January 27, 2026 - RVSD Board of Trustees Special Meeting

001Instructions for accessing subtitles in a language other than English are included on our board meetings web page as well as in the description below. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Ross Valley School District Board of Trustees special meeting. Today is January 27th and I'm calling our meeting to order at 6:31. We have five trustees present here in person at the Ross Valley School District um at 100 Shaw Drive in Sano. We have myself, Rachel Litwac, we have Chris Lindle's Cobb, Daniel Cassidy, Shelley Hamilton, and Anna Marsh. We also have cabinet members present. Superintendent Tyler Graph, CBO Chris Carson, Assistant Superintendent Julia Walcott, and Director of Student Services Lori O' Conor. Our meeting is being livereamed via YouTube. The link is on our website and on the agenda. There will be a 60-second delay between

002the meeting and the YouTube live stream. A recording of the meeting will be made available on the to the public on our district YouTube website. [clears throat] Per the Brown Act, for special meetings like this one, public comment is allowed only on the item that has been described in the notice of the meeting and may be made in person at the location of the meeting. Um, if you would like to make a comment tonight, we would love to hear from you. Please fill out one of these blue comment cards just so we can get an idea of timing and make sure we can time everything so everyone has a chance to speak. Um, and with that, I will move on to the next item on our agenda. Um, it's a procedure item. Um, and we

003have the pledge of allegiance. So, if you would like to join me, please stand and say the pledge. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy andice for all. Our next item is to adopt the agenda and time allocations as stated here. Did anybody have any questions on [clears throat] that? Changes, modifications? No. Okay. Um, we don't have anything there. I'll entertain a motion. >> Make a motion to adopt our agenda as stated. >> I will second. >> Thank you. And Shel, >> I >> Daniel. >> And I Rachel and Rachel. Okay, so we have an agenda. Um, next item is a C communication. We have correspondence communication to the board. So, I hope everyone had a chance to look through that

004on the agenda. Great. Okay. Um, and then we have uh item two, which is announcements by labor unions, CSEA and RBTA. Do we have anyone here from those two organizations who'd like to speak? >> All right, come on in. Hello, [cough] [clears throat] I'm Diana Sila, co-president of RBTA. Erica Stig, vice president RBTA. We just want to um on behalf of RBTA, we want to express our appreciation to all of you um for the many months that have preceded [clears throat] this day. Um we've always been invited to participate in um the brainstorming, the researching, the decision- making, the budget um advisory and it feels very [snorts] collaborative and we appreciate that. Um we're very well aware now of the revenue challenges the district faces and of the potential cuts on the line to our

005essential programs like counseling and reading intervention. Um, and we learned a lot last year from measure e campaign and we hope to see a measure on the ballot in June of this year. We're ready to mobilize our membership to get a parcel tax renewal with an increase to maintain the effective educational programs we currently have in the in our district and to pay our dedicated staff members a living wage comparable to our neighboring ring county districts. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Is that done? Okay. [clears throat] Um so with that we will move on to D presentation and action items. The first one here is the recommended acceptance of the budget reductions planned to be implemented on a three-year timeline. [clears throat] me. Yeah. >> All right. So, uh just a little bit

006of context here. The the reason we're coming to you all with a budget reductions plan is because MCE basically at budget adoption and at second interim gave us a letter saying, "Listen, we'll approve the budget. You're positive, but your deficit is spending at an unsustainable rate and you have to have a budget reductions plan and a reserve maintenance plan." So part of that is what this is. So we came to you a couple meetings ago um with just kind of a long list to kind of pull from in the event we had to make cuts. The the board direction you all gave us was that long list is nice and we can kind of pick and choose from that when we're ready, but we want something more specific. So we went back to the budget

007advisory committee um and came up with something more specific. I want to thank Chris Carson for leading the budget advisory committee and any members in the room that are part of the budget advisory committee meeting just for kind of reddigging into this over and over again. I feel like the committee has done some really nice work. So if you're in the room, can you raise your hand if you're on the budget advisory committee? >> So we've got a handful of folks in the room. So we've got two things for you. We have a tiered budget cut list here and then I have a timeline that I'll share after this. So um if in June a parcel tax renewal and increase is unsuccessful um the plan that we have is t tier one and tier 2.

008Tier one we would implement immediately and on August 1. None of these cuts require um a March 15th reduction. um they're a little bit easier, quote unquote, easier to reduce. Um none of those are easy reductions, but they don't require the March 15th um deadline there. So, you can kind of see the list there. Uh and then we would have to start planning in September for reductions for the 2728 school year. And those reductions would be more significant and would include layoffs. So eliminating the second elective at White Hill, an instructional coach, our district English language development coordination, uh certificated PE at the elementary school level, which would require some negotiation, um our special education coordination, which is super supportive, and then a three-day management furlow was brought up into that tier 2 um as

009well. So all told, that's about $1.2 million of cuts um done in early August of next school year. and then it would kind of be in August of the 2728 school year. But some of those cuts in tier 2 require about a year of planning to implement. So that's kind of the specifics there. Then if in November we went back out for another parcel tax and that parcel tax renewal andor increase was unsuccessful, then we would have to take $5 million out of our $30 million budget and make significant cuts. we would close two elementary schools or reconfigure our schools. That would save us about a million dollars. And what that would look like in practice is closing two of our elementary schools. Um moving those students and teachers to the other two elementary schools

010and adding portables onto those buildings and or one option we looked at is actually putting all fifth graders at White Hill. So our elementary schools would be kindergarten through fourth or TK through fourth grade and then middle school would be fifth through 8th grade. A lot of that kind of initial planning is just based on um the the capacity of our school sites and the enrollment that we currently have. Would have to go into a lot more detail in planning for that to actually make a specific recommendation. would also close or would also eliminate all those other things um to the tune of about $3 million and would still be running a structural deficit of about $2 million. So without the parcel tax at all, we have to make all of those cuts and we're

011$2 million in the whole which means we're on our way to state receiverhip pretty quickly after um the November parcel tax isn't passed. So, that's just kind of the budget reductions. Any quick questions from the board just on the the reductions right now? >> Do any of these reductions have the potential to expose us to lawsuits? >> Well, I I would make the argument that some of the tier one and tier 2 cuts end up getting in that direction. I think init tier two, the special education coordination, we need to spend more in special education to help be more uh well planned. I mean, the presentation that Lori gave last week uh was really good highlighting that. And I think the less we spend, the more of a skeleton crew we have there, the higher

012chances that we make a mistake and we're exposed to litigation. >> And if that litigation occurs, that punctures the $2 million projection that we're hoping to rely on. Yep. >> To continue at that budget. That's right. Correct. >> That's right. >> Okay, Sean. >> [clears throat] >> in the um uh assumption around the school closures, does that reduction uh include the cost of additional portables? Like is it okay? So it does a lot more detailed about >> you know eliminating a school means one less principal, one less executive or assistant, >> um front office admin, uh custodian. you might save a teacher just because you're having larger schools. Um, and then some power savings, some water savings, but then some increase in security and portables. So, all told, we thought that closing the school nets

013about 600,000. So, it's like not it's not a ton of money to close a school and it's very disruptive. Um, but so is cutting programs to students, right? That diminishes the quality of our programs. Okay, >> just to clarify, so there's with closing the schools, that is not decided. [clears throat] They're not asking us to approve specifics at all. >> No, if you approve this plan to tonight, we still have to come back to you to actually approve the cuts later. This is just saying we can submit this to tell MCOE that we have a budget reductions plan in the event that something doesn't happen here um where we're able to increase our revenues. And once that once we get closer to I guess the end of the year, maybe a budget adoption, we would

014be just like we did last year asking to improve the budget in June with the tier one and tier 2 cuts baked into that budget. >> And are these numbers absolute or do they fluctuate? >> They there there may be some slight fluctuation, but these are pretty good ballpark numbers. >> Okay. and the the tier 2 reductions. If the parcel tax in June is not approved with an increase, [clears throat] >> we would go back out for another parcel tax in November, potentially just a flat rate. >> You could do a flat rate or a lesser increase or the same >> or it could be citizens initiative. >> If the increase is not approved, tier 2 reductions are going to happen >> no matter what. Even if in November, if we just go back out

015for the same flat rate, >> we still have to >> Yeah. >> utilize tier 2 reductions. >> A a straight renewal still has tier one and tier two cuts. Whether the straight renewal happens in June or November after that. And the assumption baked into that is continued 0% raises. [snorts] >> [clears throat and cough] >> Up to this point, has the county given us given any advice on what to cut? >> No, the county won't give us advice on what to cut. They will just give us direction to cut. >> Yeah, we actually met with I we both met with John Carroll and the uh I guess it's assistant of uh business services over there and they're confident in the plan that we have. Um they're confident in the leadership between Chris and I that

016we'll weather the storm and that this plan will get us to where we need to be. Um they're nervous about the you know state takeover piece. Um but I'll talk a little bit about that here in the timeline. >> Yeah, Shel. >> So I know it's really teeny on it's almost like the smallest thing on the page is the most important thing to me on the page. Like for me, I'm like that should be like big font and red. Um because one of the things that I think about in approving a plan is that your plan works. It gets you out of what you need to get out of. >> And when I read the small type at the bottom, >> it's telling me even with $3 million, you're still not getting out of what

017you need to be getting out of. >> Yeah. This is almost 4.5 when you add total everything up. So almost $4.5 million of cuts. If you made every single one of those cuts, we're still structurally deficient in our budget. So the core of the issue really is at the state level or at the local revenue. Right? We've got two options. We can advocate at the state level, which I know all of us are already doing. We're calling our senators. We're sending letters. were meeting with other superintendents to advocate for changes at the state level. I'm fully committed to that and I'm also realistic that this I'm a single superintendent of a school district of 1700 kids. My influence at the state level is not that of Oakland or San Diego or LA or San Francisco

018who actually have like people on staff to advocate for at the state level. Um, so that that process may take three to five years. It may not happen at all. By [clears throat] that time, we've t been taken over by the state. So, I'm fully committed to advocacy at the state level. I'd encourage everyone in the room to advocate at the state level because that is part of the core of the issue. What we can control more easily is working with our community to find a solution here locally to increase revenue. So that's it's to your point this plan without local revenue or without a shift to the LCFF calculation at the state level doesn't this plan does not work. >> So even >> but there's nothing else to cut after this either. >> Right.

019So, so that's what I'm my takeaway from the small type is we could go through an exercise of cutting $3 million and closing schools and all of the pain and heartache that that involves and we will still go into receiverhip because we're because we're basically saying as a district we can't we can't operate with $5 million. I mean, there's just nothing left to cut and still be a viable operating. The only other thing you could really cut is do salary roll backs to to fill that gap. And we're already the lowest paid school district. We just gave 0% raise. We're losing ground to other other districts. And to do a 10% salary roll back, I mean, I would be surprised if any of our teachers stayed at that point. >> Right. So, I mean, I

020I'll let you go on to the timeline part of it because part of part of what I was thinking about in terms of timeline of deciding [clears throat] if if the parcel tax didn't pass and we went out and then we have to be looking at these seriously [clears throat] is at what point does MCE step in >> Yeah. >> and say, "Yeah, 3 million is great. Still doesn't get you there. So, we're not going to like we're going to we're going to move into it." So, I'll let you go into the timeline because I think part of it has to do with that timeline, but that's I just want to make sure I wasn't missing something with the small type at the bottom there. And did [clears throat] the did the uh budget advisory

021committee have anything other than that we there's not I mean this is what we can do. There's not we can't get >> this is everything we brought to the budget advisory committee a and the things that the budget advisory suggested we add to the list. So this is like >> our administrative team, our union partners, our budget advisory committee all putting our heads together and saying like what are the things we could cut? You still need a for every 25 kids you need a teacher. >> Right. You can't cut that. Um so really when you get to the end of this plan the next step is salary rollbacks and at that point [clears throat] >> you know. >> Okay. Take a look at the timeline here. Um, so we trying to I want to give

022Terresa Machado credit for putting this together. I had like a handwritten piece of paper with all of this on there and Teresa turned it into this. So, thank you Teresa. Um, so here we are at the top lefthand corner in the green talking tonight um approving a budget cut uh plan and having our initial discussion around partial tax for 2026. Could be June, could be November. That's up to you. Uh potentially it's up to you really on February 11th where you'll make the vote. You'll give us some direction tonight. Um if you decided to go with June on March 6th, you would we would actually make sure that that gets to the county of Bin so it gets on the ballot. Election day would be June 2nd [snorts] and then there'd be an inflection point.

023Um either we got a yes vote and we make a budget adjustments, we negotiate with our union partners and we stop the budget reductions plan or if you choose November or there's a no vote, we start keep moving down the path. Um in June, we would come to you with at budget adoption with a qualified status budget, meaning we have negative reserves in the third year out. Um we've never we haven't had a qualified budget in a long long time, maybe ever. that would be a serious warning sign um to the to the county office that we're having very significant problems. That's, you know, a few months out. Um and then we would start in July of 2026, we would need to have board discussion right away about the structure, scope, and timing of another

024partial tax in November. Um in August 1st, we would implement the tier one budget cuts. On August 7th, we would submit a ballot measure to the county of Bin. Um, in September, we would start our planning for our tier 2 budget cuts and start contracting with a school closures consultant who would walk us through the school closures process. That's in September. That's less than a year out. Um, and then November 3rd would be election day. If there was a yes vote, um, we would finalize the tier 2 cuts. So, we would move forward with tier one and tier two cuts, but we would stop the tier three cuts. Um, if it was a no vote, we would start planning for the tier three cuts, which would be much more significant. We'd already have that school

025closures consultant on board and ready for us. Um, and we would come to you at the end of next school year with at budget adoption with a negative status budget, meaning we have negative reserves in the second year out, you know, mid June of this year. that's like a warning sign and now it's like flashing red lights um to the county office. So then when you move down into the 2728 school year which really is like a year and a half out. It's not that far out. Um, we would finalize our school closure plans in that school year and the process for state receiverhip would likely start in that school year and then we would start the 2829 school year with two elementary schools, one middle school and likely instate receiverhip. So that's kind of

026to your point, Shelley, that even with the plan were still in state receiverhip. We only have two elementary schools and those elementary schools would be at max capacity plus there. there wouldn't be room to to move in those schools. They would be uh elementary schools of about 500 and our capacity is right about 425 for our buildings. So that's the that's the timeline of things to happen um with all the scenarios in there. Questions on the timeline? >> Can you explain a little bit more about state receiverhip? Yeah. So at state receiverhip, I think probably in June of 27 when we co go with a negative status um budget to you at that point the county would start having some pretty serious conversations and state receiverhip essentially means that Chris is pushed out of his

027job. I'm pushed out of my job and you all don't have real voting power anymore. Um so someone from the state is kind of put in to direct us how to move. Um there'd be an interim superintendent and an interim CBO that would um you know lead that process that would be basically directly tied to the state um and their decision-m process and they would likely come in and start making [clears throat] deeper cuts and like I said the only deeper cut is salary roll backs. >> They don't come in with max fill your money. Mhm. >> No, >> but you lose basically lose all local control. >> Yeah. And if you know anything about Fairfax and Sanel, local control is pretty important. Um, so losing that would be a serious problem. >> I think

