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After a community survey last year showed the Redwood City School District that a parcel tax ballot measure would fall short of voter approval, district leaders hope feelings of support have grown stronger since then and will once more gauge whether a measure could pass.
During its regular meeting on Wednesday, April 2, the five-member district board unanimously approved an agreement with consultants to assess the feasibility of putting an initiative on a ballot next year.
The feasibility study to be done by Team CivX, Godbe Research and SCI Consulting Group will include polling the community and evaluating whether to go for a parcel tax based on a flat rate, a charge per square footage of a property, or some other method, a district staff report said.
According to the report, the district will pay Team CivX a monthly fee of $7,500, with the total cost depending on the final contract length. The district will pay Godbe up to $44,225 based on the final survey length and SCI no more than $10,000.
“The study will provide critical data to help determine the best pathway forward,” District Superintendent John Baker said during the board meeting.
The district faces an “urgency in pursuing this now,” Board President Mike Wells told his fellow trustees. “So to me at least, it makes a lot of sense.”
If the polling is favorable enough, the district could target a proposal for the June 2, 2026, ballot. The cutoff date to qualify for that ballot is March 6.
The district has been eyeing a parcel-tax proposal to counter budget constraints, particularly due to expiring one-time COVID-19 relief funding.
“So as we’ve heard during multiple board meetings recently, parents have expressed support for pursuing this funding option,” Baker told trustees, “and we’ve discussed the importance of exploring a sustainable solution for some of the reductions that we’ve done” because of next year’s loss of state and federal pandemic-related funds.
The expiration of those funds translates to the district needing to make $6.6 million in cost-savings measures, according to a report by Baker in December. That effort includes a reduction of administrators for $1.5 million in savings and cutting back on mental-health counseling, reading-intervention teaching and other positions at school sites for $1.3 million.
“I’m really thankful that the district’s looking at multiple options for filling the funding gap that we’ve got,” parent Jessica Shade said, addressing the board. “We’re really interested in retaining and attracting quality teachers, supporting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) programs, maintaining small class sizes and more.”
Shade is also a member of a grassroots parents’ group that’s exploring a community-initiated parcel tax as an alternative strategy to help address the district’s funding challenges.
A citizens’ ballot initiative requires only a simple majority to pass, whereas the more traditional district-sponsored measure needs two-thirds. However, the former carries legal and other complications.
“But honestly, we aren’t picky about how the funding gets passed,” Shade told the board. If the polling points to potential success, “we’re happy to work on a district-led initiative.”
Carlo Contavalli, another member of the parent’s group, expressed sentiments similar to those of the board.
“We all know that our schools need a lot of funding, and they need it now,” Contavalli said, noting that parcel tax measures based on square footage have succeeded in other districts.
“Whatever we find out from this research and from this poll,” he said, “we do our best to make sure that we get more funding into the district.”
Last year’s survey of a proposed parcel tax aimed for the November 2024 ballot indicated a 60.5% voter support – short of the supermajority threshold for passage. The district, therefore, held off going to voters at that point.
