ELECTION 2024: Measure MB will pass, saving 20 teacher jobs
by Mark McDermott
Measure MB, the $225 parcel tax that generates $2.5 million for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, has been renewed.
After another week of vote tallying by the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office, approval for the ballot surged well above the two-thirds threshold necessary for passage. On March 5 Election Day, Measure MB was at 65.11%, below the 66.67% needed to renew the parcel tax. But by press time Wednesday, Measure MB was at 67.75% approval.
The ballot measure’s success will save an estimated 20 teachers’ jobs after the election is officially certified in early April.
Tyler Morant, the co-chair of the Yes on MB committee that campaigned for the ballot measure, said that achieving this challenging level of approval for a tax was the result of a truly community-wide mission.
“Passing Measure MB by a supermajority vote was only possible because of the efforts of so many people. The community support was just incredible,” Morant said. “The committee wants to thank each of our community leaders who signed the arguments in support of Measure,
MB, the MBUSD Board of Trustees, our city council for its unanimous support, and every person who volunteered their time and resources to the campaign.”
“All of those efforts demonstrate how we all are committed to our children and securing their future,” Morant said. “The people of this community are what make it so special.”
Nathalie Rosen, Yes on MB co-chair, said the fact that every elected official in Manhattan Beach and several former elected officials supported the ballot measure endorsed Measure MB was indicative of how widespread support was throughout the community. She also praised the MBUSD Council of PTAs for its approach, which included conducting a parcel tax study, then approval at the council level and at every school site PTA, thus conferring strong credibility to the ballot measure.
“It truly does take a village and every little bit of support helped,” she said.
Rosen said she was particularly struck by how many older residents supported Measure MB, despite no longer having kids in schools.
“The overwhelming support from our 65 and older community for Measure MB is heartening and deeply meaningful,” Rosen said. “It speaks to our community’s profound commitment to preserving the legacy of excellence in education in Manhattan Beach. It also speaks to our community’s shared values across generations and the enduring value of investing in our children’s education.”
The campaign launched in the face of headwinds. Last year, a much larger proposed parcel tax — Measure A, which proposed a $1,195 tax — went to the ballot and lost dramatically, with 69 percent of voters rejecting it. And while that ballot measure would have raised $12 million annually for 12 years and thus covered the projected $12 million deficit MBUSD faces over the next two years, its size and duration made it a lightning rod and created deep divisions within the community.
Measure MB, which instead simply renewed the smaller parcel tax approved by voters in 2018, helped bridge those divides. The campaign was grassroots, with 100 volunteers doing the massive amount of footwork needed for community outreach. One measure of the campaign’s effectiveness is that it achieved 50% voter turnout, markedly higher than the 28.86% turnout in LA County and 34% statewide. This would be an impressive feat in any election, but especially in a so-called “off-cycle” election — the higher turnout federal elections that occur on the first Tuesdays of November — for a ballot measure asking residents to further tax themselves.
Rosen and Morant singled out two volunteers on the Yes on MB committee who were instrumental to Measure MB’s passage.
“Tyler and I would like to express our deepest appreciation to Madeline Kaplan and Samantha Maynard for their outstanding contributions to our campaign’s success,” Rosen said. “Madeline’s exceptional leadership in mobilizing MBUSD parents in the final crucial weeks was instrumental in getting out the vote. Samantha’s dedication and hard work played a vital role in garnering support and resources. The entire Committee’s unwavering commitment to Measure MB exemplifies the spirit of community and collaboration that fueled our campaign.”
Budget update
The MBUSD Board of Education received another troubling budget update from MBUSD Deputy Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard at its March 13 meeting.
One of the key factors in the district’s oncoming budget deficits is a projected decrease in state education funding, which is due to the state’s own ballooning budget deficit. MBUSD has built its budget around Governor Gavin Newsom’s initial budget proposal, submitted in January, The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has recently weighed in decisively on that budget proposal, which it believes is overly optimistic — the LAO report says that Newsom’s budget solves a $58 billion shortfall that is in actuality a $68 billion shortfall.
The LAO’s proposed solution would further decrease educational funding. Murakawa-Leopard calculated this could further decrease MBUSD’s state funding by $1.1 million, although at present the district is budgeting according the LA County Department of Education’s guidelines, which follow the Governor’s budget assumptions.
“This is a really important part of the uncertainty to understand,” Murakawa-Leopard said. “We know that the legislature is hearing that the Governor’s budget doesn’t really solve the problem and that the legislature understands that something different has to happen. We expect that the Governor also recognizes that…So we anticipate that there’s going to be some pretty tough news coming to us over the next few months as they work through what that final budget proposal will look like.”
MBUSD has already approved a round of budget cuts that included the layoff of 38 full time employees, including 33 teachers. Pink slips were sent in early March, a requirement under state law.
The hope all along was that up to 20 of those pink slips sent to teachers could be rescinded if Measure MB passed. Trustee Bruce Greenberg asked if those rescinsions could occur quickly.
“Obviously there’s still a lot of uncertainty out there about our budget, which you’ve articulated,” he told Murakawa-Leopard. “And we’ve got to find this balancing act of managing the uncertainty versus wanting to be able to rescind these pink slips as quickly as possible. Because the reality is teachers that receive pink slips are out there searching for their next job and we want to be able to retain those teachers in our district if we can. Many of them are amazing teachers that have received pink slips. So is there the possibility that we will be rescinding some pink slips?”
Murakawa-Leopard said it was too early to commit to rescinding the layoff notices, but that this would be done as early as possible.
“I think that all of us share the sense of urgency that the sooner that we can rescind, the better,” she said. ER