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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19970603 I ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONER 2 BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING 3 JUNE 3, 1997 4 5 MINUTES 6 7 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, June 3, 1997 at 7:30 p.m. in OWASA 8 Community Meeting Room, Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro, North Carolina, for the purpose of holding a Public Hearing 9 on the proposed budget.. 10 11 ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair William L. Crowther, and members Margaret W. 12 Brown, Alice M. Gordon, Stephen H. Halkiotis and Moses Carey, Jr. 13 14 ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None 15 16 COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoff Gledhill 17 18 STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John Link, Deputy Clerk to the Board Kathy Baker, Assistant County 19 Managers Rod Visser and Albert Kittrell. 20 21 OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR 22 Chair Crowther convened the meeting and welcomed those gathered. 23 24 PUBLIC CHARGE 25 Chair Crowther dispensed with the reading of the Public Charge. 26 27 PRESENTATION OF BUDGET: 28 John Link presented the schedule of upcoming Budget Worksessions. He reviewed the highlights of the 29 $85,574,588 proposed budget. 30 31 QUESTIONS AND/OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: None. 32 33 The meeting was opened for public comment. 34 35 JO HARRIS, a Chapel Hill-Carrboro School employee and an Orange County citizen, requested that the full 36 amount requested by the school board be funded. In particular, she felt that the English as a Second Language 37 (ESL) and Special Education programs needed to be fully funded. The impact of the Charter Schools, the 38 anticipated need for funding reserves along with the needs of the instructional programs, send a clear message that 39 full funding is necessary. 40 41 FRED BLACK, an Orange County citizen and a member of the Chapel Hill Public Library Board of Trustees, 42 spoke in support of additional funding for the library. He thanked the Commissioners for their current level of 43 funding and discussed a proposal which would have the county fund the library based on the percentage of non- 44 Chapel Hill residents who use the library. He mentioned that Orange County's support of the library is considerably 45 lower than that of other counties in the area. A copy of his report, in its entirety, is in the permanent agenda file in 46 the Clerk's office. 47 48 CLAUDIA HASKINS, an English as a Second Language(ESL)teacher in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School 49 System, spoke in support of full funding for the school board's budget request. A copy of her comments, in their 50 entirety, are in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. 51 52 GLORIA FALEY, an Orange County resident, also spoke in support of full funding of the School Board's 53 budget request. She felt that certain requests have been waiting from years past and now is the time to fill those 54 needs. Specifically, there is a critical need for new AG teachers as well as for an alternative school. She also 55 mentioned that the ratio between teachers and students needs to be decreased and additional money will be 56 necessary in order for that to happen. 57 58 LOUIS D'ADDANO, an Orange County resident and member of the school system's Transportation 59 Advisory Committee, spoke in support of full funding for the Chapel Hill school system budget request. In particular, 60 he mentioned that the needs of the transportation department are critical. 2 1 2 TERESA WILLIAMS, an Orange County resident and Chapel Hill Carrboro school system employee, spoke 3 in support of fully funding the school system's budget request. She mentioned the success that the Achievement 4 Via Individual Determination (AVID) program has had this past year. That program will be cut if funds are not 5 available. 6 7 DIANE JACKSON, President of the Federation of Teachers, spoke in support of fully funding the School 8 System's budget request. She felt the budget request emphasizes programs that will directly impact students. She 9 spoke of the need for more school nurses, science specialists and staff development opportunities. A copy of her 10 comments, in their entirety, are in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. 11 12 RALPH KARPINOS, PTSA Culbruth Middle School president, spoke in support of fully funding the school 13 system's budget request. He agreed that the resources mentioned by other speakers were, in fact, necessary for 14 the education of our students. A copy of his comments, in their entirety, are in the permanent agenda file in the 15 Clerk's office. 16 17 CHARLES FINLEY spoke in support of fully funding the science programs. There is a need for a 1/2 time 18 science teacher as well as an elementary science teacher. These science programs are very important enrichment 19 programs. He mentioned that he felt that these programs need to be made permanent. 