028this is an important visual for folks just to like sit with for a moment. [clears throat] It's a lot of words and it's a lot of dots and there's a lot of years on it, but June is like, in my experience, the spring goes by like at a million miles an hour. We're going to be coming to you with budget adoption in June before you know it. Um, and then it's a school year and it's off to the races with state receiverhip and um and closing schools. So, it seems like it's a long way out, 28 29, but like that process truly starts in earnest in September and like for real in November of next school year, less than a year away. >> And because of the timeline, like you said, for the tier 2

029cuts, unlike the tier one cuts, which don't take as much lead time, the tier two and the tier three take a lot more lead time. >> That's right. And so unfortunately timing wise it looks like you have to start putting things in place before the election happens. >> Yeah. >> Because of the time frame I was noticing that September versus like oh you don't know until November but because of what you have to do >> you have to start. >> Yeah. So we almost and this is kind of the the challenge that we're in. We kind of have to have a plan A and a plan B. And this is a plan A and plan B. And then after June there's another plan A and a plan B. And after November, there's another plan in

030plan plan A and plan B. And this is what businesses do in terms of strategic planning and you know mitigating risk having a plan with all the options on the table. So if you don't have any more questions about either the cuts or the um timeline, >> I just have one more to make sure I'm understanding. I think it was actually in this the next agenda item, but the information so right now with our current revenue situation about 16% of our budget is parcel tax. >> That's right. It's >> about $5 million. >> That's right. >> So basically the way I'm hearing that is that if we had no local funding, we just had the state allocated LCFF is which so when you're talking about a structural issue >> Yeah. The structural issue, just making

031sure I understand this when we go through the structural issue is that the state says, "Oh, all the districts can run at this guaranteed minimum amount of money to create an education for the kids public education." So, what the state is telling us is that you get, according to the state funding, $5 million less than what you're bringing in locally. And uh what we're looking at here with these cuts is what would what would that look like structurally in our district with $5 million less because we've got because basically the cuts on the other one were >> three million and then four four something almost five. So it's kind of like this the LCF bas basically we get the what the creators of the LCFF thought was the base minimum any school district could have

032per pupil. we get that essentially give or take like a little bit of money. Um that might be sufficient if you're on the north coast or maybe parts of the central valley, the eastern Sierra, but in the Bay Area that we would have to offer salaries that are 10 to 15% less than we offer. that might work if you're living in a rural area of the state where cost of living is much cheaper and you can kind of afford to own a house in your your um school district. But in Marin County, it does not cut it. So the LCFF, this is why some people at the state level are advocating for a a regional cost of living adjustment to the LCFF, which would benefit districts like us in Marin or uh in San Monteo

033or in Santa Clara County. Those are the things we're advocating for at the state level. Um, like I talked about the last board meeting, >> there's also conversation at the state level between doing uh enrollment based funding as opposed to attendancebased funding. Um, unfortunately I think that that one is >> a little bit dead on arrival, but that would be um something that would give us a 3% increase to our LCFF calculation right off the bat, which is about $3 million or I don't know what 3% off the top of my head is, but >> and the other and the other conundrum that we have is that we're in yes, we're [clears throat] in a high cost county, but we're also in a high property tax county, but we are in uh surrounded by other

034school districts who are in who are their property tax base actually has excess over their LCFF minimum. So the amount of money that our neighborhood neighboring districts have is higher than what we have. >> Yeah. >> And so then when we're the that's another >> that's something I've been thinking a lot about in the last week or two is just the property tax in Marin County is high on the dollar amount. If you look nationally, it's not high on the percentage compared to the home value, but home values are really high. >> So even with a lower percentage, your actual raw number of tax is is pretty high. And I think it's very different if you bought your house in the last 5 years, the property tax bill you have versus the property tax bill

035you might have if you bought 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago. And the story of the Ross Valley is that the average home across the average of the homes is actually a lower property tax um than surrounding areas because we have more folks that have lived in their homes or inherited their homes that have a property tax basis from 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. And I think that's part of the story here where there's higher turnover in Sanfell. There's higher turnaround in turnaround or turnover in Mil Valley and some of these other places in the county. >> And what that tells me is people want to live here and want to stay here because it's a great place to live because our schools and teachers are so amazing. Like

036that's part of why housing turnover isn't as high as it is in other places. >> Any more questions? Excuse me. [clears throat] Yeah. Right. Um I may turn it over for public comment. I think these are all for the next agenda item. Um if anybody has [clears throat] any public comment on this, please feel free to step forward. You have three minutes. Is our timer working? >> Is that [clears throat] is our timer working? I think so. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Uh, hi. Uh, thanks, uh, PJ Buffer. Um, manner parent. Um, so I brought up and I, you know, I won't restate my email. I read it word for, [clears throat] um, I won't restate it word for word. Um, I am hoping the board will consider adjusting the budget reductions uh tiers. Um you

037know, the part of the preface of the most recent budget advisory committee meeting, and I've been to all of them, um was a discussion about how disruptive school closures would be and why that want that's our last resort. Um and I thought that sounded odd. You I grew up in New York City, so for many reasons, schools closed. uh temporarily or permanently with uh some regularity. Um and there was never any sort of discussion about all of those students suffering severely as opposed to, you know, all the other things that um students in New York City struggle with in terms of school facilities and and funding and the like. So I went and did uh some research and saw that there is research on the effect of school closures on student populations and especially you

038know they're they're more severe in um populations that are typically underserved um minority district lower income communities um places where when you close the school all of a sudden people's commute times goes from 15 to 20 minutes to an or the that even then you get like maybe a um a 2% reduction in in college attendance. Um and uh by the time you're like 26 or something, this study said that you'd be making eight you'll have made $8,000 uh dollars less. Um, but it also found that there really is no long-term um negative effect on student outcomes in uh more uh more wellresourced uh districts and communities. Um and contrary to that, arts education, student uh counseling, mental health counseling, um intervention, these things do and we've seen in our district have a significant effect

039on student outcomes. And right now, uh the the district could push some of the school closings up to tier 2 and move down some of those uh special education things. to uh trustee Landel's cop's point about lawsuits um mitigating some of these cost reductions uh you also have to think about the increased cost due to attrition if you get rid of certi certificated PE um or special education cost uh increasing because we lose our counseling and our instructional coaches and things like that. Thanks. Hi there, Paul Scalisich, voter district voter. Um, and first I want to thank you for being on the board and providing community service. It's a terrible job. Uh, I'm glad you're doing it. And also, I want to thank Tyler for being so gracious and really a a real good person

040to talk to. Uh, I've been opposed generally to most taxes. uh as opposed to measure E. And Tyler and I had a conversation about this and [clears throat] I'm I totally appreciate teachers uh and parents and the needs for the schools, but my perspective is someone who doesn't have kids, has been paying school taxes forever, and most importantly, I'm I'm scared I'm gonna have to move. And you're not the only tax out there. I think you mentioned we had the lowest I understood the tax base conversation is probably based on the 1% adorum state tax. I have 18 separate items on my tax bill. And when I go to pay that every year, I did a spreadsheet. I encourage everybody to do one if you own property in the Ross Valley, put it out 20

041years, I'm gone. I'm gone at year 10. And so I speak from a perspective of affordability. And if you don't think it impacts renters and teachers ability to to buy and rent in their district, every time you increase the tax, it's making it harder and harder. Having said that, I'm sympathetic to the problems you might be having. I really appreciate the tier one, tier two, what, whatever. I didn't hear all of that conversation. I think you need to double down on that. And frankly, I don't know if you mentioned this. I brought it up with Tyler one day. Um, you need to sell this building. Why do you need this property? I mean, come on. This you're a small four or five district school uh school district. Why do you need facilities like this? So,

042I would encourage you to do that. And then finally, I'd say, you know, when when Measure E failed, um, people who had homes that were, I think, 1,200 square feet or about that were Oh, is that my time? [laughter] >> Yeah. Get out of here. Um, you know, my my tax was going to be um less with measure E, but now it's going to be it would be more. Uh, and so my to me it sounds like a a car deal, right? Where you go in and Tyler and I talked about this. You go in and somebody wants $1,000 for your car and you say, "Uh, I'll give you 700." And they come back and say, "Well, how about 1,200?" And so I know you think you need this money and you may maybe you

043do, but the tax payer and the voter in this district is going to look at that and go, "They didn't get the message." And so except for the the larger properties which I guess would pay less but there's going to be multiple there's going to be something like 10 new tax parcels I mean uh tax measures in the county between June and November. I'll stop there my time's up but anyway thanks for listening. [clears throat] >> Hello members of the board. I'm Michelle Pelton, um, school counselor at Wayham Middle School. And a couple things I think just looking at the tier proposal already is putting fear in your the staffing and already feeling consternation amongst everybody who um, sees these reductions. I also feel like we're talking about Prop 13 here. Prop 13. From a

044personal perspective, the business that my family had run went from 2500 to pay each year up to 25,000. So if you are somebody who is retiring or older, you do pay less in taxes and um also there will be tax breaks for people who are seniors and who have hardships. Um, but I'm really here to talk about receiverhip. And I was in a district and when I first started out as a school counselor 24 years ago anyways, I was at Valo City Unified School District and they went into receiverhip uh about 5 years in. Those scars are still there. They don't go away. Anytime you hear about a school district going into receiverhip, they're still at this time trying to fight their way out of it. It's not something you want to be in. Um,

045you know, when a district loses financial control, the impact reaches far beyond the budget spreadsheet. Decisions quickly shift away from what is best for the students in the community and toward what is required to stabilize finances as fast as possible. As a result, staffing programs and services are cut rapidly with little opportunity for thoughtful or strategic planning. Um, I'm just looking here. The loss of stability affects everyone in the system. In my experience, staff turnover increased. Remaining employees carried unsustainable workloads and many of the programs that define the district were eliminated. Um, once trust, morale, and stability are lost, rebuilding them takes years. The greatest cost, however, is to the students. Supports are reduced, enrichment opportunities disappear, and the schools move into a survival mode rather than a place of growth and possibility. [clears throat]

046Families feel the shift, and community confidence declines alongside the district's reputation. This affects everyone, including the community and the stakeholders. And if you're running a business here, it's going to affect you, too. Um, this parcel tax represents an opportunity to protect local control, preserve essential services, and safeguard the long-term health of the district. The cost of acting now is far less than the lasting consequences of being forced into receiverhip. And I want to thank you for your time and letting me speak. Appreciate it. Thank you. [applause] Great. One thing I'm going to ask is um for no applause because there's people who are very have different views on everything and I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable speaking publicly because everyone should be able to have speak publicly here. So I'm just please request that

047you not clap or you know just out of respect for everybody here who may have different opinions. Do we have any other public comments? My name is Ben Leasey. I'm a father of a fourth grader and a second grader. I'm also a former teacher who walked away from the profession due to the realities of living in the Bay Area and the income that I was making. My first point is that this is a family community. The overall flourishing of this community relies heavily in many ways on confidence in its school systems. And that relies on both the size of classes as well as the quality of our teachers. We moved here to Sanelmo in 2022 and one of the first things we looked at on Trullia was that 1 to 10 number next to the

048schools in the area. And I know for a fact that many other families would be doing that. We actually moved from Green Bay where my daughter was at Basic. Um and it was pretty amazing to get to a school that only had two classrooms per grade versus the four that they had there. I've heard that some years they they actually have five kindergartens, which to me is a wild number. Um, we have something special here. It's an amazing community that we live in. Um, but I do understand that there are those that don't have kids or whose kids have already gone through the school system. And what I'd like to say to you is that as the quality of our schools drop, the desiraability of the area will as well. Property values may not dip

049too drastically. San Andelmo and Fairfax will continue to be nice communities, but they certainly won't increase in the manner that they have over the last several decades. Parcel tax for those affected should be looked at as an investment in your community, but also, you know, just in a callous manner just as your state's value. Allowing our schools to suffer will likely restrict your state's future potential, but more importantly, it's going to impact in a negative fashion the desiraability of our community. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Somebody made a comment. >> Good evening, trustees. Um, and I'm gonna probably sound similar to uh to the gentleman before me. This feels like a death spiral. It feels like as uh as the quality of the school is deteriorates, then people who have

050the ability to will pull their kids out of the school and move put them in public schools and then their the quality of the programs will continue to deteriorate and the and the teachers will become demoralized. We heard about state state receiverhip. I am probably not sharing anything new. I have two kids that are just about to join. So I'm a perspective parent and the biggest thing that I would ask is a broad a and there's so much canvasing by Tyler by so many people in this room and just it's shocking to me how few people know how desperate this situation is. And so while we can focus on a lot of different things and how much more we can cut, I think if we can spend some time thinking about how we can make

051this more pervasive and um you tell a working parent that you're going to have a half day kindergarten program and they're probably going to show up and try to figure out what they can do, too. So I um again, I just want to say thank you for for all of the working group and everything that's been that's fun to this point. Any additional public comment? [clears throat] >> Uh, dear Wade Thomas, board of trustees, sorry, Ross Valley from the Weight Thomas people. Uh we the way Thomas staff are willing to writing to express I don't have readers on right now our strong support for both renewal and an increase of the current part. Thank you. [laughter] >> I know yours are too strong. [laughter] >> I'll try. Uh we are a team of deeply dedicated

052educators who come from a wide range of prior careers and walks of life bringing with us a wealth of experience, care and knowledge that we profoundly share with our students and school community. It is our belief that in order to continue serving our community at the high standard we know is possible, the funding of our district must change. For many of our staff, both long-standing and newly hired, it has become abundantly clear that Ross Valley is a truly special place to work and to be a part of. However, without an increase to the current parcel tax, our district faces significant cuts not only to staffing, but also to the programs that help make our schools so successful. It's a privilege to serve the way Thomas community in the way we do. And without the support

053of the parcel tax, we know that this level of service would be drastically impacted. We appreciate your time, leadership, and consideration of this critical matter. us. >> Uh Johnny Vanhton, a district employee and parent of a student at Hidden Valley and CSA president. >> [clears throat] >> Quality public education isn't a luxury. It is essential for democracy itself. Our teachers are doing more than teaching math and reading. They are modeling civil discourse, critical thinking, and how to disagree without dehumanizing others. These are the skills that make our community the paradise that it is. Yet, our teachers are the lowest paid in the county. grasping at basic costs of living despite their extraordinary investment in both our kids and our community. [clears throat] If we want our teachers to stay, we need to pay them. If

054we want our children to inherit a functioning community rather than deeper divisions, we need to keep the educators who are literally teaching our students how to be thoughtful changemaking citizens. [clears throat] that is worth protecting at any cost. Thank you. >> Just one reminder, this item is about the budget cuts. If you have uh comments about the partial tax, that'll be on the next agenda item. Thanks. >> So, this is just about the cuts. >> That's right. >> Public comments. >> Okay. Anyone else [laughter] like to make comments on this agenda? All right, seeing none, I'm going to take public comment, bring it back to the board for our discussion. [clears throat] You know, um, this fiscal cliff has been something that I've been aware of from the moment I decided to join this board.

