With the school year underway, the Orange County Board of Commissioners recently held a joint meeting with the local school boards to hear updates from each district.
The September 25 meeting included presentations from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools boards, focusing on the state budget, updates to the active bond projects, and a future interlocal agreement. The three boards also discussed potential school-related issues to collaborate on in the future.
State Budget Update
The state’s biennial budget has been delayed to at least November, and CHCCS Board Chair George Griffin explained how that funding uncertainty also means uncertainty for the local school districts.
“At this critical moment in our history, it’s more important than ever that we stick together and that we support each other,” Griffin said. “We’re in a time today, literally, where the North Carolina General Assembly has not yet adopted a state budget. There’s nothing on the horizon, so every school district in North Carolina is having to piece together last year’s budget and just hold tight.”
“And this could go on for many more months,” he continued. “So it’s a critical time for us locally to support each other.”
CHCCS Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Scott said the district plans to adopt a continuation budget in lieu of the delayed NCGA budget, which includes a 3 percent salary reserve and creating a $1.75 million reserve by funding non-personal budgets at 75 percent. But he said the district’s focus is rebuilding its fund balance.
For Orange County Schools, the district passed a Mini Budget Bill in July to help mitigate the waiting period. The bill includes step increases for eligible employees and set employer paid retirement and health benefits, and Chief Financial Officer Rhonda Rath explained how OCS is working to plan for the unknown.
“We know what our benefit rates are, but that’s about it at this point in time,” Rath said. “So, we are being very conservative and very thoughtful in our spending, and we are continuing to review all of our departmental budgets and scaling back where we can and where it is appropriate, with student outcomes being our priority.”
Bond Update
Both school districts also provided an update to the first infrastructure projects to come out of the 2024 bond referendum.
In partnership with the two school boards, the school bond means Orange County will borrow $300 million in debt across a decade to build several new schools for CHCCS and OCS. The funds would be split between the districts, giving CHCCS $174.7 million and OCS $125.3 million.
Last year, CHCCS’ leaders voted to potentially replace Frank Porter Graham Elementary, Estes Hills Elementary, and Carrboro Elementary, and the Deputy Superintendent for Operations Al Ciarochi shared how the latter is the district’s first priority.
Ciarochi said students will remain in the existing Carrboro Elementary facility as the new one is constructed, and the district is targeting a fall 2028 opening, with flexibility to push that date to the following year. During the process, he said a project management team will likely help develop a standard for the future elementary school replacements in both districts.
“We believe that a project management company can assist us in making the most well-informed decision to ensure that we are fiscally responsible with dollars,” Ciarochi said. “And that we keep our project on time, but also ensure that as we replace other elementary schools that we do develop a program standard that could be used and replicated so that there’s parity and consistency throughout our school district.”
Last year, OCS discussed potentially adding a new elementary school, replacing Orange Middle School, and using the remaining money for an undetermined major project. The district’s Chief Operations Officer Fredrick Davis said the elementary school is the first priority project. Slated to open in 2029, the school would be located on a Gravelly Hill Middle School site adjacent to a county property.
The joint meeting also provided an opportunity for the three boards to discuss recommendations to a draft interlocal agreement that would establish a staff team to help oversee the bond projects. Composed of members from the three entities, the group would help keep the boards up to date in regards to the projects and referendum spending.
Another CORE Team responsibility would be to regularly update the public with accessible information on the status of the school capital projects. But Orange County BOCC Vice Chair Jean Hamilton asked for the communication methods to be specified in the agreement when the county reviews it again this month.
Hamilton explained how she thinks there needs to be more variety in how the updates are communicated, beyond the suggested social media and website examples.
“I’m absolutely in support of a CORE Team because I think we would be wasting money if we hired people to do program management,” Hamilton said. “But I also think this is where we as commissioners, we as the public, can look and say, ‘Okay, we’re going to expect that the county or the schools are going to be doing this at this time,’ so we can hold the right people accountable and not worry about a back-and-forth.”
Orange County Board of Education Chair Will Atherton added how not every family has internet access at home.
“I do think we need to think about this and how we communicate and the methods, just to ensure we are being inclusive,” Atherton said. “Especially to the taxpayers as well who may not have our standard school communications. So I agree that some method be [specified], whether it’s the county communicating the data out as well, because I completely agree. Social media or even just a website is not going to be completely effective.”
Issues for Future Collaboration
Members from the three boards also offered preliminary topics for what issues to collaborate on in the coming year. The suggestions ranged from mental health resource allocation, affordable housing for teachers, and wanting better systems for tracking and understanding student absences.
Regardless of the selected topics, many board members emphasized how working towards a common goal would have a greater impact on students count-wide. CHCCS Board of Education Member Vickie Feaster Fornville added how she thinks the collaborative effort is less about money, but taking advantage of the county’s existing programs to help support schools across the district, citing Family Success Alliance and Orange Partnership for Alcohol and Drug Free Youth as examples.
“We have to start thinking more collaboratively as one OC,” Fornville said. “We are Orange County. We may have two school districts, but that imaginary line that goes down Arthur Minnis Road, we still have to get our students to realize that it’s just that, an imaginary line that’s not any more real than the line on Franklin Street to UNC between Chapel Hill. We have to start thinking about coming together and bringing these people along the way.”
To view the full joint meeting, click here.
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