Orange County Board of Commissioners,

The SGC and PTA of Elizabeth Seawell Elementary School have not taken a position on the consideration of proposed merger at this time.  However we are concerned:

1.     That the rapid pace of the possible proposed merger does not give ample opportunity for the public’s questions to be answered before proceeding.

2.     That the process lacks mechanisms to poll the public's will on this matter.

3.     That the alternatives to merger are not being more seriously considered.  For example, the BOCC currently has the power to raise the ad valorem tax and unlevy part or all of the city district tax without a referendum to provide the OCS with appropriate or equal funding.

4.     That the perceived social injustices have not been identified so that they can be studied in light of alternatives such as funding equity and school district collaboration.

5.     That currently planned schools may not be built or may be unnecessarily delayed during any proposed merger.

6.     That bigger is not necessarily better.

7.     That the BOCC has an obligation to represent its constituents and that no current BOCC members were elected on a platform of merger.

8.     That CHCCS may not be held harmless in the long run because funding increases that may have otherwise passed in the city schools may be less likely to pass in the merged system.

9.     That the time and resources spent studying and executing a possible merger would be better spent focusing on the education of our children and focusing on state ABC and NCLB initiatives.

10.                        That two elected school boards could be replaced by an appointed school board.

11.                        That our children may attend schools that are an unreasonable distance from their homes, thereby depriving them of time to participate in other activities and making it more difficult for parents to participate in their children’s’ education.  Note that the state recommendation of a maximum 76 minutes busing time is two and one half hours per day on a bus.

12.                        That a merger would increase the public pressure to develop the rural buffer.

We also propose that in lieu of a referendum, the BOCC should poll the SGCs and PTAs to gauge stakeholder opinion on the merger.  We propose that two thirds of the SGCs and PTAs should be in favor for the proposal for proposed merger to proceed.

This document was approved by the Seawell Elementary SGC on October 7^th, 2003 and the PTA on October 13^th, 2003.

Signed,

Mark Peters, SGC Parent Co-Chair       

Terry Stewart, SGC Faculty Co-Chair

Laurie Buck, PTA Co-President

Joanna Edwards, PTA Co-President