BOCC Education Forum

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA Council is sponsoring a Board of County Commissioner Forum on Education to help inform voters about the candidates running for the Orange County Board of County Commissioners. The education forum will be held on Monday, April 17, at 7 PM, at Carrboro Town Hall. The forum will be aired live on the public access channel (Time Warner channel 18) and will also be rebroadcast later. It will be moderated by Frances Henderson, Executive Director of the Dispute Settlement Center. This event is free and open to the public.

The May primaries are of great importance to our school community because the County Commissioners decide how much money is allocated to the two school systems existing in the county and determine other educational issues as well. The PTA Council has also compiled a list of questions and answers from the BOCC candidates. This survey can be accessed through the Council's website, www.ptacouncil.com. For more information about the forum and for procedures for submitting online questions for the forum, please go to the Council's website.

Issues: 

Comments

The forum is now Live on channel 18. Submit your questions via www.ptacouncil.com and we will print them out and give them to the question screeners.

It was interesting to hear Alice Gordon and Berry Jacobs explicitly say that merger was not about social justice.

There were some comments about increasing county revenue and changing the property tax structure to improve school funding. There was much talk about adequate funding but few comments about what constitutes adequate. Eventhough the BOCC can't grant BOE's the right to set the tax rate (as I understand it), few candidates said they would clearly support it or not. Are we headed for future BOCC making decisions on educational policy by deciding what is appropriate for funding?

People are now asking about whether or not to restrict residential development according to SAPFO. Upto now, the county funded school construction as it was needed. But since the 60/40 capital spending split and problems with debt, we're facing difficult times to finish Carrboro HS and Twin Creeks ES, the HS is currently needed and the ES will be needed in two years, if not sooner. Isn't it a little late to talk about restricting development? It can help in the long run but capital funding is needed now for these schools and for work on the older schools in both districts.

I have a friend who has a child in 8th grade. She and I BOTH agree that Carrboro High MIGHT be open by her daughter's senior year...I hope we are both wrong.

melanie

Melanie,

Carrboro High will open in the fall of 2007. Because of the mild winter, construction is pretty much on schedule and the school should be finished in the late spring of 2007.

 

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