With a new school year approaching and no final budget, Orange County Schools Board of Education members, teachers and parents have high hopes for the upcoming year.
Orange County Schools have been working around the restraints of doing “more with less,” a common phrase highlighting budget and teacher cuts during the past academic school years.
On top of budget cuts, the board faces issues this year ranging from the county’s own achievement gap to school renovations.
Although cuts have been an issue, Orange County Schools board member Anne Medenblik, who recently kept her seat in an election runoff, advocates for better teachers and technology.
“I firmly believe in engaging the community in the schools,” Medenblik said. “I know, being a teacher, it doesn’t take very long to know whether that teacher is having an effect on the student,” she said.
County schools have been using a program, called Raising Achievement and Closing the Gap, to tackle the problem of low academic success for minority students by increasing the number of minority students taking advanced classes and hiring a wider diversity of teachers.
Teresa Bunner, vice president of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Gravelly Hill Middle School in Efland, finds gathering parent participation within the school system a challenge, especially at the high school level, because kids are more vocal about independence.
The county will also face redistricting, which was approved in the early spring.
“Having the least impact on classrooms is my biggest priority,” said Donna Coffey, vice chairwoman for the Board of Education. “I think No. 1 would be on increasing the student-teacher ratio; it may even mean preserving jobs.”
