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The Board of Education at the San Ramon Valley Unified School District is set to hold a public hearing soliciting input on the feasibility of passing a parcel tax measure on the upcoming November ballot and consider whether or not to move forward with it again after two measures failed to pass with voters in a special election earlier in the year.
The discussion is on the agenda for the board’s first meeting of the 2024-25 academic year ahead of the election filing deadline in the coming weeks for measures in this year’s General Election, and set to focus on a proposed renewal measure, with no mention of revisiting the proposed supplementary tax that was also on the ballot for the May 7 special election.
However, the board will have the option of considering a supplementary measure instead of, or in addition to, the renewal measure in their final vote on the matter following the public hearing.
“The Local Funding Renewal Measure renewal would reauthorize the district’s existing $144 per parcel per annum special tax assessment for an additional 9 years, commencing on July 1, 2025,” SRVUSD CBO Stella Kemp wrote in a staff report prepared for the upcoming meeting. “Proceeds are expected to be approximately $6.8 million annually and would be used to attract and retain teachers, support academic programs in science, technology, engineering, arts, math, reading and writing, and prepare students to compete in college and careers.”
The proposed measure would continue to include a possible exemption for seniors and low income households, as well as an independent citizens’ oversight committee to evaluate the funds and expenditures by the district, which would not be allowed to use money from the parcel tax measure for administrator salaries.
Earlier this year, the proposed renewal parcel tax Measure E failed to garner the required two-thirds threshold with voters in the May special election, along with the proposed supplementary Measure F Parcel tax. However, Measure E came closer than Measure F, with 62.95% of the final vote count compared with the latter’s 57.86%.
The proposed measure for the upcoming election would again seek to renew the nine-year Measure A that was passed in 2016 and is poised to expire next June, which itself came on the heels of other parcel tax measures for the district dating back to 2004.Â
Following the public hearing, the board is set to cast their votes on whether or not to proceed with pursuing the renewal measure and/or a supplementary measure.
There is a lot at stake for the financially strapped district, with a renewal measure expected to generate approximately $6.85 million annually, and with a regular source of funding set to run out by next summer if the proposed measure fails to make it onto the ballot or pass with voters. However, compared with the special election earlier this year, the cost of placing the measure on the ballot in November would be minimal, with the district already set to hold elections for its Area 2 and Area 3 board seats – currently occupied by Laura Bratt and Shelley Clark respectively, both of whom are seeking reelection.
The SRVUSD board is set to meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday (July 23). The agenda is available here.
In other business
*Trustees set to nominate and appoint board liaisons to a new Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee.
* The board is set to consider adopting a new Workplace Violence Prevention Plan in alignment with state requirements that went into effect at the start of the month.