20 21 MARY GRAY LEONARD, the media specialist at the high school, spoke in support of fully funding the 22 school's budget request. As an example of important services that would be dropped at the County Manager's 23 suggested funding level, she mentioned that media specialists would not be funded for the additional two weeks 24 after school officially ends. The additional funding would allow the media centers to open on time, stay open the 25 entire year as well as offer additional services during the school year. 26 27 LINDA CARVER, a member of the Federation of Teachers for the Orange County school system, thanked 28 the Board of Commissioners for their funding of the Orange County Schools. She also requested that the Chapel 29 Hill School System be fully funded so that they are better able to meet the needs of their students. 30 31 ED BEDFORD, an Orange County resident, member of the Ephesus School PTA and the Autism 32 Organization, spoke in support of fully funding the schools budget request. Children with disabilities need for this 33 money so that their educational needs can be adequately addressed. He mentioned that if the funding is not 34 increased, they will need to make additional cuts simply to meeting the increased utility expenses. 35 36 ADAM LEVINSON, a therapist with KIDSCOPE, thanked the Board of Commissioners of their past funding 37 support. He spoke in support of the increased KIDSCOPE funding request. The program works to provide 38 specialized care for children aged one to five. These children have no other source of help available to them. 39 40 FLORA DUNBAR, a staff psychologist for the KIDSCOPE program, explained why this need exists in this 41 young population. She pointed out that there is a brief window of opportunity to provide this professional help and 42 the children on the waiting list are swiftly moving through that window. These behaviors are treatable at this age 43 and untreated that are a precursor to later violent and depressive behavior. 44 45 JEAN WAKEFIELD, a day care provide with the WEE CARE Day Care Center, indicated that she service 46 children funded through Smart Start and frequently calls upon KIDSCOPE to work with the children at WEE CARE. 47 She pointed out that these children, and their families need this help and KIDSCOPE is the only resource available 48 to most of them. 49 50 DEBORAH VANDYKEN, an domestic and family law attorney, spoke in support of the KIDSCOPE program. 51 This is the only free program in the County offering support to both the children and parents. They are in desperate 52 need of this program. She requested that funding be increased. 53 54 SUSAN MC CLANAHAN, spoke in support of increasing the funding for the KIDSCOPE program. She 55 mentioned that the family transition learning classroom is the only one of its kind in the County. This classroom 56 serves DSS children only and they are all children will special and pressing needs. 57 3 1 NANCY BERGON, a UNC Child Psychiatrist, spoke in support of increased funding for the KIDSCOPE 2 program. KIDSCOPE is the only program that provides a comprehensive set of treatments for children under six(6) 3 years old. Another extremely important outcome of this program is that it allows these children to remain in day 4 care. KIDSCOPE actually sends staff out to the day care to observe the child's behavior and then work with the 5 child, staff and parents to enable the child to resolve those conflicts in a way that allows them to experience success 6 within the classroom. 7 8 HEIDI SHIELDS, a Headstart staff person, spoke in support of increased funding for this program. 9 Headstart also depends on KIDSCOPE to work with children with behavioral problems so that they can remain in 10 the program and succeed. 11 12 ANN HERSCHEL, Director of the University Presbyterian preschool, spoke in support of KIDSCOPE 13 program. KIDSCOPE's special classroom is housed at the University Presbyterian Church. She mentioned that 14 she has worked with the Orange County Prison Advisory Commission and she has seen the result of not 15 intervening. KIDSCOPE is the most effective program that she has seen. 16 17 LIZ RUPP, a therapist, clinical social worker and former KIDSCOPE employee, spoke in support of funding 18 this program. She talked about one of this program success stories. A young child who was abused repeatedly 19 prior to his 2nd birthday. He was silent and angry. After two years of teamwork by grandparents, speech therapist, 20 and a psychologist his is a happy, outgoing, successful child. 21 22 MARK HAMILTON, Chapel Hill High School Counselor, spoke in support of full funding for the school 23 system's budget request. Public schools are under attack and cannot afford to fall further behind in their efforts to 24 meet the needs of their students. Citizens want quality schools and are willing to pay for them. 25 26 FODE WRIGHT, a member of the Friends of the Chapel Hill Senior Center, spoke in support of funding the 27 Capital Improvements requested for the Senior Centers. She urged the money be designated for permanent 28 ownership of the Chapel Hill facility, or for the purchase of a new facility. 