Spectrum 9-04 - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...

NEWS
Cari Vallo, mother of a third grader at Redwood
City’s Orion School, shudders at the impact of
$3.5 million in cuts to the Redwood City School
District’s 2005-2006 budget.
“We can’t close the library,” she said. “The parcel tax has to pass.”
Faced with state mandates and dwindling state resources, the Redwood
City School District has cut some $8 million from its budget in the
past five years. Now, with a shortfall of $3.5 million projected for the 2005-
2006 budget, the district’s Board of Trustees, according to Trustee Chris
Bohl, is “backed into a corner.”
So the Board will let the voters decide in May, with a parcel tax placed
on a mail-in ballot. Ballots will be mailed to property owners on April 5 and
the election is scheduled for May 3.
Without the $3.3 million annual revenue generated by the parcel tax,
the Board contends that filling the projected $3.5 million hole could bring
about a bleak scenario:
• Fifty-seven teaching positions will be eliminated along with the small
class size program.
• Classes in all K-3 classrooms will increase from 20 students per
teacher to 29 students per teacher.
• Half of all librarian positions will be eliminated and library hours
will be reduced by half.
• All District music programs and music teaching positions will be cut.
• Positions for reading and math program specialists who help struggling students
will be reduced. These reading and math specialists help English learners by taking students
out of their class one hour a day for two to three days a week and giving them intensive
one-on-one instruction. Should program be reduced in scope, Bohl doesn’t know
“how some of these kids are going to make it.”
Jack Hickey, Chair of the Libertarian Party in San Mateo County, argues the tax is
nothing but a “greedy money grab,” and suggests that “threats by local school officials ...
are just bad taste, and deceitful besides.”
“There is no chance whatsoever that District officials would actually fire the best
teachers, adopt an inferior math curriculum,
or throw special needs students out on the
street if you don’t vote for this parcel tax,”
Hickey wrote in his ballot argument against the measure, known as Measure V.
“The Redwood City School District receives approximately $180,000 in revenue
per classroom of 23 students per year, funded primarily by steadily increasing property tax
receipts,” Hickey notes in his argument. “That’s enough to pay teachers very good wages
(averaging roughly $60,000 in salary and benefits for a 10-month year), with plenty left
over (roughly $120,000 per classroom) for overhead, building maintenance, and other
goodies,” he continued. “
Drive by our schools, and you’ll see by the luxuriant lawns and unnecessarily expensive
curved roof lines, that the board’s priorities are those of a pricy country club — not a
struggling school system,” Hickey stated.
Proponents of Measure V point to the fact that all school districts from Burlingame
to Mountain View currently have parcel taxes. Amounts range from $75 in the Ravenswood
School District to $498 in Menlo Park.
Hickey cited a similar measure that was put before the voters in 1993 and “failed by
a wide margin.” “Subsequently, revenue grew from $33 million to $68 million (a 71% increase,
after adjusting for inflation. While the number of students attending District schools
fell by 5%, the number of teachers was increased by 37%,” he wrote.
In their ballot argument in favor of Measure V, supporters stated that revenue from
the tax will not be allocated toward facilities, salary increases, or administrators. The tax
will be in place for five years, after which voter approval would be required for renewal.
All residential residential and vacant parcel owners will pay $85 per year. Commercial
parcels will be charged based on square footage: Under 14,999 sq. ft. - $200; 15,000-
10 • February 2005
The Spectrum • Redwood City’s Monthly Magazine
‘Backed into a corner’ or ‘Greedy money grab?’
Redwood City School District
puts parcel tax on May ballot
School district officals state that without added revenue from a parcel tax, children, such as these on the
play equipment at Hawes School, will face reduced library hours and bigger class sizes. Photo by John Baker.
By Judy Buchan, Special to The Spectrum
24,000 sq. ft. - $750; 25,000-44,000 sq. ft. - $1,000; Over 45,000 sq. ft. - $2,500.
Senior homeowners 65 and older may file for an exemption from the tax with the
school district. In addition, an independent citizens ovesight committee, made up of community
leaders and qualified volunteers, would be formed to monitor and audit parcel tax
funds to be sure they are spent in strict compliance with Measure V.
With time running short for a campaign, word has it that parent groups at District
schools are starting to mobilize. The Clifford School parent group has also donated $20,000,
and the parent group at Roy Cloud School Cloud PTA is expected to donate $10,000.
Some 80 percent of the parents at Northstar have voted to have the organization donate
$20,000.
“The efforts of the Clifford, Cloud, and
Northstar parent groups have been incredible,”
Bohl said. “They are having to make
the choice of not financing current programs
at their schools in order to help this campaign.”
For supporting information on Measure V, contact Dennis McBride of the Redwood
City School District Board of Trustees at 650-365-2713 or bawsum@earthlink.net. For
opposition information to Measure V, contact Jack Hickey at jackhick@cwnet.com.
Glomar Explorer
Continued from Page 9
Operation Jennifer remained blissfully covert until four burglars broke into
Hughes’ headquarters to steal money. During the robbery, the thieves stole Project
Jennifer files, assuming they were important business documents, hoping to extort
millions for their safe return. The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department
arrested the culprits and recovered most of the documents, hoping to contain any
leaks. However, the LA Times learned of the burglary, and by February 1975, Project
Jennifer was revealed to the world.
Today, the Glomar Explorer is drilling test oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
HMB-1 was later used to “mother-ship” the super-secret sonar-defying Sea Shadow,
also docked in Redwood City. All covert operations were terminated in Redwood
City in 1994, and moved to San Diego.