Summary of first budget work sessions.
(typical disclaimers apply - these notes are taken on a best effort basis - only quoted items are quotes - changes will be posted to orangecitizens.org)
[ ] indicates note taker's own comments
Agenda: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/OCCLERKS/050609.pdf
This meeting is an opportunity for each school district to present.
In the next Meeting on Tuesday 6/14, the commissioners start to discuss the budget. This will be held at the Government Services Center
200 S. Cameron Street, Hillsborough [which only holds about a dozen spectators and will be too small, I emailed the commissioners to ask them to move it]
Attendance: Looks like almost all of the OCS and CHCCS School Boards are present, along with Supt's. There are an
additional 40 people
---COMPUTER BUDGET (agenda item spilled over from previous meeting) ---
Wireless costs $80 to be installed in Hillsborough. Wireless is supported in the Southern Human Resources Center.
Halkiotis: Don't we have a fund that we can use to go ahead and pay this NOW and get wireless in the central Orange
facility? I move that we use the commissioner discretionary fund.
---EDUCATION BUDGET---
Halkiotis: John, what would you recommend for the schools? What do they need? Asked some questions about similar programs in each district.
Gordon: For Tier III, perhaps it is easier to allocate per pupil.
Carey: There may be cases where there are different numbers of students who access the program.
Carey: Asked the school systems to present
Hough (OCS BOE): We have worked with the community to come up with this years budget request. Various task forces gave
input. Our students needs have been documented by the commissioners' commissioned report. "To say we will somehow
muddle through is not accurate." If we go into our fund balance, then we will be raiding savings earmarked for opening
MS3. Collaboration while theoritically a wonderful endeavor, it takes much of our staff's time. "You can't get blood
from a turnip". Our dropout numbers are higher than acceptable.
Our board is concerned about the tiered approach. School boards are given statuatory authority to determine the use of
allocated funds, which Tier III goes against. We used $1.4M of our fund balance to cover stuff in our budget requests
for the last 5 years. (materials given out only shows the fund balance going down $140,000, not $1.4M??)
---
OCS Budget Info: http://www.orange.k12.nc.us/budget0506/hearings.htm
Carraway (OCS Supt): (gave a presentation which was not handed out and is not online) 100% of schools met Adequate
Yearly Progress. 5 schoools are ABC Honors. (there was more, but couldn't get it)
Free & Reduced Lunch OCS CHCCS
District 30% 15%
Elem 37% 18%
(showed proficiencies in Elementary Math - differences in OCS & CHCCS)
Math proficiencies go up until 5th grade 95% then drops off to 73% in 10th. Reading is similar.
Talked about Newsweek rankings, which is a very narrow ranking which just takes AP courses taken by students into
account. OCS cannot afford to offer as many AP classes.
SAT course has experiened a 40 point growth over the last decade or so.
Droput rate looks to be roughly double over time between OCS and CHCCS.
Went through utility and janitorial savings.
Budget Request---
4 high school teachers, 3 reading remediation, specialists, science teacher, carpenter, plumber, etc. = $927K
New Initiatives $3M (???)
State reductions looks like $400K
What is not in the budget is another $2M in needs.
Showed a pie chart showing where money goes - shows most of money goes to directly benefit students.
Our board has not had a discussion about what would be cut.
---
Carey: (offered other school board members to speak. none did)
Jacobs: You don't want the money for what you are spending your fund balance to come from Tier III?
Hough: We just want the money.
Carey: You mentioned the fund balance and then mentioned new iniatives. Do the "new initiatives" include the $1.4 fund
balance spending from last year?
Carraway: (was not clear, but since the projected fund balance spending goes down, it doesn't look like it)
Jacobs: AP course initiative funding?
Carraway: Yes, we were going to pay for 1 test.
Jacobs: We criticized this for CHCCS because it did not have a means test.
---
CHCCS Budget Info: http://www.chccs.k12.nc.us/Welcome.asp?DP=Budget
Carter (CHCCS Vice Chair): We have invested monies in our students that we have received in the past. If we don't
receive the 6.5%, then it is scary to think what will happen. (Referred to Connect Ed message about the public
hearings.) We were merely letting our parents/customers about these meetings and about our needs. I know there are other competing
needs.
---
Pedersen (CHCCS Supt): [presentation was handed out. I couldn't find presentation anywhere online]
My comments will focus on the budget requests. Focused on 3 separate questions about impacts.
"The Perfect Storm"
218 students lower than projected. Causes loss of $322K simply based on population difference.
State Discretionary cuts: $575K
Fund balance correction: $500K
Took a number of actions to reduce expenses, such as freezes and energy savings.
Title I for reading remediation will be reduced $100K next year.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - the standards increase this year. cutbacks have created challenges.
Global economy, closing the achievement gap take resources.
Fund balance has gone down over the years.
Non-discretionary items: Storm water fee - $130K, utility rate increases $201K, other items; $730K total
Growth & Replacement of mid-year reductions: $558K total
New Expenses: $334K: high school reform, middle college, transportation for new programs (result of collaborative
efforts), etc.
---
Scroggs (Asst Supt): Talked about capital needs which were self explanatory in the presentation.
---
Jacobs: Do the schools pay a living wage?
Pedersen: We were until you raised it this year.
Carter: We use the county figure as a base.
Carraway: We are not sure if we are paying a living wage. [Question: Are the janitorial contract companies paying a
living wage?]
Gordon: Asked about DPI enrollment projections
Scroggs: DPI used a cohort survival formula which only works when districts grow at a certain rate. We are growing
even though DPI projections are lower. DPI made such a large overestimation for this year that for next year they had
to do a correction.
Carey: You will receive the formal letter to proceed with HS3 this week.
Carey: We talked about a OCS or countywide district tax and we are asking the districts to comment.
Gordon: We need to keep in mind that if we reduce the capital revenue, then the CHCCS system gets significantly less. [I need to do some more research here to understand what this impact would be]
http://www.orangecitizens.org/article.php?story=20050609194529934