The following are notes taken during the Orange County Commissioner Planning Retreat on January 22nd, 2005.

Commissioners agreed that funding equity is a priority, though waiting for Grumet Study. Carey made statements here and in the 12/13/2004 Collaboration meeting that he is still on a path to merger. I am not sure where the 60/40 policy stands since it was made “in principle” last year, contingent on getting school feedback. Seems to me it would need another vote to become a real policy, but it is being treated as a done deal.

It will be interesting to see how the Educational Excellence Study is posited with respect to merger, particularly since Dr. Grumet specifically stated that merger was not an aspect under study.



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Complete Notes:

The agenda is here: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/OCCLERKS/050122.pdf

Terms
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ES10 - CHCCS Elementary #10
[ ] - my read on what was implied

Please note that things in quotes are actual quotes. Everything else is paraphrasing of what was said.

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Notes:

60-40 discussion

Carey acknowledged letter from CHCCS BOE (signed by Mrs. Stuckey) and said that they should respond out of courtesy.

Carey: Would like to study capacity issues with a single school system. “Just for fun.”

Halkiotis: “not going to get down to item by item response to Mrs. Stuckey.” … “If we fail to meet the needs of the school system I’ll quit.”

Jacobs: School systems should prioritize priorities when they submit capital requests. High, Med, wishlist.

Foushee: It is incumbent on this board to inform the public as to what our priorities are. In the absence of an approved CIP by the entire county, no one is certain of what our priorities are. If we want to build trust, then we need to make the first step of insuring the priorities. We need to communicate these types of priorities.

Moses: We didn’t have to go to the public with a target, we could have just done a target.

Gordon: All of the schools to be built in the next 10 years, then are you committed to building the schools where the students live? If you do merge, then you will be busing students.

Jacobs: Should we start to talk about a bond?

Carey: March is when they tasked last bond. Came back in May.

Rod Visser: mid-March to June.

Carey: Mid-August is last date of having it ready to go to board of elections.

Link: Alternative funding has to go to local government group for approval. Bond issues have citizen input. Ie - there is a structure for how capital funding is done. If we don’t have structure, then how do we know how to proceed?

Jacobs: Scheduled CIP workshop is 3/22.

Link: We can’t sell bonds until 2007-2008 timeframe, so we could have a referendum 2 years from now and fund ES10.

Halkiotis: OCS does *not* need schools for 10 years. CHCCS *does* need schools. Progressive people usually pass bonds, but since OCS will not be in the next bond, then there will be more naysayers [which might threaten the bond]. So we need to start now.

Carey: (thinks it is premature for this year)

Jacobs: Could address some of this in the collaboration workgroup. In 1947, a bond failed with the northern districts.

Gordon: It may be a hard sell to sell ES10 on an upcoming bond, because we already passed it on the last bond, so we should look to alternative financing.

Link: Good point, my mistake.

Carey: We need to educate the public that ES10 was not able to be built due to increase in construction costs.

Link: Talked about animal shelter…

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Educational excellence.

Dr. Grumet sat beside Mr. Link to give an update.

Grumet: “Given the politicized environment around the report", I want to delay giving more detail until the report is complete.

Excellence task force is composed of 2 supts, Commissioners, John Link, Rod Visser, Bill Friday (first 2 meetings)

Spoke to each school principle in both districts. Differences among schools within a district are more significant than those between the 2 districts. We have 2 very good school districts. It has been fun and revealing to meet with the school leaders (many of whom are new). It has whetted an appetite for a much more thorough study.

We did a lot of time looking a school report card data, EOG data, etc. Those of us who are not thrilled with all of the testing that is required for this, we are however grateful that this data exists.

Dr. Grumet’s team has had a hard time coming up with the correct nomenclature.

“We are not going to create a document that says we should merge or not” We were asked to compare the educational opptys between the 2 districts and that is what we will do.

Feb 15th is a potential target date to consider the educational report.

Halkiotis: It has been a struggle to compare the job descriptions of people between the 2 districts. If the report had been released early, then there would have been significant confusion. It is clear that there are dedicated people. It will be extremely enlightening to get the final report.

Jacobs: Says that merger fears will be allayed by this report (couldn’t tell what was really meant by this comment). Need to think about a separate meeting so that we don’t rush through, perhaps a dinner meeting.

Carey: That is a good idea. Often reports like this often raise more questions than they answer. Would you say that the questions it raised would need to be addressed by the BOEs or by the commissioners?

Grumet: Not sure how the responsibilities are split up, so it could be that different boards might have to address different things.

Gordon: Are you looking at capital?

Grumet: We have focused on instructional resources. We don’t have the expertise to focus on capital. Focused on kinds of personnel, number of personnel.

Gordon: Did you look at the setting in which students are taught? (ie - old school conditions)

Grumet: I visited all of the schools. Many schools indicated that over the years, there had been significant renovations. I noticed that there was a difference in needs between the schools with socioeconomic conditions, etc. We have enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the civic deliberation.

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Collaboration (should read facilitator’s summary from 12/13/2004, very important comments in it)

Halkiotis: One benefit of these is the new Durham tech program.

Jacobs: It has been useful to John Link to be involved to clarify many things, particularly around school construction standards. I have no problem giving the group more substantive issues. Not sure if we need a facilitator.

Carey: I started out thinking a facilitator was not needed, but ended up thinking it was good to have one.

Gordon: I would like to see the group make a formal report to the commissioners. Collaboration group may not know exactly what is expected of them from this point forward.

Carey: Report might want to be made before the joint BOEs/BOCC meeting.

Halkiotis: We should hire one person to oversee projects in the county - one contractor on staff. County and school systems could share the same person.

Carey: School resource officers need to be discussed at the next joint mtg.

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Carey: Want to talk about funding equity. The public seems to want us to move in that direction.

Foushee: I do support funding equity and we need to determine what that means. I think we should not do this without the reports that are due. Mrs. Grumet commented that there were greater differences between schools in a district than between them.

Gordon: I think we need funding equity. We need to determine what equity really means. This is a high priority for me. I would like to see it addressed this budget session.

Halkiotis: I endorse everything that has been said.

Jacobs: We adopted a goal that was said 10 years ago and we should look at modifying that one.

Carey: That was really 12 or 14 year ago.

Unanimous agreement.

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Benedict: School Siting

Benedict: (talked about general considerations for school sitings, GIS, etc.)

Gordon: The BOCC has not specifically passed smart growth.

Benedict: We need to look at land banking for chccs schools. And in ocs, there are limited opportunities for sites with access to water and sewer. There is a staff committee which is meeting next month.

Halkiotis: Walkability, bicycle-ability. There is a disconnect between parents and the planning community when it comes to safety.

Jacobs: We should ask for money to go ahead and buy land for school sites while they are still available. We could put up sign making it available for low impact recreation. The way the state sites schools today is not effective.


--Mark Peters