The Hermosa Beach city school board has hired consultants to survey voters about a possible parcel-tax measure, and to aid in the campaign for the tax if it is eventually placed on the ballot. Some school board members said voters must approve a new tax or the little 1,300-student, K-8 district could not provide adequate academic programs past the next year.
“We’re at the point where we need this funding to keep our doors open,” board member Carleen Beste said.
Board President Jack Burns said $230,000 in federal stimulus money will run out this year, and the Hermosa district could lose another $374,000 if statewide voters reject a multibillion-dollar tax measure backed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Burns said rejection of a Hermosa parcel tax could force the school district to merge with a larger, neighboring district. Following a yearlong study, district officials have often described a merger as a last resort, which would not save Hermosans any money and would not ensure the continued existence of both its campuses.
Cuts in state funding have caused shortfalls of $1.7 million over the last five years at the Hermosa district, which has a $10 million operating budget, about 8 to 10 percent of which is covered by the private fundraising of parents and other community members.
The possible new tax, which would be paid by Hermosa property owners, would require approval by two-thirds of the electorate.
Two board members, Beste and Lisa Claypoole, voted against hiring the parcel-tax consultants, after expressing concerns about the expense.
Beste said the district does not need consultants to survey potential voters or to help set the amount of the tax; she said the board can determine how large a tax is needed to keep the district afloat, and a survey is unnecessary if a parcel tax is the only route to continue offering an adequate education.
Burns countered that a survey would help determine the amount of new taxes that could gain voter approval, and consultants told the board that the survey would help craft the campaign pitch by parcel tax supporters.
The consultants will cost the district as much as $39,000 for a first phase of work, which includes a detailed feasibility study, the survey, and development of a campaign strategy. If the school board then decides to place a tax measure before voters, the consultants’ work, and their pay, would continue beyond that first phase.
Interim district Superintendent Alan Rasmussen told the board that the district can pay the consultants without dipping into its reserves, using some money once earmarked for salaries, and money earmarked for legal costs that have been avoided by the cooperative nature of the district’s employee negotiations.
The consulting firms have histories of successfully helping public agencies get tax approval from voters, and one of them, the pollster Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, helped the City of Hermosa Beach get voter approval for its utility user tax.
The earliest a parcel tax could be placed before voters is the November ballot. But some concern was expressed by board members and consultants that the statewide tax measure could hurt the chances of a separate Hermosa measure on the same ballot.
A Hermosa parcel tax also could be presented to voters by mail.
The size and details of a parcel tax are matters for later discussion, but officials have estimated that a tax of $200 per property parcel, and more for commercial and multi-unit residential parcels, would raise about $1.6 million a year.
Educators have kicked around the idea of a three- to five-year run for a parcel tax, with exemptions for seniors.
The last time the Hermosa school district got more money from voters was in 2002, when they approved a bond issue that built classrooms, a library and a controversial gymnasium at Valley School.
In 2006 voters rejected a second bond measure, and in 2008 a parcel tax failed by 20 percentage points.
Since 2007, state budget cuts have prompted the school district to ax or reduce an instructional aide at the kindergarten-through-second-grade Hermosa View School, an assistant principal, music for grades one through five, middle school academic counseling, aides for middle school technology and fourth- and fifth-grade science, a maintenance and operations coordinator, an operations worker, hours for a library/media technician at the second-through-eighth-grade Hermosa Valley School, health aides at both schools, and two clerical workers.
For the current school year, private fundraisers saved a third-through-fifth-grade science lab, first-through-fifth-grade physical education, a program to limit class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, the middle school electives of art, technology, computers, Spanish, music, speech and drama, and a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade reading specialist. ER
