Also at the Feb. 20th regular meeting, the BOC voted to pass a resolution to support charter schools in Chatham County. The resolution, which can be read on the county website, basically says that the BOC thanks Chatham’s charter schools and encourages the opening of new ones. 

In preparation for this vote, the BOC invited the pro-charter school nonprofit organaization Parents for Freedom to make a presentation that favorably compared the performance and demographic makeup of Chatham charter schools with our traditional public schools.

Victoria Mazur, a teacher from Siler City and vice president of the Chatham County Association of Educators, stated during public input that she and her organization were not opposed to charter schools, and praised the innovation and excellence of Chatham County’s charter schools. She stressed the need for a collaborative partnership between charter and traditional public schools so that they all could achieve excellence in education. She asked that the BOC consider a resolution that favors this collaborative effort to show support for charter schools and for reform of traditional public schools.

Superintendant Logan echoed Ms. Mazur, saying that he is not against charter schools, but that he wants what is best for all of Chatham’s children.  He asked for a resolution supporting reforms that remove restrictions from traditional public schools that prevent them from being innovative.

Sally Kost stated that she would not support the resolution as written. She elaborated that while traditional public schools have to account for and justify their budgets, charter schools are not held accountable for the tax dollars they are allotted per student. She also questioned the assertion that the demographic of charter school closely reflects that of traditional schools, and noted that transportation is not required by charter schools.

The resolution passed (3 to 2, with Cross and Kost dissenting). However, Chairman Bock pledged to coordinate with Ms. Mazur to write another resolution supporting collaboration and support for traditional public schools.

CCEC does not support the passing of a resolution that so strongly appears to favor charter schools over traditional schools, and we await the forthcoming resolution that we hope will state the BOC’s unanimous support for all of our children and all of our schools.

Back to top

Chairman Bock started his State of the County address by admitting to a lack of experience in governance by the new board members, and graciously thanked staff for all their patience and help over the past year.

The chief achievements of the BOC that he touted were:

Tax Rate. Taxes were not raised last year, and no significant tax hike is foreseen for 2012. 
Chairman Bock thanked budget staff.  However, he did not acknowledge the BOC’s decision to postpone reevaluation of property values, which means that some citizens are paying taxes on higher evaluations than current market values.

Reduced spending. Although Chairman Bock admits that this initiative was tougher than he thought it would be, the BOC was able to reduce non-mandated spending by 15%, with over all cuts of 2%. As CCEC has reported over the past year, some of these cuts were unnecessary and controversial.

Streamlining. While CCEC favors common sense reductions in what can be a cumbersome process, we have been highly critical of any logistical changes that will reduce protections to the environment, water resources, and the health and well-being of Chatham citizens.

Open government. Chairman Bock claimed first-time statewide recognition for the BOC’s open government initiative without mentioning that it came from the John Locke Foundation, a conservative North Carolina think tank. While much of the what is currently accessible on the county website was also previously available, the newest open government intitiative is online video of Commissioner meetings, which allows those unable to attend in person to watch via the web or cable television.

Jobs. There is an upswing of new businesses in the county. CCEC supports the new pre-application meetings that county staff provide for people interested in opening new businesses. The increase in number of new applications appears to be local evidence of continuing improvement in the overall national economy.

Back to top

The Planning Board has formed a subcommittee of three members, with the help of planning staff, to review the Draft Plan. During their February meeting, two of these subcommittee members indicated that they wanted to hear public comments on the Plan, although they stressed that they were not interested in the public comments of citizens who speak out at public meetings. One member stated that he wants to hear what is being "whispered between the people." Perhaps we all need to start whispering?!

The BOC will continue to hold two meetings per month until the new budget year starts in August, since the decision to meet only once per month was part of the budget recommendations. However, they canceled their March 5th meeting for lack of an agenda.

Back to top