A strong majority of Coastside voters would vote for a parcel tax to support locals schools, but winning the two-thirds necessary to pass a tax will require the district to get everything right. That’s the message of a private survey Coastside voters to determine the feasibility of a parcel tax.
Cabrillo Unified School District board members Dwight Wilson and Jolanda Schreurs helped plan the survey and the results will be presented to the board.
About 60% of respondents said they would vote for a $250 per year per parcel tax. But 32% of the respondents said they agreed strongly or somewhat with the statement “Taxes are already too high, I would never vote for a tax increase no matter how it might be used”. That means any tax proposal must receive a very high percentage of undecided voters.
In June of 2003, a $250 per year per parcel five-year tax lost with 65.4% of the vote.
One hurdle is that district must overcome a perception of fiscal mismanagement. 41% of respondents disagreed strongly or somewhat with the statement “I trust the Cabrillo Unified School District to properly manage tax dollars” and 34% agreed with “The schools already have enough money, they just aren’t spending it properly”. Specifically, 51% of respondents said the District’s management of bond funds was either fair or poor.
An easier hurdle is that the district must resolve the location of the middle school. 36% agreed with the statement “I won’t support any measure for the District until they make a final decision about the location of the middle school”. The district will have another opportunity to resolve this issue at their next meeting, this Wednesday, November 9.
Respondents seemed to have a generally high opinion of the elementary schools in the District, and quality of teachers.
The arguments in favor of the tax that received the strongest support from respondents had to do with recruiting and retaining quality teachers, as well as bringing back school buses. At the end of the survey, the percentage of respondents supporting a parcel tax rose from 59% to 61%
Only 26% of respondents had children in district schools, which is close to the District’s estimate of 30%. Another 10% had children in private, parochial or home schools.
Only 3% of the respondents described themselves as Hispanic. This is probably due to the fact that likely voters were surveyed. It’s a sobering reminder that a large percentage of the parents of kids in our schools either don’t or can’t vote in school board and parcel tax elections.
The response to questions #14 and #15 are probably worth keeping in mind as we wait for the CUSD Board to finally make a decision (or not) about the middle school at the upcoming school board meeting on November 9.
“Whether you have children in school or not, please rate each of the following as excellent, good, only fair or poor in the Cabrillo Unified School District”
Excellect 2% Good 22% Fair 35% Poor 19% Don’t Know 22%
Excellect 3% Good 16% Fair 33% Poor 26% Don’t Know 23%