The schools of the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District are known for their quality. Test scores are good, classroom experiences are positive and students have access to counselors, specialists and great programs like music and art.
To do this, it takes people, and that means salaries for teachers, librarians and specialists.
In a perfect world, these would all be paid for by property taxes, with extras paid for through fundraising. But education funding in California is an example of the opposite of the perfect world and school districts have to seek outside funding for what should be seen as basic programs and services for our children.
So districts ask the community for investments in high-quality education. Measure C is this ask of the community. It is a modest request and actually streamlines the district’s current parcel taxes into one that will last 10 years. At its base level, it is asking for a continuation of the current $292 a year and will add about 3% per year for a final total of about $380 a year a decade from now. The current parcel taxes generate about $3.5 million a year which, combined with the $2.5 million a year generated by the district’s education foundation, is about $6 million a year. The district’s budget is about $50 million a year, so this contribution is a big chunk, much of it generated by parent donations.
The Belmont-Redwood Shores School District operates under the Local Control Funding Formula, which was once referred to as revenue limit. Without getting into the vagaries of the state’s obscure and unfortunate funding systems, it essentially means the district currently gets money based on average daily attendance with extras for certain disadvantaged student populations and not from its local property taxes. This makes it one of the lowest funded districts in the county.
And yet is still performs well. This is a testament to its front-line staff who put in the effort day in and day out. This measure will provide the revenue needed for the district to remain strong, class sizes to remain reasonable and to allow for teachers to remain in this high-cost area.
For some, this is a small amount, for others, it is not. For this reason, the district has placed a senior exemption for those who already provided investments in the community and are now on fixed incomes. As typical, there will also be citizen oversight of its expenditures.
For those who can, Measure C is a sound investment in science, math and reading, along with teachers, librarians, specialists and counselors. Vote yes.
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(2) comments
The article highlights that there’s no correlation between funding and performance. If this School District performs well and is one of the lowest funded districts in the county, perhaps they can share their methods with other school districts. Although I agree that a senior exemption for those on fixed incomes is a good thing, perhaps exemptions for those without kids in the School District should also be provided. Either that, or seniors should not be allowed to vote on this Measure.
Wouldn't it be better for us to explore getting out from under the Local Control Funding Formula? With property tax collections soaring in the Belmont Redwood Shores areas, there would be a surplus of school funding over what the LCFF doles out now. The LCFF caused inadvertent consequences of some Prop 13 provisions. If the District were to fight a little harder to dump the LCFF, no more tax increases would be required. It is easier to just soak us again and again, isn't it?
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