29 30 PATTY HILL, a member of the Chapel Hill High School PTSA endorsed the budget request and asked the 31 Board of Commissioners to fully fund the school systems request. 32 33 HARRY GOLDSTEIN, a member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board and a parent with children in that 34 system, stated that the Orange County School System is able to be fully funded only because they were are able to 35 allocate 1.2 Million Dollars from their fund balance. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System is only able to allocate 36 $100,000 from their fund balance because they have recently spent 2.8 Million in fund balance to help pay for the 37 startup costs of three new schools. He suggested that the Board of Commissioners use the latest enrollment 38 projections from the State because they are consistent with the actual figures. A 2.5. cent increase in the district tax 39 would cover that figure. 40 41 SHERRY ANSCHER, a parent and co-President of the Autism Society, requested that the Board of 42 Commissioners fully fund the schools budget request. 43 44 MARYANNE ROSENMAN, an Orange County resident and parent of students in this system, spoke in 45 support of full funding of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board's budget request. 46 47 DAVID LAUDICINA, a parent with children in the Orange County School system, thanked the Board of 48 Commissioners for their support and requested that they fully fund the Orange County School Board's request. 49 50 SUSAN STONE, a parent and member of the School Governance Committee, spoke in support of full 51 funding of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board's funding request. The school administration has stretched 52 resources to the limit and will need to cut important programs unless they receive the entire amount requested. 53 54 JIM ELLINSON, a parent and School Governance Committee co-chair at ECCH, asked the Board of 55 Commissioners to fully fund the School Board's budget request. 56 57 BARBARA DEWEY, officer of the Association of Education and a media specialist at Frank Porter Graham, 58 thanked the Board of Commissioners for their support and requested that they fully fund the School Board's budget 4 1 request. She mentioned that the Charter Schools were creating an additional problem for the schools in providing 2 quality education to their students. She mentioned that these Charter Schools would draw approximately$700,000 3 out of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro System without doing anything for the education of the vast majority of students. In 4 particular, she spoke of the need for the AVID program, enrichment teachers, counselors and media specialist.A 5 copy of her comments, in their entirety, are in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. 6 7 ROB VERBOON, an Orange County resident and parent with children in this school system, spoke in 8 support of fully funding this budget request. He mentioned that he was an ELS student at one time in his life and felt 9 that the school system needs to fund another ELS position. 10 11 GAIL TURNER, Principal of Glenwood Elementary School, spoke in support of full funding of the school 12 boards budget request. 13 14 BILL ELSTRAN asked the Board of Commissioners to carefully consider the funding for this years budget. 15 He felt that there was no shortage of money. He does not agree with how the schools are currently spending that 16 money. He asked that the Commissioners hold the line on spending. 17 18 MATTHEW BARTON, a member of the McDougle Middle School PTA, asked the Commissioners to fully 19 fund the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School budget. 20 21 PETER MORCOMBE, a representative of Financial Reform For Excellence in Education (FREE), 22 addressed the issue of Charter Schools. He indicated that they hoped to absorb 1/2 of the growth in the school 23 system this year and to improve on that number next year. He mentioned that House Bill 955 requires that all 24 assets of a Charter School be the property of the local school system if the Charter School closes. Because of that 25 requirement, it is not possible for the Charter Schools to borrow money for their facilities. He asked the Board of 26 Commissioners to consider being the Guarantor so that they could borrow money to renovate an appropriate facility. 27 A copy of his comments, in their entirety, are in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. 28 29 DAWN MINTON, a parent with three children in Orange County schools, asked that the Board of 30 Commissioners do whatever possible to support the Charter Schools. Her children are not succeeding in traditional 31 schools and they need the Charter Schools. 