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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-26-2004- 4 CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO CITY SCHOOLS Lincoln Center, Merritt Mill Road Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516 Telephone: (919) 967-8211 TO: Barry Jacobs, Chair Orange County Board of Commissioners John Link, Manager Orange County Government FROM: Elizabeth Carter, Chair Neil Pedersen, Superintendent RE: Agenda Items for Joint Meeting on Apri] 26, 2004 DATE: Apri120, 2004 We are looking forward to sharing with you the results of our collaboration efforts with the Orange County Schools.. Our first two meetings were quite successful in identifying those areas of collaboration that our Boards believe to be most promising. We suggest that this be a primary focus of our,joint meeting. There aze some other items, however, that we would like to bring to your attention. Due to time constraints, we don't expect formal responses to these issues prior to, or even at, the joint meeting. At the meeting, we will emphasize the importance of these projects moving forward on a timely basis and our concern that our capital projects are becoming backlogged. It is our desire to hear a commitment on behalf of the County Commissioners to move forward with these projects in a timely manner that will serve the interests of our surdents and staff.. Capital Investment Plan We aze concerned that the process for developing a Capital Investment Plan has disintegrated over the past two years. A few years ago, the schedule called for us to develop a CIF' in ]ate fall and to present it to the County Manager in February nx March. That schedule, evidently, is now obsolete. Although all of our projects for this year, eventually, were approved on aproject-by-project basis, the 200.3-13 CIP was not adopted by the BOCC until April 13, 2004. It now appears that this scenazio could be repeated this yeaz. We still do not have directions as to how to develop our CIP. Funding projections were not provided to us until April 1.3, 2004, leaving us only a few weeks for the staff to prepare a CIP and for the Board to consider it on work session and approve it at a subsequent meeting.. Turning this around in time for the BOCC to consider our request at their May 20`s meeting is not possible. The best possible scenario would have our Board approving the CIP at its meeting on May 20°i, As always, we will work cooperatively with the County staff, but this schedule has placed us in a very difficult predicament. We consider the CIP to be an important planning document that requires time and careful thought to compile. We would appreciate clarification on exactly what is the current procedure for submitting our CIP, what is the rationale For the changes, and what will be the timetable for its preparation next year.. We do appreciate the Manager's willingness to request approval of summer projects so that they are not unduly delayed., We were disheartened, however, to learn that our requests for the appropriation of funds for mobile classrooms at the two high schools and Scroggs Elementary School were not included on the April 20°i agenda as we had understood they would be. This puts into serious jeopardy the availability of these ten classrooms for the opening of school next August, The funding for the high school mobiles, which already is included in the ?00.3-1.3 CIP, was submitted on February 26, ?004. Identification of Future School Sites We would appreciate an update on the status of the new committee that the Commissioners are convening to assist with the identification of future school sites. At this time all that we know is that the RQt='(' hag I'eq~IPeted nOmiriatiOng from elected 1^Cal bnarrle and ih--^_t ih1S will be discussed at the upcoming Assembly of Governments meeting. Especially in the CHCCS district, is is critical not only to identify new sites but Co acquire them as well before they aze no longer available. We are anxious to move forwazd with this process immediately. Could a timeline be established for this committee's work to be completed? Twin Creeks With the delays associated with the approval of the Twin Creeks plans that were presented to the BOCC almost one year ago, it appears that Elementary No. IO cannot open until ?007 at the earliest. The district is ready to move forward with the site planning for this school and requests that the entire Twin Creeks site plan be approved as soon as possible. We also need to discuss with the Commissioners when and how utilities and the connector road will be provided. As we proceed with the planning of these facilities, they are becoming more and more costly and, clearly, fall outside of the project budget. Addendum B On April 2Q ?004, The BOCC referred "Addendum B" to the Carrboro Aldermen for comment. This is another issue that has dragged on for many months, Until Addendum B is adopted, there is uncertainty over the budget and design for the third high school. We cannot complete our submission of plans to the Town of Carrboro until this issue is resolved, Plans for Future Schools Cleazly, we will not have time at Monday's meeting to update the Commissioners on the latest planning for High School No. 3 and Elementary No. 10. We aze prepared to do so at your earliest convenience, Alice Gordon has been an active participant on the high school advisory committee. We do need a Commissioner to be appointed to serve as a liaison to Elementary No. 10. We will keep the BOCC informed through the use of these liaisons, SAPFO The BOCC approval process for SAPFQ currently, is running several months behind schedule. The November 15, ?003 membership numbers and building capacity have yet to be approved. These should have been approved 15 days after receipt. The draft SAPFO annual report has also been delayed and should be updated to reflect current requests for capacity changes as dictated by State class size reduction mandates, These delays impact the District's long term planning efforts as they relate to the CIP. Durham Tech Satellite Campus Could the BOCC provide an update on the plans for acquiring property for a satellite Durham Technical Community College campus and for designing and canstruc[ing the new facility? When is it scheduled to open? The school district hopes to be an active partner with DTCC and would like to be involved in the planning process.