During its meeting on April 17, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education discussed the search for a new superintendent, the recommended budget request to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners and the capital investment plan.
What’s new?
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Christine Scheef, a senior staff attorney with the North Carolina School Boards Association, presented the results of the superintendent search community and staff survey.
- 1,100 community members completed the survey, including 450 CHCCS staff members.
- The board also reviewed a leadership profile based on the top five responses from each of the surveys on characteristics and experience.
- “I found myself appreciating the number of people that took some time to fill that survey out and complete it, and then to even write a comment in addition to ranking and rating,” Board Chair George Griffin said. “I felt like I got a sense of what was on people’s minds about the public schools here in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.”
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Jonathan Scott, chief financial officer at CHCCS, discussed the Board of Education’s budget request for the fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2026.
- Scott said the development of this request began in early March with the superintendent's proposed budget request and has since gone through two work sessions and public input.
- “Also included in the resolution, there is an ask to the county commissioners to consider increasing the special district tax up to the amount to fully fund the request,” he said. “ We include that every year in our request to just give them the latitude to be able to increase that request.”
- Brian Link, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Association of Educators, said it is one of the largest request in the history of CHCCS.
- “Thank you for following through with the idea of putting your values right where your budget is,” Link said.
- The board also heard a presentation on a capital investment plan for the fiscal year 2025 through 2035.
- The plan had previously been presented to the board on three different occasions, and it received the opportunity for public input through work sessions. After approval, the CHCCS board will have a joint meeting with the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, during which they will discuss the budget and make a final approval decision on June 5.
- Priorities for a school bond project and capital funding from the BOCC include replacing old facilities, improving the educational adequacy of buildings and addressing high-priority capital maintenance needs throughout each district.
What decisions were made?
- The CHCCS board unanimously approved the proposed budget request for the fiscal year 2025 through 2035 and directed the request to be submitted to the BOCC.
- The proposal included the CHCCS board’s authorization for the Orange County manager and the BOCC to increase the special district tax as necessary to fully fund the request.
- The CHCCS board unanimously approved the capital investment plan.
What’s next?
- The CHCCS board will meet again on April 29 at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Center for a joint meeting with the BOCC and Orange County Schools.
