school board and see what they can accomplish in 2-3 hours. Commissioner Gordon said that it is important that they proceed, and if everyone wants to have a smaller group, she would volunteer. Discussion ensued an the composition of the group that will meet to discuss equity. Chair Jacobs asked the Manager to talk to the two Superintendents about developing a charge. Lisa Stuckey said that she would be willing to volunteer if there were one or two meetings. Commissioner Halkiotis said that, in the interest of time, the two school boards should talk about it and see what they want to do. He suggested letting the word "fair" drive the conversation. The Board agreed. Lisa Stuckey asked the QCS Board to provide to them the per pupil increase they are requesting with the budget. Liz Brown said that they should move forward now. She proposed having two meetings before the budget public hearing. Commissioners Gordon and Foushee agreed to serve. Chair Jacobs said that he heard that it should be referred to the two school boards because they are unsure of their positions. He thinks the CHCCS needs to figure out the level of participation that it wants to take. He suggested having the school boards come back after their next meeting, and then a schedule would be set. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested that the Manager move forward with staff. Chair Jacobs said that the Superintendents and the Manager could set up two meetings and a charge. AI Hartkopf said that all seven of the C?CS Board members might need to be involved for there to be a balanced look. With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 10:13 p.m. Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board