055It's not an arbitrary event that came out of nowhere. It's something that I knew that was coming down the pike. And when you think about our school system, we do have a very beautiful yet fragile ecosystem of our schools. Okay? And one small thing that you take out can affect everything. And these cuts, I know they're not arbitrary. I know that they're difficult, but the reality is is that they're going to affect our ecosystem and they're going to affect the quality of our schools. Um, but they're necessary and I and I appreciate the effort that has gone into this with think tank of individuals in the audience included who've done this. Um I have racked my brain looking at each and every single one and I can't imagine where the creativity and you know me

056I do this for work. I would tell you have you thought about X Y and Z and I think that you have put together an unfortunate [clears throat] collection that I think is unbearably right. It's interesting. I was in contact with a superintendent recently and their district is going to I think cut somewhere to the tune of four to six billion dollars from the budget. >> Yeah. >> And one of the first things is that that they're going to cut is 40 40 teachers on special assignment. 40 teachers on special assignment toas. >> Those are toas that like aren't classroom teachers. that when I'm when we're talking about cuts, we're not talking about like kind of a bunch of toes [snorts] are amazing. They're super helpful, but if you had 40 toes in this district,

057it'd be a pretty easy decision to to make the cut and would move forward and it wouldn't impact student programs and it'd be easy. >> We're running all the way to the bone. So the cuts are every single one of those cuts has an impact on kids >> and we've been doing cuts >> before I became a board member and during this peeling [clears throat] back peeling back without the need for this type of event to prepare for this cliff that we've now come [clears throat] up against. Um and I don't think people realize that. >> Yeah. And you would know that Shelley being here for a long time. I was I was actually going to say something similar and I know that we've talked about it and first I just really appreciate everybody coming

058up and being [clears throat] here with this but yeah and the the statement about shocking how few people know about how serious this is and I mean I've been in public yeah having been in public service for almost I don't two decades or you know on the planning commission talk about different difficult places you know planning commission and then here and continuing to be shocked over and over and over again with how few people know what's going on. And part of it is the history of it. And so one of the things that I was thinking along this line that would be really helpful going forward would be um to help people who are just new to the conversation and there will be a lot more who come. I didn't know that this was happening,

059you know, at the further 11th hour than we're even at. but even to have a history because the district I'm super proud of all of the staff and this district for doing exactly what you have said is that we have all the way along when when somebody retires or leaves found incredibly creative ways for people to take on business officer and you're here on the weekends with you know things that happen with facilities and superintendent who's also doing HR and you know assistant superintendent that are doing curricula I mean, everybody, all of our staff has been phenomenal and amazing [snorts] at picking up the pieces, and it's gone under the radar for so long, which has both been just amazing, but also now scary. Um, because we're so we're we don't have 40 doses to

060to get that what we need. Um, so I think I think it might be helpful to have some sort of history thing that shows people because a lot of people immediately go to like, oh, there must be too much administrative staff or whatever because that's kind of a narrative that often goes along when you have to do these. And I think it'd be really helpful to show over the years like we used to have this many staff and now we're doing a you know >> this kind of thing for that like how what how can we make that how can we make the cuts prior to these ones >> show up um in our conversations as we're canvasing. So >> the the critical nature is here and this is plan B. [clears throat] These are

061not this is plan B. >> This is not predestined. plan B if we can't renew and and ask for more >> and increase. So this is bringing like yeah this is serious [clears throat] and this is not our desired outcome right this is plan B so how do we again mobilize so I appreciate this and the budget advisory committee was the seriousness was was exceptional and for the folks in the room like really hard conversations over the past 12 months maybe um and this is plan B so I just want to reiterate that that these we can change this [clears throat and cough] in this room in this county we change the outcome. So, >> yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is this is why I got involved and I was over there for a long

062time just totally clueless like what what's going on? And I don't know. I not that I thought that I could come on board and find the crack because I have no finance background, but I really was so shocked to see the history of all of the cuts. I really was. I was like, how do we even operate on this tiny little, you know, line item budget for? And it really I am that has been something I've been so surprised by is how we do so much with so little. Like I am it's pretty shocking. Um I would I mean especially with special ed, I feel like that's I mean it's incredible what we offer with how little we have. Um, I want to pay our teachers more so badly and I wish we we could

063and I think the difference now I I see from when I started coming to meetings three years ago is I do think our our community is more educated. I think our school community more parents um more staff I think people are more but that's our small school community and it is so hard to reach beyond that. Um it's it's huge nonetheless. I mean I think people do know more and the parents are more involved. I think postco more parents right every year are getting more involved and willing to to volunteer in different ways but it's I mean we have to pass this tax and we have to figure out how to get the comm like outside of our school >> like how do we beyond the parents and caregivers >> that's an interesting thing like

064is that the the communicating getting outside of just our school families. That's something we've been working on, but it's so difficult because I can't get in front of all of the groups necessarily. I'm happy to do that. If anybody has groups that they would like some education, I'm happy to come in. I have a fairly flexible schedule. So, I'm happy to talk to groups that might be interested in hearing about just the finances and the situation before we even have a parcel tax. I'm happy to that that issue aside, I'm happy to talk about the financial situ situation as Maria now. >> Very happy to do that. Just reach out to me. It's very easy. Um, but it is it's a challenge, I mean, to get that information out. Um, especially when there are budget

065reductions and if we have people who have little ones coming in who aren't in our our school district yet and our schools, they don't know these things as much. So, it's like I'm I'm very much I see the issue, but I also see like we need to get in front of those families so they understand like the repercussions. And I think the agenda the agenda tonight is a is a reflection of a pairing of the reality of we have a plan B and we have a plan A which is what we all want. And so I know that we go out and I think they go hand it is >> they go hand in hand because they're both >> part of what we're looking at and to be responsible we need to be advocating like

066heck for that parcel tax. That's what we all want. That's the kind of education that we've heard from you all when you come up and talk about how important that education is and what this education means not just to you and your kids and our kids but to our community and society and future generations that those kids will grow up to be leaders of. Um, so that's the positive future that we have the control over and the plan B that we also are taking control of so [snorts] that it doesn't get taken out of our hands and have the state come in and tell us how to do it. So holding all of that and juggling all of that is um a huge responsibility, but I appreciate that we're holding those two things together and

067I hope that the community sees that we're holding those two things together. um to be responsible stewards of education. >> The the budget advisory committee, I guess that was started with Marcy, right? And Chris when we first started and I remember being in a meeting and being like, "Okay, sign your name here. Please, please volunteer to be on this committee." And I was I was in the, you know, just a parent. And thank you Chris for starting that advisor. Thank you for taking it on Tyler. It has been painful but so beautiful to see all like staff, parents, the you know board on this committee. I think it's it's really like brought everybody together and to understand that it's just we have something we have to work together to do >> and I really want

068that community to end. [laughter] >> You say you don't want it to be necessary. >> One quick question. Will these cuts cost us any money to implement >> time? >> I know I'm splitting staff staff time. >> Like I just as an example, >> I think a big lift if we have to implement the tier 2 reductions is eliminating the second elective at White Hill. Yeah, >> that's going to take, you know, committee time and time with the principles and time with the union, time with the teachers. So, not a not an increase to this uh the budget, but a loss of time um when teachers or people could be >> planning lessons and grading paper and giving feedback to kids and um we'll be focused on that. >> And the cost of morale >>

069of course. >> Yeah. >> Um okay. in the cost of continuously looking for new staff. >> Exactly. >> Which if we can't get we have to then use a service, >> right, >> to look for people to do that, right? >> And if there's if there's decreased, so like so one of the commenters questions, if we get to tier three and we move TK to a half day, we lose enrollment. Or, you know, some parents might say, hey, I get two electives. I can do Spanish and band or makers and and you know orchestra at White Hill and I want to stay in this district and not go to private school for middle school because of that. And if you lose that enrollment, you lose the revenue. So it's not necessarily a direct cost to

070the budget, but there's implications on the revenue side. So what what what this does is it it stops a little bit of the hemorrhaging knowing darn well the patient may not make it anyway but it pushes us a little further off that cliff faster is what I'm understanding. >> One of the commenter commenters makes an interesting argument in my estimation is this difference between cutting programs versus closing schools. >> Right? Hypothetically, if you just close schools, the kids still get the programs. So, the quality still stays there, right? There's a big impact to the community. Whereas, if you cut the programs, the kids are impacted, but maybe the community is not as impacted because you don't close the school. So, I mean, it's it's six of one, half dozen of the other in terms of

071the impact to the community overall. Um, and in terms of the actual budget reductions, um, but if you really take a only students first, you would keep the programs and you cut the schools, uh, first. >> And no one's mentioned that even within those tiers, teachers are leaving. >> Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. >> We're going to lose great teachers again. >> We lose lost great teachers last year, >> right? It's going to continue >> be even harder to recruit. >> Right. Okay. All right. Just wanted to make sure that I'm looking at Armageddon in the right way. Okay. >> Well, something I thought about is when you if you put portables on a canvas, you're losing all of this yard space >> that we we kids need that. >> And the story time and time

072again in the Ross Valley is that people move here in part because of the schools and the downtowns and the businesses. They're great communities. And if you lose part of that, people are going to move here less. They'll move to other parts of of Marin or other parts of the Bay to get the quality schools and the cute downtowns, the great restaurants and businesses. Um and and and when you think about it from a economic standpoint, a young family with kids is going out to dinner, is buying stuff downtown. You know, part of the economic engine of a community is a family with kids that is going out and spending money in the community for soccer cleat and soccer balls and all the things that parents spend money on. I just wanted to ask or

073talk a little bit also about when you mentioned this idea because clearly these tiers, you know, have the closing of the elementary schools in tier three because part of that and I had thought about this and it was brought up again tonight and I'd had somebody else mention something like that as well. It's like this tradeoff. And part of the part of the [clears throat] challenge is when dealing with kind of hard infrastructure issues, real estate, like you know, you sell something, it's gone forever pretty much. It's hard to get it back, especially with the crisis or when you close a school and decommission things reinstituting electives if a partial, you know, like we were talking about that time differential where you have to start implementing stuff, but you still might have another election coming

074or something might change and thinking about what can you rewind faster differently than other things. Um because I I think conceptually I might tend towards the like we'll survive with maybe one less school or something to keep certain programs. But the uh issue of unwinding closing a school and then reopening a school and reshuff and the reshuffleling that it has to do with people's lives and then just the hard infrastructure of closing and and with the possibility of reopening and the timing of all of it tended me back towards the structure of the tier 2 tier three >> and the timeline gives us more time for community engagement for closing schools to have it out in the 28 29. So, I mean, I I see both sides of the argument. They're both terrible arguments and

075terrible situations. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> yeah. >> But the time of closing moving schools to the 2728 school year makes it like we should start with consultant contract at the next board meeting, >> right? Um, it tight. And I and I do remember just the conversation around moving not even closing schools but moving boundaries of schools was just >> boom which you would have to do that if you [clears throat] close schools because it would be yeah >> unless you did a clean all the hidden valley families go to manor right >> and then thinking about the that conversation sucking all the air out of the room instead of like no now we have to pass it in November let's not talk about that let's focus on passing a partial tax in November and

076not focusing on, you know, this school, no that school, no this. Like, that's not the conversation. As long as we're still going for a partial tax, our focus needs to be getting that partial tax passed, not which school, which boundaries, those kinds of things. And so, I would much rather that's like that those kind of community conversations which are so additionally gut-wrenching, all this other stuff. I don't want to take our eye off the ball of getting parcel tax passed until we are in a place where we can't. >> That's a really good point because I have had a lot of talk with a lot of parents who want to know which schools would it be and what would happen to the space and community members like neighbors. I don't want an empty school in

077my neighborhood. So it would create a lot of noise to which the answer is then let's pass you have to have that conversation at all. Oh yeah, that's >> you know >> that's that's the way I would respond to that is like >> we don't we have it as a tier three. We'll have to have we may have to have those conversations but what we really should be talking about passing person. >> Can I make a motion? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So I'd like to make a motion to that we accept these budget reductions plan to be implemented in a three-year time. >> Do you have a second? >> I have a second. >> Thank you. Daniel, >> hi >> Anna. >> Hi >> Shelley. >> Hi Chris. >> Hi >> Rachel. Hi. >>

078Thank you. >> Very very painful cuts. >> All right. Our next agenda item D2 is the board discussion for the purpose of giving direction to the superintendent regarding partial tax renewal timing structure and scope. >> Great. So tonight just want to be crystal clear. We're not making a vote. This is only discussion. And really the essential question is what is the timing, structure, and scope of the partial tax? You'll give us some direction. You come back on February 11th with a proposal to vote on. So a lot of the community conversation should happen tonight and between now and February 11th. Once we get to February 11th, we can still make changes, but really the changes should happen between now and and then. Um so tonight is a discussion without a vote. Here's the agenda. We'll

079talk a little bit about budget context. I apologize to everyone in the room. You will have seen some of these these slides, but I think they're really important context for all of us. Um, talk a little bit about community engagement that we've had. Um, talk about partial tax context. A lot of people are asking about, you know, what's the actual need? How's it compared to other districts? And we'll talk a little bit about that. Um, the alternative options, which is kind of what we just talked about. And then board discussion for and staff direction on the timing, structure, and scope. Again, no vote tonight. So, you've all seen this. Um, and this is just an articulation that Ross Valley School District has the lowest per pupil revenue in Marin County. Um, you can see we

080are on the LCFF side of the the image this year to the tune of a couple hundred,000 $400,000. Um, every other district is either deeper into the LCFF because they have more uh lowincome foster youth or multilingual students. Sanfell and Nevada are good examples of that. 6 to12 million deeper in LCFF. Um, and then on the other side, the basic aid, the property, the overall property tax burden in those um towns is significantly higher because people turn over more. They're closer to the city, so people are moving in and out. Um, you could see Ross, I like to use that as an example just because it's easy. Um, 300 kids and $3 million deep into basic aid. You can do a lot of lot of programs for kids and salaries for for staff when you

081have that much money for that few kids. Um, I like to compare us to Larksburg, Cordera, Kentfield, Miller Creek. Those are really our three comparison districts. So, as we move through, I'm going to talk about Ross and Santa and Reed a lot less, but just know that there's always those ones all pay more and all have better benefits even though I'm just comparing those four because I'm trying to do as close to apples to apples. This is another way to look at it. We have the uh you know, we're well below the statewide average, the bottom 4% of the state. Uh those highlighted in green are those comparison districts I just mentioned. If we just had the state state average at 14,494, we would not be asking for an increase to the parial tax. We

082can run our district and pay our teachers given that amount of money. >> And that's per student, right? >> That's per student. >> That's right. So, you know, not to pick on Ross tonight, but you can see $19,294 per kid compared to our 11,000. That's, you know, a 90% increase. Um there's a lot we could do with that level of funding. We're spending down our revenues pretty pretty quickly. Um we're projected this year to be uh below the board's 10% and near the state minimum requirement of 3% in the third year out. Um so this is why the county is saying, "Hey, you need a plan to cut things." Um to the conversation we just had earlier, we've been cutting at the district level. Um, we cut a computer tech specialist in 2020. That's a

