AGENDA #17a(2)

 

 

MEMORANDUM

 

 

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

 

FROM:            Council Member Flicka Bateman

 

SUBJECT:       Discussions About Location for Third High School

 

DATE:             August 26, 2002

 

 

I ask the Council to consider starting conversations with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education and the Orange County Board of Commissioners about prospects for locating a third high school in the southern part of Chapel Hill.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Our school district needs a third high school.  We have received reports showing historical and projected growth in the number of high school students in our community, and we know that the capacities of Chapel Hill High School and East Chapel Hill High School are about to be exceeded.  School officials are looking for a site for this needed school. 

 

It has been suggested that a logical location for this school would be the southern part of Chapel Hill, since our two existing high schools are both on the northern edge of Chapel Hill.  Several sites have been under consideration by the School Board, but no decisions have been made.

 

Although I did not support (and still do not support) a citizens group proposal  to negotiate a land swap of Town owned park land for a school site, I believe that we can do more to assist in the process of  locating a suitable school site in the southern area of  our community.

 

PROPOSAL

 

I believe that it would be productive to bring the Chapel Hill Town Council, the School Board, and the Orange County Board of Commissioners (or representatives of these three bodies) together to discuss the possibilities.  I suggest that the Mayor communicate with the chairs of the other two Boards to initiate this conversation.