Pleasanton Unified Seeks Parcel Tax Consultation

The Pleasanton Unified School District is now taking bids from firms that can provide consultation on the feasibility of a parcel tax.

The five-member school board unanimously approved the district's request to seek professional services at Tuesday's board meeting.

The approval calls for combined or separate professional services from firms to provide advisory service and to draft and administer a survey.

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Luz Cazares said the district already has a list of vendors they will be sending the requests for quotation to. She added advertisements in local media will assist in collecting a diverse pool of applicants in the timeline established.

"We figured with this sort of decision, we'd really want to allow enough time to really interview them, really get the chance to review the quotations and make the best decision we can for the services," Cazares said.

Strategic advice and planning, how the district can communicate to the public and on-going assistance with research development, public relations, community outreach and coalition building related to preparing a ballot measure are the key requirements the district is looking for in a consultant firm, according to a draft presented to the board.

The board said it was important to have a firm that would advise them on proper research questions and methods, on how to conduct a telephone survey to gauge community attitudes and willingness to support education and whether the survey will include other languages besides English.

Bids must be received by June 16. The board and superintendent are slated to review the bids on June 30 and a special board meeting is slated to be held in July. At that meeting, the board is scheduled to select which firm will do both tasks, or which firms will do the tasks separately.

Although the drafted timeline only includes the board and superintendent during the process of awarding the bids, Board Members Pat Kernan and Jamie Hintzke pushed for members of the Revenue Enhancement Committee to be included in the selection process.

"My main thought is the more people we involve, the better," Kernan said.

The initial recommendation for a parcel tax stemmed from the Revenue Enhancement Committee, a subcommittee of the district's Budget Advisory Committee, and was first presented to the board on May 10.

Pleasanton Unified was unable to pass a parcel tax in June 2009, with 62.7 percent of voters supporting the parcel tax and 37.3 percent opposing it. It needed two-thirds approval to pass. Measure G called for an annual $233 parcel tax for four years.

How much a parcel tax would be or what it would be allocated toward is far from being established, and board members emphasized that there is no monetary obligation in Tuesday's approval. They can accept, reject, or modify any or all bids, according to notices that will be sent out to contractors.

"I just want to make it clear to the public, there's no commitment of dollar amount on this at this point," Board Member Valerie Arkin said.