083district office position. We cut a district office custodian down to 0.4. Um, we eliminated the director of human resources, that's an admin position. Admin assistant positions, a subller, a teacher on special assignment. Those are all district office cuts far away from the classroom. So, when people are kind of knocking at the door saying like, hey, why don't you cut the district office? That's what we've been doing over the last few years to the extent we can. And then in 24 and 25, we started cutting closer to the classroom because that's what we had left to cut. Um, you can see we've cut half of our counseling program. Our counseling program is still there. All four of our counselors are still there. We've eliminated from the budget and backfilled it with one-time dollars, but it's not

084in the general fund anymore. Um, we've kind of done the same budget uh trick with kindergarten aids librarians with our PTAs back filling those. So, those aren't in the budget right now either. >> When did those one-time funds run out? >> Uh, we're spending them when they when we get them. So, this year we got 500,000. We spent all 500,000. We spent it on one-time salary increases um off schedule salary increases for for staff and on holding the counseling program harmless. So the money the 500,000 we got this year is already out the door. Um so even so even though we're cutting programs, we're still giving 0% to teachers. Um we negotiated with the the union this year and settled on a 0% increase. So, not only are we the least funded uh or the

085least salaried teachers in the district or in the county, we are losing ground with the 0% raise because everyone else is giving more than the 0%. Um, last year I showed this just these bottom four because those are kind of the four that I I'm comparing including us and there was a lot more green just just at like 12 months ago. There's a lot more green and now there's one green spot showing where we pay better than Millard Creek at the step 16 level >> and that's because they've settled and given increases. >> Yep. Yeah. Every other district has given increases to the tune of, you know, a part of a percent to 5% or more um depending on the district. But you can see this is where attracting and retaining talent matters. on the

086on the left side of the the image. Hard to attract a teacher when you pay them $64,000 and they've got to drive past four or five districts to pay $10,000 more. And on the on the back end, we pay 117 and you know, if you are a single subject teacher at White Hill getting paid 117, you can get the same job at Archie and get paid $40,000 more. Plus, you don't have to pay for health insurance for your significant other or your family on top of that. So, it's not just 40,000, it's like $55,000. So, it's hard for us to attract and retain talent. And this really impacts special ed, right? Um, we've talked about that a number of times when we can't attract and retain special educators, we have to have them and we

087have to pay a premium to uh consultants essentially on the outside. So, we've been cutting programs. We've been paying our teachers the worst in the county. And the the the county office is still saying, "Hey, red flag warning. You have to make a plan to cut and, you know, uh restore your reserves." That's what we just did in the last uh agenda item. We've done a ton of community engagement in the last 12 months. We started right after Measure E um didn't pass. We sent out a survey. We had 164 respondents um to that survey and mostly people said hey maintain the senior opt out move it to a statewide election and there was some debate around the structure and the the amount that debate you'll see it kind of works its way out and

088some of it still live for you tonight. Um we also did some campaign reflections with the campaign. um basically their efforts made a difference and connecting with non RVSD community members mattered a lot. Uh we did some data analysis looking at the kind [snorts] of who voted in what parts of the the two towns and essentially loud and clear we need to connect with folks that aren't in the RVSD community. So who are those folks that are 55 to 65 or are seniors um community members that don't have kids? Those are important ones for us to connect with. We also had conversations with the coalition of sensible taxpayers, um a rep from the Sanmo Chamber of Commerce and a few other uh community members that had some feedback for us that we wanted to listen

089to. Then in September, we held two parcel tax town halls. It felt like the outcome of those town halls was that folks were leaning towards a flat tax because it was kind of the tax we already had and it was less confusing and the increase or the total amount was somewhere between 12 $1,200 and $1,400. So that would be a $458 to $658 increase from the current parcel tax. We took that information to the partial tax working group in October and we considered five different parcel tax structures. I'll talk about that here in a minute. And the outcome really there was maintain the current flat tax and increase it to about $1,200 or $458 of an increase. Uh we did community polling around that number. We pulled for the 3% inflation rate, the 4% inflation

090rate, and uh an increase between 440 and 540. The reason we pulled those numbers is because out of the parcel tax town hall and the working group, that $1,200 total tax target was kind of where we were we were headed. And the community at a rate of this actually should be 63 to 67% um said yes to that. So depending on the kind of structure and what that tells me is that we're really close but we have work to do in particular with our non Ross Valley school district families and community members. And then tonight here we are here listening to the community again. Here's some context to the partial tax. I won't belabor this one too much. This slide's a little detailed. But here are the five different partial. First of all, we have

091the guiding principles, right? And the guiding principles really were keep it simple. I think measure E was way too complex and very confusing for folks. We need to keep this thing simple for folks to understand it. So, we considered five options. One option was just to do a per parcel straight renewal and increase. That's kind of what we're talking about tonight. Another one was to keep the per square footage because it reduced the tax for some and increased it for others, but keep a cap on it at about 10,000 square feet. that still means if you've got a 10,000 square foot property, your tax bill would go from 700 to almost 6,000. Um, so that there's there's some thoughts in the community around that. Um, there was an idea to do a combination of the

092methodologies where you do a flat renewal and a per square foot uh increase if and if we're thinking about simplicity that is not simple. Um, but we wanted to like genuinely wrestle with the idea and I think the committee did a good job with that. We also had a little bit of a conversation around just rerunning measure E. We were at 63% almost 64% like the community was super close. Why don't we just give it a second try on a statewide election and see if we can get it passed. That was pretty quickly eliminated. We wanted to be humble with the community. Community said no. So, let's rework things and come back with a different proposal. And then there was another one that was basically do a renewal and an increase as two separate measures.

093Again, interesting idea. Um, and this would give some like flexibility to community members to say like, yeah, renew, but I'm not increasing or I'm saying no to both or saying yes to both. There's some optionality there, but there's also a lot of confusion there. Um, so essentially what the working group was saying, hey, flat tax for simplicity and consistency. It's the same tax that we've had for 30 years with an increase. So this is kind of what that looks like. $742 uh uh renewal with an increase of about $458. That gets us at a about a total tax of $1,200. Um the real world impact of that is about a $40 increase per per month for for a homeowner. Um just to make things clear there. A term of 10 years a 3% inflation rate

094and the typical optouts that we have. You can see some arguments for and against it there on the right side. And there's still a lot of debate around how much we increase this thing by. Um, just ask for what you need or ask for what the voters are going to say yes to and what is that number and how do we get feedback from community members that aren't RVSD staff or families. Big part of that discussion. So, here's what the district needs and this is why it's not a simple answer. It kind of depends. Um, first and foremost, we want to maintain our student programs and give salary increases um to compete with similar districts, Larksburg, Cordera, Miller Creek, and Kentfield, not competing with Ross, Reed, and TAM. That would require a $600 increase to

095the partial tax. Based on my learning tour from last year, I identified that we probably need to increase intervention programming, thinking about math intervention and more reading intervention. We could use a boardcertified behavior analysis to help particularly with behaviors in TKK and first grade for early interventions so we don't have those behaviors in the tail end of the district. Um, we could use a Spanish- speaking community leazison to engage and and make sure our Spanish speaking families feel welcomed and taken care of. Um, we have very few Spanish speaking staff and I think that's a a big blind spot for us as a district. Um, and we could increase our ma maintenance and operations team by one person. Um, that is the skeleton crew taking care of five campuses. That would cost us an additional

096million over the $600. So, it would be right at a $750 increase. This would be just under a $1,500 total. Throwing out a ton of numbers, but I also get I get critiqued if I just say the increase and if I get critiqued if I just say the total. So, I'm trying to say both to be super transparent. $750 increase, which would mean a total tax of about 14.95 [snorts] or somewhere right around there. So the there's the the first and foremost need is maintain and increase salaries. The need I've identified in terms of improving and moving our district forward is $750. But really when you it comes down to brass tax, the need is to have something pass. So, you know, my $750 is a is a nice nice increase and it would do

097good things for the community, but if that gets a no vote every time, it's not worth anything. So, you have to get something that passes. And that's why we pulled around these numbers. There's the increases on the left, the total tax in the center, and the total increase to the budget for um for our budget. >> And that increase is increased over >> the 4.7 million existing test. >> So, it's not increased the budget is increased or the budget includes the regular 700 something plus. >> That's right. That's right. Um and the polling fi findings are between 63 and 67% for those three increases. Um I actually reviewed it today and the polling results kind of favored keep the 3% inflator not increasing it to 4%. Although there was a lot of debate in the

098partexs working group about increasing that number. So, kind of depends on who you talk to there. Um, and one thing I'm really proud of is there was a significant increase in the favorability for the quality of our schools and the trust in the management of our public funds. Um, I felt like in we pulled like a year and a half ago, so in 18 months we've had, you know, somewhere between an eight and 14% increase in both of those favorability ratings, which I'm really proud of. Uh here's some context right here. Uh the ones with the asterisk are the four comparison districts or the three comparison districts. Kentfield, even though they're deeper into basic aid than we are deeper into LCFF, they also have an almost a $1,900 parcel tax and they're going to ask

099their voters to increase it uh just under $2,000 in June most likely. Um there's our need. If you took my $750 number, that's where the need would place us. You can see Larksburg Port Madera is at 1100 and they are still deeper into basic aid. So, you know, they they're already beating us on the LCFF and on the uh partial tax. [snorts] There's our current parcel tax next year. That's the the the number for next year. And then you can see Reed and Miller Creek. Miller Creek's a comparison of ours and also uh really struggling over there. >> Yes. >> And you can see Reed is right where we are, but Reed is like $10 million deep into basic aid. So you could you could make an argument where does Reed really need a parcel

100tax or do they need that big of like so I think it's just the context here is really important. Uh we did send out a parcel tax input survey and we had over almost 360 respondents. So really happy with that result. Getting 360 responses is pretty impressive. Um I pulled some representative positive comments and some representative negative comments. Um there was a lot of stuff in both sides camp all over the place. Um, one thing that I continued to see in those comments was a lot of misinformation. Um, or people not clear. Like one of the things that people on the negative side said, we need to cut the salaries and benefits for our board members. [laughter] >> Next, we're going to have to pay to BE UP HERE ON my salary for the benefit

101of the public. >> Wait, I'm new here. further benefits. [laughter] >> So, legally in California, you can give board members health benefits and you can pay them a monthly salary. Just to be clear to everybody, we do neither of those um here. So, we could not cut that. Uh but you can see some of the representative positive things there. Uh whatever amount is big enough to make an impact but small enough that it could pass. That's kind of that threading that needle. Um, the amount added should be what is required to fund the district for the duration of the parcel tax. No more, no less. 490 feels like something people could swallow. And on the negative side, you've got no increase. People are drowning in tax obligations. Certainly less than 440 for retirees. Uh, learn

102to manage better. There was a lot of that. There was also a lot of the like talk to the state, fix it at the state, um, which we are trying to do. uh property taxes are already too high. And there's some good suggestions there. Again, um sustaining the district long term, providing clarity and transparency, which we're trying to do right here, right now. Um balance the ambition with electoral feasibility, which is threading that needle. Um and consider equity and comparison to others, which I just showed you the comparison in the last slide. I think one thing to note in these graphs is staff and parents are like, "Let's go 540 or more. Let's ask for the need. Let's get after it." And then community members are kind of a little bit more mixed. Um the

103the highest uh entry there was less than 440, but then the second highest was more than 540. So, it kind of depends on who you are in the community, what your view on taxes is, what your view on the school district is, um, or a whole number of other things. So, I think this is helpful, but it also doesn't give us a clear direction. So, this is kind of what we're working with on the left side. That's our current partial tax structure. Flat tax, 8-year term, 3% inflation rate. Those are our optouts. No money for admin or pensions. That's kind of that's the way it's structured today. Um, next year's renewal rate will be 7.49. We're talking about what kind of increase do we want to make. Doesn't have to be 440 on the low

104end. It doesn't have to be 540 on the on the top end. Could be anything. You guys get to decide that. That's why you get paid so well. Um, 8 to 10year term. We could talk about the term 3% inflation rate. I'd recommend holding it there just based on the polling that I saw, although the there's folks in the room that would probably argue against that. Um, [clears throat] same optouts, no money for admin. And then one thing we talked about in uh measury is adding community oversight and for transparency. The alternative option if we don't pass it, we just talked about that. I won't go into detail about this, but this is basically those tiered cuts that I just talked about. And now we're gonna have some time after we hear from uh after

105questions from you and uh comments from the community. We're going to talk about the timing structure and the scope. So any questions before we move to public comment? I had one question. The one thing that stood out to me in the poll, but I didn't see it in your bullet points, was that there was no appreciable appreciable there was no real difference in the percentage approval rates at the different amounts and and that that was something I think that I remember when you did the presentation stood out is like you're in that poll you didn't really get a big bump for lower. It was like if people were going to vote for it, they were going to vote for it. And the person is that is that >> Yeah. still Okay. >> I think one

106of the critiques is we could have we could have pulled at a wider range for a $1,000 increase and a $200 increase. Um that would have told us more, but this was kind of we had already narrowed the target down through community input to about that $1,200 number, which is why we called those numbers. [clears throat] >> Okay. Why why is like 8 to 10 years? How did that What's the background on that for like why I know there's a district that has a forever tax, but generally that's not why is 18 to 10? It feels like that comes up so like quickly >> when you when you look at all the parcel taxes across the county, the range is between eight on the low end, which is us, and 12 on the the high

107end. Um, so it's just kind of and there's some some people will get hung up on the the term. I think if you ask for a forever tax, you're you're it's going to get dangerous. Um, it's very unlikely to pass. But I think quibbling over eight, nine, and 10 years, I I doubt a voter is going to the difference between a nine-year term and a 10-year term is going to turn them off. I think the actual overall amount or the inflation rate will turn them off faster. Um, I haven't heard any big critiques around the term. Having a 10-year term creates stability. Um, eight-year term, we're back out to voters >> fast, >> pretty fast. And I think >> what I've felt loud and clear from the Ross Valley is like we get a lot

108of these and less of these would be nice. So, that's something for you all to consider. >> Do any more questions? >> Right. Um, so I have public comment cards here. So I'm going to go through these and if I'm done and if there are somebody else who would like to speak at the end and you don't have a card here, then we can go you can come up and speak. But I'm going to start with the ones that I have here. Um, I've got Erica Ste. >> I already went I forgot my glasses. Remember? >> Yes. Yes. I didn't know if you I didn't know if you wanted to come on both. >> No, I'm not. >> Okay. [laughter] Thank you. I have Michelle Pelton. You also gonna pass. Okay. Autumn Arbor. Okay. [laughter]

109Margaret, school social worker at Pine Hill, and I'm here just to speak in support of the parcel tax increase that's truly sufficient to meet the needs of our district. We talk a lot about the parcel tax in terms of numbers, but I really just want to bring back focus to what it means for our students and for them. It means the difference between having supports and not having them. It means the difference between having consistency and trusted adults and not. It means the difference between finding passion through electives and not. And I do recognize that this is a significant ask of our community. But if we want students to keep receiving the supports they need, we need to fund them at the level they require. Ross Valley is really special. Families move here because of

110the quality of our schools, the people who work for them and care the students receive both academically and emotionally. And if we ask for what is less than necessary, we [snorts] won't be preserving what makes Ros Valley special. And we'll be back here again in a few years asking for the same thing after we've lost more. [snorts] So I think this is a call to action for our community. We need to support a parcel tax increase that is sufficient to sustain the people, programs, and relationships our students rely on. Thank you. >> Next Christina Workman. Thank you, please. Christina Workman, third grade teacher, H Valley. Um, I just want to share first reasons why I'm supporting plan A, the one we focus on, plan A, the parcel tax. Um, things that have already been touched

