Ross Valley School District hires parcel tax consultant

The district's annual parcel tax of $679, which generates about $4.6 million a year for teacher salaries, expires in June 2028.

The Ross Valley School District will hire a polling consultant to explore the feasibility of placing a supplemental parcel tax on the ballot.

The board voted unanimously on Wednesday to hire Godbe Research Inc. on a contract of up to $36,425 to conduct telephone polling of 400 district voters to gauge their appetite for an additional parcel tax.

Godbe also would help the board to decide on an acceptable tax amount, and whether it would be supplemental to the existing parcel tax or combined into an extended and larger version of the tax, trustee Ryan O’Neil said.

“We also need to get their opinion on timing of when to do this,” O’Neil said before the vote. “I think this is money well spent to get this right.”

He pointed out that while the Nov. 5 presidential election would likely have a strong voter turnout, the Tamalpais Union High School District might also be on the ballot to retry its Measure A bond proposal that failed to earn voter approval in March.

The Tam Union district includes the Ross Valley, so that could mean district voters would be asked to approve two property taxes. Ross Valley’s four elementary schools and one middle school are considered “feeder schools” to the Tam Union district.

“One would be a bond and the other would be a parcel tax,” O’Neil said.

The bond would require 55% of voter support, while the parcel tax would need two-thirds to gain approval. The deadline to submit a measure for the November ballot is Aug. 9.

“Is this the right time, now?” O’Neil said. “We’d like to know, going into this.”

The district’s annual parcel tax of $679 expires in June 2028. The tax, approved in 2018, generates about $4.6 million annually, all of which is dedicated to teacher salaries, according to Marci Trahan, the district superintendent.

“We need to know the threshold” of how much more money the district could potentially ask for, Trahan said. “The $679 amount has to increase.”

The district is in state mediation with the Ross Valley Teachers Association over the union’s demands for raises in the current school year.

About 50 teachers and district parents met in a discussion group with trustees before Wednesday’s meeting to discuss the district’s finances, which at present do not allow for higher teacher salaries, said Rachel Litwack, the board president.

The district has a $1 million structural deficit in its $30 million budget, Litwack said. That means the district is spending down its reserves by $1 million annually to balance the budget.

“If we provide the raises that the teachers are asking for this school year — without making cuts or increasing revenues — we simply will not have enough money to cover our expenses, and in just two years, the reserves will be completely gone,” Litwack said later.

The union’s initial request for this year is equivalent to an additional 10.33% total compensation increase, “which would put the district’s budget in ‘negative’ status,” Litwack said.

“We would not be able to meet our financial obligations in the following two fiscal years,” she said. “It would require approximately $3.14 million in ongoing cuts to balance the budget.”

In addition, revenues for the current year increased by only 2.65%, despite a 8.22% cost-of-living increase from the state, Litwack said. The dip in revenue was “due to declining enrollment and decreased average daily attendance,” Litwack said.

Litwack told teachers at the discussion session that the parcel tax could be a long-term solution, along with some type of community fundraising campaign. She asked for parent and teacher volunteers to form a budget advisory committee to look at potential savings and revenue generation ideas.

“This has been a tumultuous financial planning time, for these past five years,” trustee Shelley Hamilton told the teachers and parents at the discussion session.

She referred to years of uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 temporary relief funds, the state budget issues and the district’s recently resolved two-year struggle over the fate of the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center.

The crisis at the children’s center was settled earlier this year when the district reached an agreement to sell the district-owned property in Fairfax to a nonprofit representing the center operators.

The $2 million the district received in revenue for the sale is restricted to a facilities fund and cannot be used for the general fund budget, district officials have said. The district estimates the two-year ordeal cost it thousands of dollars in consultants, real estate appraisal costs and legal fees.

O’Neil told teachers and parents that the seven-year clash with Ross Valley Charter school also hurt the district financially by drawing away students who would otherwise attend district schools, thus losing the chance to earn state per-student subsidies.

“We’re in competition for students,” he said of Ross Valley Charter in Fairfax and Heartwood Charter School at the Bothin Youth Center.

“They have about 120 students in the district,” he said. “If you figure $10,000 per student in state subsidies, that’s $1.2 million.”

The Godbe polling and feasibility study is expected to take eight weeks, according to the contract approved Wednesday.