How Will the School District Parcel Tax Money Be Spent?

When voters in June, they agreed to pay an annual $67 parcel tax that would generate approximately $1.5 million for schools in the .

Rather than spent on administrators’ salaries, the money will be used to enhance reading, writing, math, and science skills; attract and retain qualified teachers; and support school libraries, as the .

Pending school board approval at tonight's meeting, each school would receive $17,000 then an additional $133 per student who attends that school. The board would re-examine the disbursement of funds before the 2013 to 2014 school year to determine if the formula needs to be readjusted.

Examples of how schools can spend their funds:

Enhance reading, writing, math and science skills

• Hire a part-time or full-time reading resource teacher
• Fund hands-on science classroom activities (Example: UC Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science, Marine Science Institute)
• Hire a resource teacher for Targeted Instructional Groups (TIG)
• Hire a part-time or full-time intervention teacher for math, science, reading or writing
• Pay for intervention curriculum (Example: JIJI Math)

Attract and retain qualified teachers

• Pay for school-based professional development/training for teachers chosen by the Site Council (Example: Cleo Elau teacher/student support, training for results-oriented, collaborative teaching based on data analysis and strategic instruction – frequently known as professional learning communities)
• Pay for release time or stipends to provide grade-level teams time to analyze data, collaborate on instruction, and engage in collective inquiry into effective learning strategies
• Hire instructional assistants to help K-3 teachers with large class sizes
• Hire an additional teacher to reduce class sizes

Support school libraries

• Provide additional hours for school librarian so that the library can be open more hours each week
• Purchase books for libraries
• Implement Accelerated Reader

A baseline amount ensures that even the smaller schools will be able to hire at least one half-time staff member and larger schools will receive enough to benefit all the students.

Every school has a Site Council comprised of the principal, teachers and elected parent representatives that will help decide how to spend the money most appropriate for that school.

Once each Site Council submits the proposed expenditures to Superintendent Jan Christensen, the Superintendent will review, compile and recommend the proposal for the board’s approval.

Property owners who are 65 years or older or anyone who receives a supplemental security income for a disability are eligible for an exemption from the parcel tax. Depending on the number of exemptions, the parcel tax funds may range from $1.4 million to $1.7 million.

Currently, there are 227 applications for exemption from the parcel tax, which, if granted, would reduce the total revenue by $15,209.

San Mateo County also charges an administrative fee of $1.35 per parcel, or about $31,500 for collection and distribution of the parcel tax.  

An independent Citizen’s Oversight Committee will ensure that the funds are spent in accordance with the ballot language and provide an annual audit for the community. Want to apply to the committee? Find out how .

The school board meets at 7 p.m. at 750 Bradford Street in Redwood City.

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