111on, but I just want to make it really clear. This has helped me and many of my colleagues feel. Um, we must retain our high quality staff because our students and our colleagues and community deserve nothing less. We know that we cannot attract or retain the best talent when our educators receive 0% raises this year and less than 1% last year. We know that we are going to have colleagues leave if this does not pass. Um we aren't just behind. We're losing ground as we've seen to neighboring districts that prioritize cost of living adjustments. We need to save save student programs that support student achievement growth and interests. We rank in the top 5% of state of state in the state for testing and recently celebrated both um Hidden Valley and Brookside with California Distinguished

112School Awards and White Hill was recognized as a school to watch. Yet we do all of this while receiving the lowest per pupil revenue um in the county placing us in the bottom four. So it's like testing at 5% but we have four we're in the bottom 4% with funding. We're providing really private school level of excellence on a skeleton crew budget and this gap is no longer a challenge. I think it's clear to all of us tonight that this is a crisis and we need the community to rise together and invest in our future. We need to take local control of our community and our students have to have neighborhood schools to go to. Um, as you discuss and decide whether to put a parcel tax vote on the June or November ballot, I

113strongly urge you put it up on the June. As you talk about the parcel tax renewal structure and the size of increase, please again take into account that we need long-term plans and funding, not just a band-aid now for the next few years. Um, as we know, without the funding, we're going to face the three- tier timeline of cuts that will dismantle the very programs that make our schools distinguished. Uh, also, TAM district is soon going up for a parcel tax. So, it seems wise to get ahead of that instead of competing with them at the same time because that'll really throw the community into a tizzy. Um, my commitment to this parcel tax is I'm going to write the letters. I'm making will make phone calls. I will rally alongside my colleagues, my students,

114and supporters. I will door knock to educate and inform. And I hope everyone joins me. Thank you. >> Johnny Van Johnny [laughter] >> I have Jeffrey Bean. I'm reading this [clears throat] letter on behalf of my wife Alicia who works at at White Hill. I'm [clears throat] writing as a school psychologist at White Hill, a manner parent and the site rep at White Hill. [clears throat] I want to be very clear about what is being asked of educators if we're going to support this next parcel tax. We already spend significant time outside of our contracted workday to do our jobs well, supporting students, strengthening programs, improving inclusion efforts, and meeting the growing needs of our of our school communities. We serve on communities unpaid afterwork hours, work from home, work through lunches, and take on

115additional responsibilities to meet compliance and program needs. Despite these demands, our regular responsibilities are met and the work continues to get done. As a staff, we have also repeatedly stepped up beyond our contracted responsibilities, rallying in support of the district last year and as a union the year before that. Each time, educators organized and gave up limited time with their families because they believe these efforts could lead to meaningful lasting improvements for our schools. If we're going to once again [clears throat] ask staff to commit time and energy to organizing around a parcel tax, um that commitments commitment must lead to sustainable results. So, as you consider the parcel tax amount tonight, I [clears throat] urge you to ensure that is set at a level that truly accomplishes its stated goals, allowing for real salary

116increases, maintaining essential programs, and retaining qualified staff. A parcel tax that merely preserves status quo is not enough if educators are asked to rally and advocate in the community again must be for something that genuinely moves a district forward. Continued requests for additional time and energy must be matched by meaningful investments respectfully. Alicia schools psych and union site rep. Thanks. >> [clears throat] >> I don't have any more comment cards, but if there's anyone else who'd like to speak, please feel free to come up and take a a chair. And we have a couple extra chairs here if you guys wanted to grab them and pull out since we don't need four chairs up here since you're on the ground. >> Just as long as we leave one up here, we're good. >> Okay. Thank

117you. >> My name is Vladimir Vako. I'm a father of two future uh students that twin girls. They just turned three. My wife and I moved to Sano in 2002. For our first two years, two and a half years here, we enjoyed the hiking and struggled through sleepless nights. um not really knowing the issues that were going on structurally in the school district, but confident that the amazing schools that we moved to for that attracted us to Sano would continue and remain and be be there for us when our girls came of age, just like the beautiful trails and hiking was going to be there for when we had finally time and energy to go outside. I was truly just shocked when Measure E failed to pass last year and that spurred me into an

118education drive to understand what exactly has been happening with our district to lead to where it was and lead us to where what's happening um or searing down the pipe going forward. Um, it is unfathomable to ask the district and the teacher community to continue to operating at essentially fixed revenue levels that are now set institutionally by the state through through Prop 13 while facing real world cost increases and real world costs of living rises in the Bay Area. That is just mathematically impossible. And for those that are asking fix it through some magical action of like get get all districts in Marin to unite or fix it at the state level. This is just not a real solution. So I urge the community and I urge the district to find real solutions tonight that

119we can enact locally. Um, and part of that is again supporting a parcel tax increase that will not just maintain the status quo of where we are right now, which is after probably three years of cuts that Tyler just showed, but will actually undo that and get us back to the type of school district that I think this was on track to be before all those cuts over the last three years. This is not something to just maintain. Hey, we're we're already tracking behind and let's just kind of keep floating. We have to get back and be a peer uh district, not just kind of at the bottom of our peers, but get back to I think um what Ross Valley can really attract. It is the responsibility I believe of the citizens and of

120our neighbors to make the investments in public schools that previous generations have made into their education. It is actually the oldest civic tradition in the United States. Public education is older than the United States Constitution. The very first public education bill was Northwest Ordinance that was passed by the article of articles of confederation still the old outdated system before the constitution. So it is unfathomable that in the last 30 years California and Ross Valley in particular now over the last three years is failing to uphold a public commitment that has been ongoing for 250 years. [snorts] >> [clears throat] >> Danny Wright, um, classified union secretary. I ask that we all look beyond ourselves at this time and look to what our students really need. Thank you. >> Good evening, members [clears throat] of the

121board, and thank you for the work you do. I'm Scott McDonald, Way Thomas, parent. My wife, Marjorie McDonald, works here as a in the district as a school psychologist at Way Thomas and Hidden Valley Elementary. Uh, I want to express my support tonight for advancing the parcel tax increase to the June ballot for the future of our district. Since you're looking for feedback, I'm in favor of the 10-year term discussed and the larger increase being considered as well. Uh, but I do defer to you to consider what is both necessary and likely to be supported by voters. Uh we felt very fortunate to have such great teachers uh for both of our kids at the district who pour their time and energy into their work and I do worry about the funding shortfall taking a

122greater toll on them while affecting how willing new teachers are to join the district and overall morale and importantly affecting our children. For parents, I think the partial tax is really a no-brainer and an obvious next step as you've discussed to support the district which simply does not have enough money to pay teachers a competitive wage into the future and continue its critical programs. I think I'm preaching to the choir here and I believe the district wants to do what's right for the teachers and staff. I'm asking you as leaders of the community tonight to support this effort and thank you for your time. >> Anyone else like to come up make a comment? >> Hello. Good evening. Uh my name is Alana Lauren and I'm a parent of a Wade Thomas first grader and

123TKER this year and I first wanted to say to all the teachers and educators and all of you in the room who are giving your time, we are grateful. Um I come from a line of educators myself. Um both my parents were administrators in special ed and um to that point when my son two years ago um was referred to special education and we've accessed it through the district. I have to say um we had many conversations as a family about the level of support that we we received and from lifelong administrators. The accolades that they had for our district and for all of the support was through the roof. And so I agree we are operating at an incredible level given the funding shortfall and I just want to say how grateful we are

124for that. Um I also wanted to say um I have um I have a bit of political experience and I have to say you know I was really shocked just like everyone else with um measure E failing and quite disappointed. However, we're living in very complex times as we all know economically and we have a lot of retirees in our district who are on fixed incomes and another tax is confusing and scary. And so if we're going to first of all, I'm highly in favor of moving forward with the June U parcel tax and the increase which I think our teachers and the facilities and the administrators so deserve, but I think we have to do it smarter. So what I would say is if we are if you do choose to move to move

125to move forward with this, we have to think about how do we appeal to those who maybe are opposed and they're not opposed for bad reasons and how do we seek to understand them? And I'm so grateful for the superintendent for the listening sessions that you've done. And I think messaging as clearly as we can in the most simplistic way so people really do understand this complex history that has taken so many of us hours to understand ourselves when people are living in busy times and they're being inundated with what's going on in the world. How can we make this something that's relevant? And the last thing I'll say is historically, as you may know, election turnout for special elections and non uh uh statewide or federal elections such as offcycle in a June, historically

126turnout is lower. So that's what we're going to be contending with. And I don't think it's insurmountable at all when you look at the neighboring districts. they've been able to pass taxes um during those offcycle elections, but it's going to take all of us coming together to get this over the finish line. So, that's Thank you. [clears throat] Uh I don't have anything prepared. My name is Amy Cody. Um I have two grandchildren at Way Thomas. I moved here six weeks ago. I bought a house here so I could be near my grandchildren. Um, I was an educator for many, many years from the East Coast. This is a collective failure of the whole community. And it's egregious and shocking and shameful. And I've only been here six weeks, but I'm committing I'm the demo

127that you're looking at, right? There's like maybe two other people here that kind of look like me. I'm committing to doing whatever it takes to educate people like me, to go out and talk to them, to have coffees and teas at my house, to explain it to them, to door knock. And I think every single person here has to commit to doing whatever it takes to pass this parcel tax. And the fact that teachers have been squeezing water out of stone for this many years and doing miraculous things with the little money that they're paid is disgusting. And I think that you should pass a parcel tax that will fund the teachers work in the way that it should be. I'm all for it. But I'm going to do whatever it takes to help pass

128this thing. Thank you. comments. Um, I'm Ana Twig. I'm a manor parent. I have two kids there. Um, I was pretty involved with measure E and I don't think Yeah, I don't think it gives us any good to to say how shocked we are or not. What we really should put our effort to now is to figure out how we're going to do it and do it right. Um, and actually truly I think that the the biggest point is really to connecting to those 15,000 voters that are not our parents. Um, because really it is a community. It will take us a community all coming together to do it. Um, Lagonas just got 74% on their election today. Um, that tells us, you know, again, it's not like it's a new thing. We've been we

129had this thing for 30 years. Every single other um district has a parcel tax. We can talk our ears out to what state is doing wrong. I think we all agree that LCF calculator is a mess. Prop 13 doesn't help us a thing. We can't do anything about those things and certainly not in on the timeline that we're talking about here because we're going to be completely dead and underwater by the time state changes something. So the only thing we can do is to renew and increase this partial tax. And so that's really all we should put our focus on from now on until we do it. And I would encourage everyone in this community, not just go and talk about, but join me in efforts to actually make sure that we go and talk

130to every one of those voters, knock on every single door. That's really what we're gonna do and that's the only way to get it over the finish line and so that our kids it's it's really it's a community thing, right? It's for our kids. It's for our community. It's our future. It doesn't really matter what is happening on the federal level for this. This is our local thing and we don't have any other instrument but this local funding. So let's just make sure that we ask for the right thing. ask for enough so we don't have to do it in three years because that's a lot of work and I don't want to do it again in three years. [laughter] So no really um so yes let's just all get together and talk to everyone

131you know and talk to me how we all going to go do it together. Thank you. Okay. Is this one on? I can talk in here. Um Darra Matson. I have two kids at Hidden Valley Elementary and I'm on the um PTO there. I um I just want to be clear that I am very much in support of this. I I have a question about um a citizens initiative and I'm wondering um given the almost win that we had had it been a simple majority the measure would have passed. Is there a future in which the district considers um partnering to have a citizens initiative? And in that way, I I just would love to go around saying like this is happening whether you one way or another, knowing that we can get that 55%.

132Given the history that we've had, um I just would feel so much more confident um having it on the ballot if we only needed a simple majority and not the super majority. Um, so I guess my question is has that been considered for the future? I of course want on the ballot I want the support, but now we know that there's new residents, old residents, teachers. There's there's people here that feel the passion and want to step up and support. And um I'm wondering if you know you lean into that or I don't know much about it, but just putting it out there. Hi, my name is Natalie. I have two kids at Wayne Thomas School and I worked on Measure E campaign last year. And the one thing I'll ask of the trustees as

133you consider the dollar amount for this increase is that we need to understand what we are saving and what we are gaining with this exact number that we add to the parcel tax. I'm going to be going out in front of voters and I want to be really confident that whatever number we've chosen in this slew of options, I can stand there and say this is what this number is going to accomplish for us. it's going to save schools or whatever it is or and this is what it's going to do for us in the future. I think [clears throat] regardless it's a lot of we're adding a lot to the existing parcel tax and I want to be able to as someone on the campaign speak to why we're adding that why that number

134and what difference that's going to make in the schools and the community. Thank you guys. >> [cough] >> Hi. Um, my name is Heather Selby. I'm a first grade teacher at Hidden Valley as well as a parent of a second grader there and a parent of a seventh grader at White Hill and a property owner. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight. Um, and as my staff could say, when I see something that I think is wrong, I speak up. And a slide that really concerned me tonight is the what does this district need that Tyler presented. And when I looked at those numbers, I noticed that at the top of what the poll suggested was 540. And then on the other side, it said first and foremost to maintain and to give raises, we need

135600. And immediately my heart sank because right now if you come to our campuses, you can tell we don't have enough staff to support what these kids need. Um, and I'm worried both for my own children and for my students. Um, the teachers are doing so many jobs. We joke that our admin assistant should have multiple hats to change for every different job she's working. So, um, I just really want to stress that our schools need this money and I think that a slight difference in what we're asking the voters for, I don't know how many yes and noses that's going to change, but I don't think we can make it with anything less than maintaining. And honestly, what Tyler's talking about on his 2425 learning tour, our schools need those things. And we need

136them now, not in two years. So, I just had to get up and say those things. Thank you for your time. >> Hello, I'm Caroline Brewster. I'm a Hidden Valley parent of a first grader and a soon to be TKR, which thank God, one drop off. Um, it's been a long day. second commission meeting of the night. But um I just appreciate the administration, the public servants that are in the room, our teachers that are behind us, and our parents. Our community is with you, and we are going to um and our newly moved to um San Selmo, my new best friend, um back there. Um, but to the point that was just made, um, I know there's a million examples of this, but one that I was, um, learned about this week, the principal

137for Hidden Valley is also our lunch, um, doing all the school food um, work, which is a a job that we're trying to hire for, but we can't anyway. So, there's a million examples of this. We're so stretched. And um I think too to the point that was made before right the what are we getting for the people who are involved last time and are starting to have these conversations now um you know we're already under so we need to be we need to ask for what we need um because it's hard to keep coming back and there are going to be things on the June ballot. I do think it's important that we're on the June ballot for all the um strategic budget planning um needs, but there's going to be simple majority tax

