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7 Ms. Anne Debray, 1620 Mulberry Avenue, said Johnson Elementary has a high number of ESL students and is a very diverse schools. She supported keeping the small class sizes. Mr. Robert Bragg, 8238 Faber Road, Faber, President of the Charlottesville Professional Firefighters Association, supported the EMS enhancement program in the budget. He said that as the population, traffic and demand have grown, the response time of the rescue squad has grown. He said the proposal will fill the staffing gap, will reduce response time, will add medics and ambulances, and will provide for revenue recovery. Mr. Mike Evans, 1310 Rose Hill Drive, an English teacher at Charlottesville High School, said that there are many student accomplishments at CHS, but kids need to learn to think not just score well on standardized tests. He said he has 28 students in each of his six classes. He asked Council to approve the budget as requested by the School Board. He said teachers need help and need to reduce the number of classes they teach and the class size. Ms. Mary Reese, 95 Oak Forest Circle, asked Council to fully fund the School budget. She said the Schools are poised to make even more improvements. She said the Schools have a Strategic Plan and the commitment to implement it. Mr. Peter Kleeman, 407 Hedge Street, said he agrees that the budget should reflect Council’s vision. He said there are some outdated transportation projects in the budget, such as the Meadowcreek Parkway. He encouraged Council to think more forwardly regarding their connected community vision. Mr. Dot Walton, 1703 Galloway Drive, a teacher at Walker Upper Elementary School, representing the Charlottesville Education Association, urged Council to approve the School funding. She said salaries still lag behind for comparable professionals. She said new teachers often leave after five years due to salaries. She said teachers also have to buy supplies with their own money. Ms. Jennifer McKeever, 1140 Locust Avenue, disagreed with the EMS proposal. She said the City and Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS) need to work this out and need to do it in incremental steps. She said the statistics are not clear and we need to figure out what the real issues are. She said she thinks the proposal lacks creativity. Ms. Saskva Santen, 1605 Dublin Road, a member of the Johnson School PTO, expressed concern about the teacher cuts. She said the current and future demographics should be looked at for the school. She said the student population at Johnson is diverse and small class sizes are needed. Ms. Linda Lewis, 1516 Rutledge Avenue, said she is glad that after 47 years the City has decided to support CARS, but she thinks the EMS proposal is jumping the gun. She said we need to analyze what the situation is. She said she is not convinced that adding paid staff will help. She said a paid ambulance service will hit people’s pockets and health insurance premiums will go up. Mr. Jeb Lewis, 1516 Rutledge Avenue, said he is a Rescue Squad volunteer. He said the fire department does not provide definitive care. He said CARS has never been cited for being late to a call. He said CARS has 120 highly trained volunteers. He said having a response time of 20 minutes is not failing to get out, but is due to rush hour. He said the EMS proposal could ultimately hurt citizens and put CARS out of business. He said the funding should be used instead to assist CARS. Ms. Diane Taylor, 1932 Arlington Blvd, encouraged Council to fund Zona Latina, a bilingual television show. Mr. Carlos Teran, Producer of Zona Latina and Nueva Raices, a Spanish newspaper, asked for funding for Zona Latina.