Two school districts to ask voters to pass parcel tax measures this year

There will be two parcel tax measures on local ballots this spring and next fall in an effort to maintain current educational programming and keep teacher salaries competitive. One measure is to fund the Portola Valley Elementary School District and the other is for the Menlo Park City School District.

During a Jan. 21 meeting, the Portola Valley school board adopted a resolution to authorize the district to call for a parcel tax election in May. It would generate approximately $1 million for the district annually. The cost of a special mail-in election is between $94,000 and $113,000, according to a Jan. 14 board agenda.

This comes on the heels of the failure of Measure P, a parcel tax renewal measure for the Portola Valley district, last March.

“To avoid significant instructional program reductions and to protect the academic excellence of our schools, the administration along with the parcel tax advisory committee recommends the renewal of the measure at a reduced amount (by $110) to $471 per parcel,” according to a report prepared by staff for the Jan. 14 meeting. There would be no annual increase in the tax to adjust for inflation, said district Chief Business Officer Connie Ngo in an email.

The current tax, Measure O, funds advanced math, science and technology programs; reading and writing programs; art and music programs; reduced class sizes; and retention of teachers for the district’s two schools, Ormondale and Corte Madera, according to the district website. Measure O, which expires on June 30, generates about $1.2 million for the district annually. District staff asserted that the measure “must be renewed” to maintain these programs.

Measure O passed in 2013 with 69% of the vote. It consolidated two expiring measures: Measure C (with an annual tax of $290 per parcel) and Measure D ($168 per parcel), and increased the rate by $123 per parcel to $581, Ngo said.

During a Dec. 17 governing board meeting, trustees discussed the possible future role of the Portola Valley Schools Foundation. If the renewal fails, the district would have to rely more heavily on the foundation, trustees agreed.

Menlo Park City School District

The Menlo Park City School District governing board voted in December to put the renewal of Measure X, its $360-per-parcel tax, on the November 2021 ballot. The district’s governing board began looking at potential areas to cut costs by $1.5 million during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, respectively, to help address deficit spending that could result from 2019’s teacher salary hike (88% of the district’s 2020-21 budget will go toward staff salaries, according to the district).

“One of our primary responsibilities is that the district does not go bankrupt,” said board president Sherwin Chen during a Dec. 17 meeting. “I think it is appropriate that we’re super conservative as we model out a budget. The cost of being wrong is huge; that’s layoffs and that’s a cost we want to avoid at all costs.”

With declining enrollment, the district does have to lay off some staff this year, Superintendent Erik Burmeister said during the meeting. The district grew its staff this school year even with decreased enrollment because of the need for smaller class sizes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the meeting, trustee David Ackerman said teacher salaries are the last place he is willing to make budget cuts.

“I don’t want our staff to have to carry the burden to get us through,” he said.

Other trustees noted that the district can’t take any potential cuts off the table.

In 2019, the board had preliminary discussions about putting a measure before voters to renew or replace 2017’s Measure X, which expires in 2024, at a higher taxation rate. It passed in 2017 with an initial annual rate of $360 per parcel.

Two weeks ago, the district began a process of determining the strategy and scope of a replacement parcel tax that would provide greater long-term financial solvency, according to a presentation prepared by staff for the Jan. 21 meeting.

At that meeting, Burmeister recommended that the board pursue various ways to cut costs, which include:

•Elimination of the director of finance position and creation of a new classified-level position

•Elimination of the directors of technology and human resources and the creation of one new combined position: assistant superintendent of talent & technology

•Agreement of the implementation of “combination classes” in those cases where doing so would save the need to hire another full-time teacher at certain schools/grade levels and still maintain class size goals.

With implementation of a 5% raise for district teachers during the 2019-20 school year, the district’s required reserve funds will drop below the minimum amount specified in board policy — at least 15% of total annual spending — by the 2022-23 school year (below 10%) without a higher level of tax revenue, according to the district.

Last February, the school board voted to hold off on placing a parcel tax measure on the November 2020 ballot.

According to a December presentation from Whitehurst/Mosher Campaign Strategy and Media, a political consulting firm hired to advise the district on the parcel tax, the November 2020 election showed that voters in San Mateo County and neighboring areas were supportive of local school measures at a high rate, despite the pandemic. All school bond measures and parcel taxes within San Mateo, Alameda and Marin counties were approved. Some 70% of school bond measures and parcel taxes passed in Santa Clara County.

Both the Portola Valley and Menlo Park City school district measures would require two-thirds voter support to pass.

Email Angela Swartz at aswartz@almanacnews.com