138votes. There's going to be a transportation measure. There's going to be a hospital measure. I mean, people will be asked to add to their um add to their already um tax burden selves. So, we need to be, you know, clear about what we need and what we're adding and ask for enough. So, I don't envy your decisions tonight, but we're behind you and we'll we'll get it done. Thank you. I really wasn't Hi, I'm Danielle Wittenberg. I really wasn't planning on talking tonight. Um, but I have a child in first grade at Hidden Valley. I have a child in second grade at Hidden Valley. My oldest is 23 with special needs and he went all the way through MCOE. Um, the cuts actually that I saw tonight were different than what we like what I

139had seen. It was a little bit more in depth obviously than what I had seen before. and they made me sick cuz not only are we going to be cutting so many things like our schools, but that also means that there's no raises again. So those teachers are incredible. The children in our community are incredible and they owe we owe everything really to the teachers because they spend more time with our children sometimes than we get to. I think that people have a false sense of not only how much our teachers do and how much they give and the wonderful environment that they create for our children doing so much with so little, but creating a happy, positive work environment where our children thrive. That's a really hard thing to do when you're stressed out

140on the inside about your own livelihood. So, thank you to all of you here because you guys really do make all of our lives as parents better. So, that can't be under undervalued. And also, as a parent, I volunteer a lot. The parents come in and we help with yard duty. We fill in for the librarian. We do different things because there is no money. There's just none. The well is dry. So all the community members that think that somebody's pocketing something, there isn't even a penny on the floor. So it's not how it works. And sometimes you have to dig deep. You have to plant the tree and you don't get to enjoy the shade. You just get to watch it grow. And that's a beautiful thing. And I think we need to pass

141it. I know we need to pass it. I'd be willing to do anything. I think the square footage gets really confusing. I think we need a flat amount. We don't live in a track community. It doesn't mean that you made a lot more money when you have a bigger house. Sometimes you pay a lot of money for a small one. Sometimes you lucked out. Sometimes you got it first. It doesn't matter. But I it needs to pass. And I think we'd have an easier time if we did it in a in a flat sum. So that's Thanks. I also was not planning on speaking tonight. Um, I'm Taylor. I have a first grader at Hidden Valley. Miss Selby is his wonderful teacher. And then I have a three-year-old, so almost a TK. Um, and I'm

142a homeowner uh in Sleepy Hollow. Um, I just wanted to kind of speak. We moved here, of course, because of the schools. Um, the experience has been amazing. It's interesting to see that we've been struggling for five years. I had no idea. Um, so I think as you all kind of think about what should the terms look like, what should the right amount be, it has to be um, enough that [clears throat] we're not talking about this again in three years and marching towards another cliff. Um, so I think that's just something to consider. I know it's a hard job to figure out how to thread that needle perfectly, but it needs to be worth it and I know everyone's kind of spoken to that a bit and it's going to take so much effort

143to get this passed and going. So, it just really needs the the juice needs to be worth the squeeze here. Um, and for me too, I think one of the major slides that stick out for me is us up against our neighboring school districts. Um, and I think as you're talking to people that maybe oppose it or they have no idea what their neighbors in Kentfield are paying or, you know, that's like the biggest thing for me. I think many of us here in Marin think of Marin as one community in many aspects. And so when you see that we're not measuring up to our neighbors and we're not contributing even close to what our neighbor down the street is, I think um that's a big eye opener and something that hopefully as we kind

144of figure out what the marketing looks like for this campaign, I think it's a really good talking point as we start canvasing and um and speaking to our neighbors about that because I I don't think people know that. So, um, thank you so much for all of your work. Thank you to the teachers. I think we all know how much they do. And, um, thank you guys for all the time you put into this. >> Hi everyone. Um, give it up for our teachers. And I don't care if you see the clock. I it warm my heart to come in here and see um Erica and Sandra and um the teachers that my kids stuck with with the whole time they were at Wade Thomas and they're still here even with only getting a 1%

145raise and no raise. So my name is Frank Gomez and I love this community and I'm very I love our teachers. We do have a very special place and I do want to also make sure that we make it clear we are hearing and listening to the seniors but we do the messaging has been weak and I've talked to Daniel and Ann and Rachel and Chris and Tyler on many occasions. We have to do better messaging. I know you say it's a hard time Rachel to get to these people. We need to figure it out and stop finding out why it's hard and figure out a solution to make it easy. I see we make a lot of excuses why we can't get the messaging out. Let's figure out how we do it together. And

146um the opt out, we hear you, our seniors, our elders. We hear you loud and clear. Opt out. Cuz some of the things that I've heard, and Daniel brought it up at at Wayne the other day, is we pay more for sewers [laughter] than we are paying, you know, for our teachers to make a livable wage. And so to the gentleman that spoke earlier when he mentioned that it's hard here and we do understand it's hard but that would be like all of us saying we don't want to pay into social security anymore because it may not be here when we turn 65. So that's a perfect example. It's something we need to get the messaging out. And I think sometimes we we're trying to be too equitable and too inclusive and all this other

147stuff because that's where some of the younger people are saying well it's not equitable because that person's house is bigger. Go look in the mirror and look at yourself. Stop worrying about what everybody else has. We need to start looking within. Look in a mirror and reflect and let's do what's best for our community and our teachers. Thank you very much. Uh, hey, I'm gonna be going a little rafire. Um, uh, I think, you know, the person I I stood out to me the most so far, everybody's been giving great feedback and comments, is the woman who um, just moved here to be by um, her grandkids, and I think is notable because she's coming not from the Marin County or the local bubble. And I think there is a serious bubble here that needs

148to be burst and all sorts of bubbles people talk about but this does not seem to be one of them. Um because anybody could go to the US census website they do surveys of all the public uh school finances in Excel with over 14,000 school districts open right here. You can see what everybody's paying. There's uh many dozens of different ways. They break down state, local, revenue, property taxes, sales tax, everything. And uh they also compare things by a per thousand of personal income. And Ross Valley School District just to get to the national average of school funding on a per thousand of personal income basis, which includes seniors on fixed incomes, we'd have to have a parcel tax that's about $3,000. Nobody's considering anything like that now, but that's just to get our school

149district to have the national average amount of state and local funding. Um people I understand don't want increase in expenses and it's it is difficult for everybody. Um uh but nobody's focusing on how great um a situation they've had all things considered. uh in this country. Um uh I think one person asked about a citizens initiative and I agree that'd be a great idea. I think people just need to look at the um San Francisco case that went all the way to the state supreme court and got to stay in place and the school district, the unions all uh had a heavy influence in partnering with that citizens initiative which needs 50% uh plus one uh to pass uh so long as you're not actually spending district money on this. Um, you know, we've heard

150a lot about not underfunding in our parcel tax because it's going to be way bigger of a headache to try and get an increase when all of a sudden we not being able to meet our expenses even though we just passed a parcel tax. Um, and if we don't get uh enough to cover raises to cover the $1.7 uh million in deficit spending we have over the next two years, we're going to have so much attrition our costs are going to increase more and then we will have needed to raise more in the first place. Um, also we our current partial tax since its last passing lost 11% to the inflation rate over the time that was at 3%. I don't think that's tenable. >> [clears throat] [cough] >> again. Um, we'll keep it short.

151I think first off, Sarah Pucket back here. She was um, as I said, my daughter switched schools, kindergarten to first grade, and that can be a pretty rough shift. and she absolutely adored Miss Pocket and she had her for two years in a row and she was really excited about that and it shows the importance that uh teachers play. So, um there's that. I think the 67% vote is something that I missed when I voted for E. I didn't see that it was a 67% vote and I feel like I'm a pretty active um participant in in democratic process. So, I think in many ways we need to really get that word out and be very clear to to voters because there may have been voters that stayed home and that's those are the types

152of people that we should also be looking at is people that didn't vote last time. Um, and really try to work to get them out. Make them single issue voters. If there's anything that that'll get you to the polls, make it helping kids in schools. Make make it the helping the teachers. Um, and then finally, I think we need to be clear that um about somebody mentioned before about the just the the discrepancy between our communities and communities right next door to us and and the fact that you know, maybe get into the competitive side of a lot of people here and say, "Oh, do you want to be the lowest? Uh, you know, let's be the best." Um, but no, I think I think really one thing that I really want to push is

153just being clear that this is not going to be an easy path and that a 67% vote requires as much turnout as possible and if you stayed home last time, try to get out this time. That's it. Um, my name is Noah Rosen. This is my first year at this school district and it's also my first year as a teacher. And coming into school, I've been really supportive of all my co-teers obviously, but they've also done a great job of accepting me and making sure that I feel supported in this community. As a new teacher, there's lots of peaks and valleys that you go into. Some days you feel like you're the best teacher in the world, and other days you feel like you can't get anything right. And today, I found myself in one

154of those valleys. And in a lot of other school districts, they aren't lucky enough to have the staff that we have at White Hill where I feel like I can go into any teacher classroom, receive a lot of feedback and support. But today, because of our staff, I feel comfortable to go into teachers classrooms and say, "Hey, I had a really bad day. How how can I what how can I improve? What can I do better?" So, [snorts] I think we're we really need to think about how lucky how lucky how lucky we are to have this staff. And I think we need to keep that in mind. And I think we owe it to our staff members that have been in this district for a while who've established this great culture we have, not

155just at White Hill, but I'm sure all of the elementary schools. And I think we owe it to them to pass this parcel tax. And I can speak for probably all the other teachers here, but I'm willing to do I'll knock on doors. I'll put up flyers, but I definitely want to see this get passed. So, thank you. >> [clears throat] [snorts] >> Hi everyone. Uh my name is Lindsay CS. Um I'm a mom to a two and a halfyear-old and a four and a halfyear-old. So incoming Brookside hopefully. Um I myself actually grew up in Sanmo and I went to Brookside. um lower campus, upper campus, White Hill, and then Drake High School, now Archie Williams. Um definitely sad to see some of the potential outcomes here. So, thank you guys for the transparency

156and for all that you do for the district. Um I just wanted to say I have parents who live in Sano. I'm a property owner in a different home nearby, but that demographic really does not have awareness. So, I think bringing that awareness to, as you mentioned, to seniors, my parents are in their 70s. Um, but I think that is definitely key. I think it's an echo chamber talking to parents in the schools. Um, and I'll be working with, I know I'll be asking parents like Natalie and others who are really involved, but certainly I think the realtors, the preschool parents, my kids go to San Preschool, and I don't think the parents have any idea. So I think happy to chat more Tyler about how we can help but I think those are the

157areas that we need to work on. I was aware of measure E [clears throat] and I voted yes for it obviously but it wasn't deeply involved. So thank you for all that you do public comments. Last call. Yeah, I'm going to close the comment now. Back to the board for discussion. Um, certainly [clears throat] appreciate all of the comments. Um, the love for our teachers. I feel all of that. Um, [clears throat] I really appreciate all the people who were like, "Do it for this amount. Do it, you know, for this timeline. Do it for this escalator. Do it in June." And like those are all helpful because that's what we need to decide tonight. It's like what are we going to tell Tyler to say hey look we need to look at a general

158election. We need to look at this like personally I think we should look at a general election because we need the money before we have to start doing these cuts and I think this is our best Shauna. It's like like Daniel said it's the plan A. We want plan A. So that's my two cents on that for just the the just that piece of it. It's like June versus November. Yeah, >> I think we can speak on behalf of every Yes, we're doing this. Definitely like next. >> Okay, so that's easy. You got it. >> Yeah, timing done. >> I don't want to sit here in a couple years and say, why are we back at this place? Didn't we pass this? I'm skipping the [laughter] timing. Yes, I agree. Structure. I think flat, but

159I do think that the the need and what the voters will approve. I mean, I can't I can't fathom continuously looking at my tax bill, which I had said to me while I was sitting here. And I pay more for sanitary sewage than I do for the schools. Okay? And [clears throat] that splitting hairs. That's splitting hairs. Think about it. You go out to dinner, maybe we don't spend $4.90, but you spend 150 and you don't have to think twice about doubling the 15 bucks to leave $30 extra. It's just there, right? I think if I sit here in a few years and we're still struggling with teachers coming to us and saying, you know, we're not our our cost of living is not keeping up with the rate of inflation or we have to

160cut something because we can't [snorts] bear the brunt of what some external inflationary aspects have done to us by relying on a 3% which is reasonable. I think we need to get to the ultimate number and say that's what we need and and and ask for it and and and the work is going to come from us going out and being able to articulate why it is that number. We have we can't just say we want to we want to do this, we want to provide a great education, we want to prepare teachers more. That's that's butterflies. We need to have a threepoint talking point. Get it out within 20 seconds and ask for what we need so that we're not sitting here in a few years having the same conversation with no solutions. That's

161me. That's what I say. >> Even at the 540 escalator, we still pay more for our sewer. >> That is >> public information. The other RVSD. Oh, our naming is >> [laughter] >> Oh my god. >> Just just Google it. You everybody will continue to pay more for our sewer than we will even at a 540 escalator. That's a compelling talking point. This is one of the things we have to rally behind as a society. So there are so many awesome comments made today um about the community. Teachers are wonderful. Yes, you guys are awesome. And the community impact as well. So I think if we get behind both because again my elderly neighbors like yeah teachers should get more money. I should get more in social security. Okay but here's how it's going to

162impact the community. Here's how it's going to impact the small businesses. Here's how it's going to impact this street. So I think there's and a lot of people talked about the community as so I think there's a a both I don't know anything about this so I'm going to follow the smart people in the room on what are the talking points but I think there's a community aspect as well and maybe we did that with measure E but I think we learned a lot from that and so we'll implement some of those changes but I think there's a massive community buyin that we can get from the people that didn't vote or who are leaning negative today Great. Um uh and then uh one other question um I had was one of the Tyler you

163had it. Somebody asked um if you opt out like could you still contribute somehow right? Like so if I'm over 65 and I'm opting out but is there a way to I don't that's a total of a tiny tiny thing. Um, but there was one of the comments that was up there was, well, could I pay less than 440, >> right? Maybe that was just one comment, but again, how do we how do we look at this to >> and there I the senior opt out is a it's pretty easy. We see seniors come in all the time. We fill out paperwork. We have a staff member who helps out with that. Um, and there's a ton of seniors that live here that don't opt out that say, "Hey, this is I think this is

164a community good and I'm going to continue to pay it even though I'm on fixed income. I'll make adjustments other places. So, I I don't want to paint a broad brush about seniors because it's it's varied and different for each and every senior um and the cost they have, but there are a lot of seniors in our community that say, "Hey, I can't opt out and I'm not going to because I believe in it." But there's we can't change the the number for them. It's either a clean optin or a clean opt out. >> And the assumption that all the families voted previously, I think, was uh not a correct assumption. Right. For measure E, we had 700 >> we had 700 staff and or family members not vote registered voters >> and that you

165know a handful of them would have pushed this over. Um so it's that understanding that everybody doesn't know about this and everybody doesn't know how critical it is. So, how do we rally everybody, every neighbor that you know, right? That's the key and that's where the community really >> strong marketing. >> That's that's part of it, right? I think you hit the nail on the head a little bit. I mean, I think the marketing matters a lot, >> but I also think it's like a grassroots campaign. It's not I mean, >> tonight it's wonderful turnout. It's lovely to see so many people in the audience and hear from the the community. But on an average night, we have three people here and maybe four or five people watch online. Um, and the flyers that we

166send out, I would venture to guess 80% get round filed before anyone reads them, right? So, this is a face-toface persontoperson conversation. the next time you're at a backyard barbecue, next mountain bike ride you go on with your friends. If you are having playdates with your your your kids, like talk about it there. Um soccer practice, ballet, like it needs to be a conversation as often as you can with as many people. You don't have to have the talking points perfect. You can have the essence of them and then forward them to the website or forward them to to me and I'm happy to answer the questions that folks have. But it's a grassroots campaign. >> But I think I think the mentality of support this measure as opposed to save our schools. People love

167to be heroes here. They love to save people. They love to save everybody, right? Just turn it around and say, and this is saving our schools. >> Yeah. >> You know, turn it around. >> There's no It's not about support. It We're at a point. We are at a we're at an inflection point where if this doesn't pass, our schools will fail. You have the power by voting yes to save our schools. And I think we need to really transition into that mentality. Not just saying get the word out, but really getting the word out in a way that empowers people to want to vote as opposed empowers people to say, "Oh, that's interesting. I'll pass this on. I I'll take care of it." Um, >> but how much Chris, [clears throat] >> how much?

