CHS Arts Wing Update

[Susana Dancy]

All,

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed commissioners and school board members and who attended the recent County Commissioners public hearings to show their support for the Carrboro High School Arts Wing.  Seven people attended the May 21 meeting in Hillsborough and about 50 attended the May 26 meeting in Chapel Hill.  The turn-out was excellent and all the purple shirts in the audience made a real difference.  (See photo from Carrboro Citizen newspaper.)

Many people have asked me for status report, so here’s the skinny:  Orange County Commissioners are giving serious consideration to funding the CHS Arts Wing in the 2009-10 budget.  The entire posture of both the school board and the commissioners has shifted because of your efforts.  They are now discussing ways to access school construction bonds, even if that temporarily puts them above the debt service percentages (“debt capacity”) they had set for themselves.

Please e-mail the County Commissioners to thank them for hearing us and for their thoughtful consideration of this issue.  Ask them again to fund this important school construction project.  We all know that it is a difficult budget year and the choices are not easy.  Yet, it is important that the CHS Arts Wing be built immediately, using whatever bond monies are available — stimulus or otherwise.  The budget will be approved later this month, so please e-mail commissioners now.  Email addresses are available at: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/contact.htm.  

As a reminder, school construction is not funded from the operating account, so this project does not compete for funding with academic programs or teaching positions.  Also, the federal stimulus package includes interest-free bonds for “qualified school construction projects,” such as the CHS Arts Wing.  If the Arts Wing is funded now, the auditorium will be ready-to-use midway through the 9th grade for current 7th graders.

Last, please consider e-mailing school board members ( allschoolb...@chccs.k12.nc.us ), thanking them for prioritizing the CHS Arts Wing and asking them for their continued support of Carrboro High School.  At last week’s meeting, the school board discussed increasing the minimum class size for high school electives to 15; this sets a higher standard for our smaller school more than it does for the larger high schools. (Ex: 10 students at CHS is 8% of our senior class, while it is only 3% of CHHS and 2% of East’s senior class.)  Please remind school board members that a one-size-fits-all formula for allocating resources is not appropriate, given the disparity in school sizes.

Best regards,

Susana Dancy

[Susana Dancy]

[Amy Ryan]

Hi:

Great job everyone in advocating for the CHS arts wing and bringing it
closer to reality.

Please take the time to follow Susana's suggestion in the last
paragraph and write to the school board members about equity issues
involved in setting numerical minimums for elective class sizes.

The e-mail address Susana gave for the board didn't work for me; if
you have trouble, try them at allboar...@chccs.k12.nc.us

Amy Ryan

> allschoolboardmemb...@chccs.k12.nc.us ), thanking them for prioritizing the

> CHS Arts Wing and asking them for their continued support of Carrboro High
> School.  At last week¹s meeting, the school board discussed increasing the
> minimum class size for high school electives to 15; this sets a higher
> standard for our smaller school more than it does for the larger high
> schools. (Ex: 10 students at CHS is 8% of our senior class, while it is only
> 3% of CHHS and 2% of East¹s senior class.)  Please remind school board
> members that a one-size-fits-all formula for allocating resources is not
> appropriate, given the disparity in school sizes.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Susana Dancy
>

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