32 33 LOUISE COLE, a member of FREE, asked the Board of Commissioners to help the Charter Schools 34 establish facilities to house their school. 35 36 ROBERT ANDERSON, a parent and a PTA member, spoke in support of full funding for the Chapel Hill 37 Carrboro school board's budget request. He mentioned that additional expenses, such as screening for volunteers 38 and increased ESL training require this funding. 39 40 STEVE WALLACE, an Orange County resident, asked the Commissioners to re-evaluate funding of the 41 DARE program. He commented that both NBC Dateline and the ABC evening news of May 21st have reported that 42 this program is failing our students. He felt that this money could be more wisely spent. 43 44 NICK DIDOW, a parent, resident, and Vice-Chair of the Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board, thanked the 45 Commissioners for their past financial support. He asked them to consider full funding of the school board request. 46 47 JOE CAPOWSKI, a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council, spoke not as a Council member but as a 48 citizen. He asked the Board of Commissioners to work with Meadowmont to insure that the land donated for the 49 school is large enough and that the land is suitable for both the school and the playing fields. He also spoke in 50 support of additional funding for the Chapel Hill Library. 51 52 STEPHANIE WILLIS, a nurse and special education coordinator, spoke in support of full funding of the 53 Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Boards budget request. She mentioned that the school system needs to move forward 54 with their Alternative Schools and they also need an additional health coordinator. 55 56 LIVY LUDDINGTON, a teacher, parent and member of the PTA, stated that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School 57 system's fund balance was spent to support the new schools which relieved some, but not all, of the overcrowding 58 in this school system. She asked that the Board of Commissioners find a way to fully fund this budget request. 5 1 2 TOMMY GARDNER, a member of Tax Watch, asked the Board of Commissioners to decline the requests 3 to increase funding for the schools. He also asked that they hold the proposed bond referendum to 40 Million 4 Dollars. Finally, he spoke in support of the Charter Schools and asked that they be given a chance to succeed in 5 educating the students. 6 7 CHET HEATH, a parent and citizen, asked the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board's funding request be fully 8 funded. 9 10 ALLEN SPALT, spoke in support of full funding of the budget request. He felt that much had been done in 11 the past by the Board of Commissioners but there remains much to be done in order to ensure quality education. 12 13 ANN HART, a parent and employee of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System, spoke in support of fully 14 funding the school's budget request. 15 16 RICHARD TAYLOR suggested that the County consolidate all of their phone lines into one central number. 17 This would be a small cost savings and would also be more convenient for citizens. 18 19 SUSAN DOVENBARGER, a member of the Orange County Board of Education, thanked the Board of 20 Commissioners for the level of funding that they are considering for the Orange County system. She mentioned that 21 this is simply a per pupil allocation, which, because Orange County has an additional 400 students, resulted in 22 funding the full budget request. 23 24 ROGER GERBER, a member of FREE, asked that the Board of Commissioners work with the Charter 25 Schools to ensure that they are able to secure facilities in which to operate. 26 27 RICHARD KRYDER, spoke in support of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board's funding request being 28 fully funded. He also supports the Charter Schools which will provide an alternative for students who are not 29 succeeding in traditional schools. 30 31 Letters were received from the following citizens. These letters have been incorporated, in their entirety, in 32 these minutes. 33 34 MIRIAM LIEBERMAN wrote in support of increased funding for the KIDSCOPE program. 35 36 EVIE WARD, a science teacher, wrote in support of increased funding for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School 37 Board's budget request. Her letter was signed by nine(9) other teachers. 38 39 GARY PETERSON, a member of the Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy, wrote in support of 40 the increase in funding for the KIDSCOPE program. 41 42 SCHOOL GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE, Carrboro Elementary School, wrote in support of full funding of 43 the school board's budget request. 44 45 46 ADJOURNMENT 47 48 With no further comments, Chair Crowther adjourned the meeting. The next regular meeting of the Orange 49 County Board of Commissioners will be a Budget Worksession on Thursday, June 5, 1997. This meeting will be 50 held in the Superior Court Room, Margaret Lane, Hillsborough, NC. 51 52 Respectfully submitted, 53 54 Kathy Baker, Deputy Clerk 55