168>> Just just on this point really quick before >> 600 600 >> before we move on is that there is a group of uh way Thomas parents that have spent a handful of weeks over the holiday breaks putting together a website on their own accord. Um, and it's called Save Our Schools RVs. So if you go to that website [laughter] >> I thought I was BEING ORIGINAL. NO. SOS. >> It's actually it's a it's a really robust website where you could have your questions about state funding answered. They've probably got like 25 FAQs on there if you want to talk about whatever you have a question about. That website pretty much does does the duty. Um those parents have been fantastic and um wanted to put that together. That's great. >> You know, without us.

169>> That's great. >> Yeah. I was going to I just wanted to say I I really appreciate everybody coming here and making comments, especially a couple, you know, those of you who, you know, came but weren't thinking you were going to make a comment and then you came forward to to make a comment. That really means a lot and it's important for us to just get all your thoughts and advice, but also just to [clears throat] hear from you and to and I feel um inspired by that level of engagement and new engagement. I'm feeling confident that we'll be able to to do this and to make this happen. Um, so I just feel very appreciative and I also feel really appreciative to because one of the reasons why I wanted to be [clears throat]

170on the school board had was about the community and about democracy and about this is what we do as a society is that we all pitch in. We all pitch in by showing up. We all pitch in by paying taxes. Public schools funded by the public, governed by the public with the public in attendance and participating on uh community groups that advise it that this is what it's about. This is what inspired me. And so being here tonight and hearing you and seeing that list of all of the effort that all of the community made, that is public [snorts] in action for our public schools. And that's what we're showing to our kids. That is the democracy that you talked about. It happens in the classroom, happens up here at the boardroom, that it's all

171of us pitching in and making it happen. And I feel like we're going to keep doing that. Um, what I heard a lot of is that ask for what you really need. Don't pass something that just loses ground slower because that's not it's a it's not inspirational and b it's not going to work. Um, not just the status quo but moves us forward. So I think the messaging is I think there's twofold. One is the messaging of this can't not pass. period. >> I mean, that's the SOS. We we are at a pivotal existential moment of this can't not pass. Save our schools. And at the same time, I hope that we choose something that's not just fear-based. Ah, let's just not not sink, but it can't not pass. And we chose to ask our

172community to go above just that like stay on your fingernails moment, but to go for what's needed and and that motivational part of it, too. So, I think it's I think it's both. >> Yeah. Save our school. >> I think to save our schools, >> 50 bucks a month to save our schools. >> Let's save our schools. >> $600 a year. >> Save our schools and make them, >> you know, wonderful. Continue to move forward and upward and better. So, that's that's kind of where I'm at. Uh 10 years high end of what we were thinking. >> You think 10 years? >> I'm thinking 10 years. I'm thinking the high end. >> High end. Yeah, definitely high end. >> I heard the inflation like keeping up with inflation 3%. You know, do we go with

173more than that? I don't know. I know. Okay. >> I think the more we change on it for more current one, the simpler it will be. >> Yes. So simplicity. So, I think it's balancing that simplicity thing. >> Yeah. >> But to me is >> Okay, I'm done with that then. Um, so that's kind of that's that's where I'm at. And I'm and I'm Yes. June. Um, for some god-awful reason, June, we don't get it passed in June. >> It then it will it will, but then we start taking another I don't know. I'm not going to go there, but I say let's go for it in June. And I feel encouraged by everybody, not just giving us advice, but then like the personal commitments of people saying, "I will do this. I will go."

174And I totally agree with you. This is a personto person, get out the vote, >> appeal to hearts and minds, but it's going to take that person to person. Talk to everybody that you know all the time. And I feel like we have a whole lot more information for people to take with them now than we did last time as well. Mhm. >> And I [clears throat] think that's like I think sometimes I agree with everything everyone's saying. This is democracy and action at its purest form, the school board. And I for every school district and every I I really think this is where the community interacts with governance in the most pure form. Um and it's really beautiful to see that in action tonight. It's a great model for all of your kids that

175you're here. Um, for those of you who wrote in, for those of you who who made public comment, so sometimes like doing something feels overwhelming and big, like, oh, I've got to volunteer all these hours. Yeah, you can you can do that. You can go big and, you know, help out and be on the committee. But it can be something small. It can be, you know, you're out mowing your lawn on Saturday and you see your senior neighbor. Go talk to them about it. Ask them a question. Have you heard? [snorts] And you don't have to have the talking points perfect. >> You just have to have the essence of it. It can just be a coffee date with a neighbor. It can it could be simple simple stuff. And I think doing a lot

176of those simple things make as big or bigger difference than putting in five hours of you know volunteering every week. Like it can be simple. Um and I I don't want people to think that volunteering means this huge obligation. It can be really simple. Yeah, I this is my favorite the top I mean our content is difficult but this is my favorite meeting that I've been on the worst July because of all of you like there the seats have not been full and I'm so thankful it the energy in here while like this is serious and sad it's so great to have you all here I mean what 25 of you cuz like we don't we don't know the answer. Like we're we need we care deeply about what everybody in this community. Thanks. And

177I actually like I think I've been having the like we just got to get this passed. Like after measure E failed, I was just like what is the number that we can get it passed? But I love that it's not just I mean yes we have to get it passed but we don't have to do it with 440 and I don't think yeah that's not we're going to be in the same place and I cannot bear that for our community that will break us. So I yeah I agree like we need to go 600 it I mean it's we cannot let the quality of our schools >> there's not a lot of difference when we did the goodbye godbe research between the numbers >> right >> we're at 440 490 or 450 anybody can look

178back on this the December meeting [clears throat] it's all it's all about 65% 64% >> 67 >> I I think what I'd like [laughter] to throw the gamma >> is is when you come back with the parameters that we've said this is what we'd like to see >> just like you've provided us with what it would look like if we don't go there. What are the things that are we're going to see implemented in our schools if we're able to pass this parcel tax at the highest ask? >> I'd like to see [clears throat] >> phase one in the first two years, phase two in the next three years, rate of inflation would equate. [clears throat] >> It's the 600 and the 7. >> There you go. Yeah, I think the 600 >> and what

179are we saving? >> Electives, PE. Right. >> Right. >> Both sides. That's the save our stuff and this is the >> wonderful comment somebody had. What are we adding and also what are we what are we saving? Right. >> Yeah. I mean the difference of one and two electives. It's like >> what did what did say finding passion or not? I mean that is so accurate like just having [snorts] we cannot cut like we need it. Sometimes the elective is the thing that attaches a middle school kid to school and keeps them coming and behaving and engaging. >> And it part of the two electives is also an equity issue because if you have a student that has special needs and needs extra support and you only have one elective, typically their elective period is

180the the support from their IEP. or if they're a multilingual learner, it's the multilingual learning support so that they're not getting band or orchestra or makers. So, it's, you know, if you think about our low-income families or our Latino families or our students that have special needs, them not having an elective is I don't think our community would want a school that does that. >> But our neighboring communities don't have two electives, >> right? That seems to be something that's common for districts to cut to save a significant amount of money, >> which is why it's on tier two cuts and not on tier three. >> Yep. >> I'm really uncomfortable asking for a $600 increase. Not because I don't think we need it and not because I don't think teachers deserve it and the

181students deserve it. Like none of that. I don't think we're going to get it to pass. That's my biggest concern. I've got probably more personal tax experience than just campaign experience than anyone up here. And I don't think that will pass. That's my biggest concern. >> So what's 549? What's a pricing? >> I don't know that 440 will pass. >> What? >> I That's just So the thing is is like it's lovely that we have so many people here and I'm so so grateful. The people who aren't showing up are the ones who are not going to tell me that they don't want us to increase it. And I've been reaching out to my neighbors, my senior neighbors, and my my ones who are in that 55 to 65 where they can't opt out. They

182don't have kids here. I've been talking to them and they're binging at the 440. And so I'm just concerned that people who are not going to vote for it aren't here to speak up and that we're not going to hear until they don't vote yes. And so that's what I'm scared about. I'm not saying that I don't want to ask for 600 if you guys vote for that. Like >> but I'm just saying like that's my hesitation right here. I'm really concerned. And I think I think there were a lot I think this last people like I can't believe it didn't pass. >> Yes. >> And I think part of the shock was because people didn't tell us that they didn't vote for it or there was this sense of >> Yeah. >> even walking

183door to door and knocking on doors which I think we were all doing. I think there was the shock because it felt like there was a lot of support and then all of a sudden there wasn't and it was I think that was part so I think there was a lot of people who didn't vote for it but who weren't really vocal about it or even when you talk to them at the door they're like yeah I support schools it's great >> but then didn't vote for it >> I think people that are going to vote no are going to vote no they're going to vote no they just don't want an increase in taxes where our mis population was everybody that didn't vote >> and so so Many people didn't and they thought, "Oh,

184it'll pass without my vote or they just didn't know an election was going on." Like that's I think we have more time than we did with measure e to campaign to educate people. We have a lot of learned experience. I feel that like it's really just I mean we had 64 63 what do we have 64% with measure E that we it's just I think with a different campaign strategy than we had that we can get we can get it and I completely agree with the consensus here that we just we need we can't go for put us ourselves in a situation where we're going to be back here making more cuts in a couple of years. >> And I think this these two tables kind of articulate what we're talking about [clears throat] here.

185Folks in the room right now, and I really appreciate Pascal who came and uh shared his thoughts at the beginning of the last item. I think it takes a lot of courage to come in and share a differing opinion and I want more people to come share their opinions. Um so I appreciate Pascal for being here. In the top one, you can see folks that either work here or send their kids here. It's unequivocal. Ask for the big number. Let's do it. This is a a common good for our community. It's it's a no-brainer, like someone said earlier today. Now, for the community folks, we've only had six 60 people out of the 360 or so respond to the survey that are just straight community members without kids in the in the district. And it's

186way more mixed. It's less than 440 to Rachel's point on for some and the next people are like >> more than 500. So it kind of depends on who you are but it's not as united as the staff and parent input. And I think paying attention to that is important because we have the total number of folks in that staff and parent is about 3,000 and the other total that we're not hearing from is 15,000. So, anyone listening in, the survey is on our website. If you go to our website, rosvaleschools.org, you're going to have an annoying popup that tells you about this meeting. And in that popup, there's a survey link. Please fill that out. We want to hear from you because I think that's how we thread the needle is finding this difference

187between what our need is because my articulation of the need is let's expand programs to make our schools even better and increase by $750. And to Rachel's point, I don't think that will pass at all. So where between that number and a straight renewal gets us to where we can give meaningful raises to our teachers, maintain our student programs, and not come back to the community in three years. >> But I respect Rachel, I respect your experience with Barcel. I really do. And I and I take that to heart what you said. But I'm looking at the percentage that we fell for. We failed in gaining this pass. A small percentage. And I do agree with Anna that it was people that didn't vote. And we had a complex elsat question on how you were

188going to be taxed on your parcel, right? And people still voted more favorably in the 60some percentile to get this through. This is a flat tax we're asking for. It's a renewal of a parcel tax they've been paying already. We got to increase it because we have to keep up with the rate of inflation and our expenses. I mean, I just I just How would you feel at 540? My only concern is we pulled at 540 is what people have been think, you know, if anybody's paying any attention. Or they could say, "Well, you pulled at 540 for a reason and then you voted on 600, so you went over and above, but you didn't pull there. So, how do you know the 600 or what?" I So, I'm just asking like how cuz I

189definitely I'm at the threading of the needle of like, okay, we pulled at 540. There was no difference between 540 and 440 statistically speaking, >> right? >> So, to me, that says absolutely there's no difference. at least, you know, to go there and to listen to Rachel, which I also respect your vast experience in this um and feeling like, okay, what are the things that are going to come at us or the counter of the negatives on that other slide? And so >> talking [clears throat] about 600, I'm thinking automatically cost. And who was like, oh, Golden Cafeteria when TAM did their measure A. And >> honestly, if you look at measure A and what they were asking for, they needed all that money, but they got hammered for it. They asked for what they

190needed, >> but they said they were doing a cafeteria. That's >> But they the way they spun it was not I mean, but I'm just they didn't it wasn't it wasn't as easy for this the the community to understand. I get that. But what I'm saying is like if we ask for what we need, it doesn't necessarily mean we're going to get it. and they had to come down like 40% on their ask to get it to pass in the second goound. And so I don't want us to sit here and have to put all this energy into a second election to have it fail to have to do a third to get the money we absolutely need. >> Yeah. By the time we're there, we're >> by the time we're there, we are not

191even I mean, we may be talking about just like I said the fingernails kind of thing because a lot of what I heard I mean I really heard like you do not want to go into receiverhip. We do that's like absolute but if we have to go out a third time we're we could be talking about just the save our schools part of it not the anything else. I think we're talking about saving our schools now at the 540, >> but we're also talking about giving salary increases in >> part of saving our schools. Like that's how dire it is. Like that's part of saving our schools. >> So >> I think it's that messaging around the community where maybe measure E was more like pay our teachers more. We love our teachers. Pay our

192teachers more. It wasn't as like well okay sure I agree with that but it's nice to have right? They have summers off. I don't have summers off. Right. Okay. They got it pretty good. Right. [snorts] It talk to non-teers, right? People like, "Yeah, teachers have pretty good." So, we have to message the the community aspect, right? The save our schools. Here's how it's going to affect us as a community and not just a single body. This is why we want to increase. >> Remind me why we didn't pull at 750. There was a reason. There was a good reason. Uh so the reason let me show you a reason that >> so based on I mean if we go back here based on the t partial tax town halls and the partial tax working group

193we were kind of setting a target for about $1,200 which gets us close to the measure E uh increase. That means about a $458 increase from our current parcel tax. So then we pulled a little less than that and a little more than that and that was kind of the number. >> And I think the question around the need it's it's complex. It it really depends the need is the need to continue to improve our district then it's 750. Is the need to just maintain? Then it's 600. Is the need to get the thing passed? Then it might be lower than that. So I I think that the need just depends on what angle you're looking at the need from. But if we just say we okay, we just want to get this passed. We're

194staring down another cliff. >> And I mean >> I mean I can run the numbers here on an Excel spreadsheet and get it out to you in two minutes and show you >> the rate of inflation. No, we're not we're not there. But we're not able to retain the quality of teachers that we want to retain our provide the raises that we want to provide. We can't. And there's just just we're just >> at the four >> frogs and the hot water at the 440. >> I fear families will leave too to go >> to other schools. >> I would. >> Yeah. I think that if we do the bare minimum, >> that's not why people are move here. >> And a lot of people have the means to send their kids to private schools

195and that does not serve >> our community. a hell of a lot more than $540, >> but it's also the 15,000 people that we don't hear from. >> That's that's that's the risk. And >> again, the echo chamber's great to some aspect, right? But then you get on next door, you get on social like and other people aren't as vocal if they're against it. Well, I've I've had seniors that I know in my community who are [snorts] and the people who are not quite 65 yet who have been asking me like how much is it going to be and like you know they generally support these and but they were like a little bit like taken it back when I told them 440 490 540 they were like it's a lot you know and they're

196like we've always supported them in the past but you know it it made them pause like immediately and and they were kind of embarrassed to tell me and say it. >> Yeah. >> Because you know they want to support schools and that they always have, but that was enough to make them pause. And for me, I'm like, how many people are going to pause? And yes, I know we need the money, and I know that we need 600 or 750. I'd rather have 750, but like >> I think that's where the campaign strategy comes in like those talking points of the just average the average of the other schools with Arizona. >> Sometimes there's confusion about partial taxes and bonds and an increase of let's say 540. Some people might think that that's per $100,000

197of assessed value or they think it's per month or [snorts] you know whatever they think it is. It is a year. It's over the course of a year. So $600 is 50 bucks a month. >> And for some people in their budget, that's a lot. >> And that's hard to hard to pull off. And for other people, it's like water under the bridge. So I think this is part of why this is difficult. We have a diverse community. That's a beautiful thing. We want that. And we got to thread the needle between the families that wouldn't wouldn't blink at a $750 increase and those that any increase is too much. >> Well, and there was confusion la in the measure E about that it was in addition, right, to the current partial tax. And we

198heard that loud and clear. A lot of people were like, "Oh my god, I don't want 55 cents a square foot plus what I'm already paying." And that's not what it was, but a lot of people were confused by that. And so this we I mean, we will not make you know, with our communication, our talking points, like it'll be very clear what it will be. >> $600 is the addition is is equates to $50 a month. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> The addition. Yeah. >> And that's the whole like latte factor. You've heard that a million times. You know, oh, if you don't buy a latte every day at Starbucks, you can afford to donate to our cause. And, you know, people like, oh, I spend a lot on latte. $50 a month. to

199some people I know would would they'd feel it. I'm not gonna I'm not going to sit up here throwing but >> it's like the millennials and avocado toast thing buying a house. Um okay so I have a suggestion here for us >> as a board. Okay. So we're giving direction. We're not voting anything tonight. So we have another board meeting February 11th where people can come. We can get feedback in the interim. There's the open survey. What I'm suggesting is that we give direction to look at maybe two three dollar like three total increase amounts to give him to look at. We need to figure out the term and the inflation rate now. >> I don't think we can >> and then well just to give direction because then he needs to go to like

200an attorney to like come up with the resolution language >> right I was >> and then we can bring up maybe options and we can vote on the different option >> at the next meeting. I might two because we have to vote I mean we have to vote at the next meeting. So I might narrow it down to just two not three >> just to >> I mean or just because we can't not vote. I mean there's not an option to not vote at the next time this comes up is what I'm understanding. We're going to vote. We're going to vote it on February 11th. And I appreciate Rachel. >> The the reason we did two meetings instead of just one public hearing is to allow this to get into the community, have people talk,

201fill out the survey, come to the next meeting to give us more feedback. So, you know, it might feel like it's the final countdown tonight, but we still have a few weeks. I I think I can bring two different resolutions and we can vote on the two different resolutions. if there's like something you're if you guys are all set on everything except the increase that would be relatively easy for me to do. So it sounds like we [clears throat] it's what I'm hearing is we're we are coalesed around flat with a dollar amount increase no per square footage >> 3% inflation rate >> uh >> 10 years 10 years >> kind of go with 10 years >> 10 years 10 years >> on the treadmill of every eight years a lot >> 10 years yeah

202um I don't I haven't heard anybody object to having community oversight integrated in it seems like an appropriate thing to do. >> Yeah. >> So really the the only variable here >> is two numbers and what I'm hearing is it's 540 or 600 >> or [snorts] four >> 440. I mean I don't know >> right we could leave that part open. I guess maybe >> I would feel more comfortable with that >> noodling a bit more tonight to know how we're going to go in that >> and maybe if there's people that are that are listening that are here that can go out and ask all of their neighbors >> send us emails tell us give us the number. What is the number that everybody out there >> non-echo chamber people >> what is gonna

203pass? What do you want? >> Let me give a couple quick other pieces here. >> Wait quick question. >> Yep. Go ahead. We can make a modification to the number on the day of even if not in one of the two two ones you come to us with. Right. >> Probably I'll talk to our lawyers. >> Yeah. The more information really you could give us about this number then this. Yep. >> This number then. Yeah. >> So let me go back here. Um I just noticed that my numbers on the right side are flipped. So the 440 actually generates 2.9 million. 490 is correct. and the 540 actually generates 3.6 million. So I'll fix that. >> Okay. >> And I apologize for that mistake. Um measure E generated $3 million. So [clears throat] just contextually

204measure E didn't f didn't pass. So we came back. A lot of the feedback was around structure and less about the increase. So that's why I think there's room for debate on the increase. um coalition of sensible taxpayers will probably come out actively against us if it's more than the $3 million we asked for in measure E. However, I had a conversation today with Mimi Willard and she said she would endorse this measure if we asked for 10 to 20% more than we have right now. So that would beund on 20%. So on the high end it would be $149 increase. not even the 440 >> $149 million increase. >> So what I'm hearing is that basically we can bank on the fact that they are not going to come >> on in in addition

205to that she also mentioned that they will be doing an active tax uh tsunami campaign. Um so even if they endorsed they're still going to do the tax tsunami thing. So it's kind of >> and she also mentioned too and I think this is important to note. I think this is really important to note that the focus will be Fairfax because she believes as a Kentfield resident that she can move Fairfax voters easier than Mil Valley, easier than Santafell, easier than anywhere else. >> Easier than her own hometown of Kentfield, which is raising taxes. >> Exactly. So, I just think that the I think we have a lot of debate around how do we get Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers on board and I'm 100% wanting them to be on board, but if their top end

206ask is an increase of $149 and they're still going to do the tax tsunami thing, I think that that is a it's it's unfortunate. I >> I think we should listen to our community is who I think we should listen to. >> And I think that's I want to hear from Fairfax. I mean, I know San and Selmo's in the house and Sanelmo will give us feedback and more folks that have filled out the survey are from San and Selmo. So, like the Fairfax non RVSD folks between now and February 11th, I want to hear from you. >> Call me, let's go get coffee. Let's chat. Send an email to the board. We need to hear from you. >> The other thing to me that that points to in terms of messaging is it's a

207get out. It's a there are going to be people who are against increased against taxes period and I think that's what this is speaking to is like let me rally up the people who are who are going to resonate with no more taxes ever anywhere anytime. We shouldn't waste time convincing them. We should then focus on get out the vote and say hey there's this campaign to try and get the no taxes ever anytime anywhere. And the way that we're going to deal with that is not by convincing those people. It's by overwhelming them with the rest of the reasonable folks in the world >> and get out the vote and overwhelm them with th that voice and just don't worry about even having to convince people, >> right? everybody in this room like nobody

208wants to pay more but we know what it's going like there's nothing more important >> and at least we know now so we can move forward with that as a >> I think it was it was nice for me to hear because over the course of the last few months I pushed really hard because cost has said it needs to be meaningfully less and I didn't know what that means so I I want to thank the cost board for putting a number on the table um because I asked for it and they talked about it last night and now I have a number on the table and the delta is just so far off >> and knowing that they're going to do the taxonomy thing anyways. So it's like to to move to get there

209Yes. and then still have the taxonomy, it just makes it less relevant, >> right? That's great. >> I just I just feel like I I my first role is a fiduciary responsibility to this district and if I am guided by the tolerance levels of a outside interest that doesn't want us to do anything that would even move the needle or fiscal obligations, I'm failing personally and I can't sit here and do that to even consider a $149 increase to a straight face. I won't come back. >> I I I can't do that to my community. I can't do that to my kids, other people's kids. Um uh so I I think I think we need to really You're right, Tyler. listen to our community and and also listen to to the the reason why we're

210here and that is we have a fiscal responsibility to run these schools the way that they're supposed to be run. Um and I think the amount of money that we consider has to really rely on whether we get to that goal or not. in our community has had has said with measure E it's 60 almost 4% yes to the $3 million increase and these increases between 2.9 and 3.6 we basically got even better results in the polling at 64 to 67%. So we're we're there and we're listening and I'm really happy we're doing two meetings this year because it gives this time to breathe a little bit and get more input between now and the 11th. I mean, I really want to thank everybody who attended the town halls, the parcel tax working group, all

211of the work you've done, Tyler. I mean, it gives us so much more information than I think we had last time. And that information, I mean, it's I don't we didn't have this much involvement before. And that's Yeah, it's huge. >> Okay. So, can you guys give me a range that you want me to I'm hearing June flat tax 3% 10 years community oversight? Uh, obviously the same opt outs and the no money for admin or pensions, but what's the kind of range you want me to consider? Do you want to broaden it? Do you want to narrow it? >> I mean, I was hearing 600 if you're >> Yeah, 600. >> But to your point, that's other, you know, that's what we want. But >> I know >> that >> I know. But we

212have two weeks for people to fill out a survey to reach out to us. >> Even with 600 are we still are paying more for our sewers. >> I'm not a mathematician, so you might want to double check my >> be 12. It'd be 1242, >> but with their escalating it still. >> Do you have any do you haven't any >> How are you feeling [clears throat] about passing likelihood? >> It's all about we have to get to yes. We have to get to yes in June. >> So 440 doesn't >> No, 440 >> feel good. But >> I meant 540 versus 600. >> I 540 feels good. >> If that gets us to yet, I don't I don't think it's >> I would ask pricing expert. >> I think the critique on the numbers

213that we >> we've pulled on the difference between 440 and 540. Most people are like a h 100red bucks a year. >> Yeah. >> I'm either yes to all of it or I'm no to all of it or I'm annoyed that you asked me three times and now I'm no. [laughter] So I think having a broader delta, something that's like almost a surefire yes and our ask for debate at the next meeting could be helpful. So something >> closer to the bottom. I think if we did 540 and 600, it's like >> now they're too close. >> It's too close. >> So if you want 600 at the top end, I think something different is >> I just don't know that. Well, Rich, I would like to hear more from you. I mean, I'm hearing

214from this side over here at least the five I mean, I'm not hearing a whole lot of support for the 440 490 [snorts] that it's like a 540 or above, but I >> but I also am totally appreciating and wrestling with the it's got to pass. >> But then I wrestle with >> Well, it'll pass at 540 just as much as it'll pass at 440. So, >> I would be more inclined to look at 440 and 600 because it's a bigger delta. And I think [clears throat] it gives people a really good idea of like what we actually need to stay where we are and like what we can scrape by with like it's just like >> I mean we're still going to have to do cuts probably 440. So, >> it gives people a

215little bit like, hey, what are you going to choose for our community? You going to choose some cuts and like a slight increase or you going to choose like what we actually need to sustain what we're at now? I mean, I'd rather have a bigger delta than like 500 and 600. Like, >> so like save our schools but not really or like save our schools or >> teachers or teachers will still leave and we'll still cut programs, but at least we won't have to go into receiverhip. Like that's not great. >> But it's again, it's about messaging, right? >> But so I think this is the call to action. We have between now and [clears throat] February 11th, everyone in this room, everyone that was in this room, everyone that's listening, everyone that goes to

216our website, fill out the survey. >> Yes. give us another >> and send the survey to 10 people you know to get them to fill it out especially if they are 55 to 65 and live in Fairfax like that's I want to hear from them. So like we >> but the survey has 440 490 540 >> and a lot of people say less than that or more than that >> you know they've been putting it all kinds >> I also encourage emails that you don't have to write a lot just send us send me an email with a number and that's it like really truly like I don't want to take up any more of people's time than they have but I would love to hear from people about a number It's a meeting. >>

217Okay. So, I'm hearing a 440 to 600 delta. Is that >> I think that's good because then you could give us the like what the what those two numbers will provide. >> I mean, we >> we could do that. I can't in conscious vote for a 440 if it's going to be still cutting and not paying increases. It just seems to me like that's just that's just not a that's just not a I can't I can't go out and >> knock on doors and ask, "Hey, can you increase your partial tax so we can still make cuts and not pay our any raises to our teachers?" It's just just so that we >> So I think the difference between the 600 and the 440 is is taking two dials and dialing up or down how

218much we negotiate with the unions and dialing up or down the the cuts, right? And if it's 600, we can kind of get closer to the top. See that dark black line? >> Yeah. we can get closer to that number in negotiations, but it still puts us, you know, >> we're still in there >> towards the top of the bottom cortile, right? Um, and it means we're probably not making any cuts at 600. And then if we're at 440, you know, we might jump larksburger, maybe Miller Creek, but we're not going to jump Kentfield and we're going to probably make a few cuts. That's kind of the delta. I know a lot of people want me to put a number on the table for what we're going to negotiate with the union. I just can't

219at this point. Um, but in my conversations with union leadership, we would love to do a multi-year deal, some somewhere between a two and three-year deal that helps create some stability so we can start talking about the amazing teaching and learning, the implementation of our new EL program, the improvements we're making to special ed. Like, that's the stuff that we care about. Not. I mean, no offense, Chris. The budget is not why we're all here. >> Yeah. >> So, if we if we give you that direction, 440 or 600, >> but then we're like, well, no, maybe we should just vote for 540. How do we do that on February 11th? Or is it saying it's just we can >> I'll talk to our lawyers because in the in the last round I had to

220bring a resolution that was like a complete resolution and we voted on it that day. Um and I think that's part of the mistake we made is we had one meeting, we had the public hearing, we got feedback, but we had already voted and it was like we couldn't honor the feedback that we had heard. Um, this time we have time to honor the feedback and we've got plenty of time to get more feedback. So, I'll see what our lawyer can do and I might be able to just have as a board attachment two or three different resolutions or you all can vote for the resolution with this number in it. I'll see what we can do around that. >> Fill in the blank number. >> Yep. >> Okay. There no motion or vote today.

221So, I >> I just emotion. Yeah, [laughter] I want to thank the board and I also want to thank the community members that are still here. Anyone that made a made a comment tonight, anyone that wrote the board, >> anyone that filled out that survey, I've read all 350 responses. We heard every vote voice today. We've read all the emails that have been sent in. This is what democracy looks like in action. So, please help get more feedback because it's the grassroots piece. like the average Fairfax resident's not listening tonight. Like help us get to those folks so we can hear them and honor their feedback in the democratic process to get something that's going to pass in June. [snorts] >> Um so with that, I'll move on to adjourning our meeting. It is 9:33

222and I'm going to enter our meeting. Thank you.