The Board of Education of Morgan Hill has placed a measure on
the June ballot that will ask our community to invest a little more
in the education of our kids.
The Board of Education of Morgan Hill has placed a measure on the June ballot that will ask our community to invest a little more in the education of our kids.
Significant time, analysis, and discussion have gone into understanding exactly how additional funding can best advance student achievement. The majority of the money will be used to bring our schools into the 21st century: We will enhance the district’s woefully inadequate technology infrastructure and support, bring educational technologies into our classrooms that will give students additional choices in educational content and delivery, and give our teachers the tools they need to effectively measure and expand academic achievement. This will allow us to expand the educational opportunities for students who excel while also offering new programs for students with difficulties in basics like reading and math. The remainder of the dollars will restore funding to programs that make MHUSD unique and bring pride to our community yet have had to be reduced or lost in recent years due to necessary budget cuts in music and arts, athletics, and agricultural programs.
Why is this money needed? California ranks 32nd out of 50 states in what it spends on student education. Furthermore, not all districts get the same amount of money per child from the state. Based on formulas locked in years ago, the Morgan Hill School District receives an allocation per child that is even below California’s low average payment. While our elected state officials argue over school funding every year, our kids get left behind. State spending on education has declined so quickly over the past few years that our school district has had to cut over $8 million from a $56 million general fund budget over the past 3 years to keep the district financially solvent. The Morgan Hill community is being asked to enact its first parcel tax ever to reverse that trend, providing additional funds of approximately $1.5 million per year.
Our district is already taking action to raise academic performance, as we sharpen our focus on our No. 1 goal of student achievement. Our teachers and leadership have raised expectations of all our kids. Taking our direction from clear results of both research and experience, we are implementing a coherent, aligned, standards based curriculum and instructional program and we are making extensive use of data to improve student achievement and instruction. We are refining how we teach our kids with the funding and the tools that we have today; however, it is not enough to ensure that our kids are ready for a globally competitive job market. We need the additional resources that this parcel tax will provide to make Morgan Hill the excellent school district we want for our children.
Our school district is well positioned for the advancement this parcel tax can offer. We are blessed with an outstanding teaching staff. Our teachers are dedicated to the success of our kids and have focused their professional lives on ensuring that our kids have the skills to succeed for their whole lives with the best educational foundation possible. Our new superintendent and his instructional and financial leaders have an impressive track record in school improvement and know what is needed to bring outstanding educational results to our community while prudently managing our finances.
The last time our school district went to the voters was in 1999, when the community was asked for a construction bond to support the creation of Barrett Elementary School and Sobrato High School, as well as the of remodeling Live Oak High School. Barrett and Sobrato are beautiful schools in full operation. The renovation of Live Oak is not yet complete, but the bond that the voters approved has enough money available for us to complete this job. We have a comprehensive plan to complete the work (renovating the remaining academic buildings, theater, boys locker room, video security system, lockers, etc.) and the bidding process for these projects is now underway. Many lessons were learned from the building projects and our new leadership has an excellent track record in successfully managing school construction. With the remaining work on Live Oak committed and underway, we will keep faith with the community and complete the work that was promised.
The educational achievement of our kids, not the creation of facilities, is now our clear focus. We are not asking the voters to approve another construction bond. The kind of support our kids need now is not in buildings, but in improved educational programs. A parcel tax will provide critically needed funding that can be used by the school district to target enhancing the educational opportunities of our children. It is time to take that step and we ask our community to support our efforts and help us pass a parcel tax for our kids.
The June ballot measure asks the Morgan Hill community to pay an additional $8 per parcel a month to help make our school district one of the top in the county. None of the money will go to district administration; there is a senior exception (65+) available; and a citizens’ oversight committee will be established to ensure that the money is allocated as committed to the taxpayers.
As we lead up to the vote on June 6, you will be hearing more about the state of our schools and how the parcel tax will be used to help our kids. Please feel free to contact us, or any member of the Board of Education or district leadership team to discuss this further.
Mike Hickey, MHUSD President
Peter mandel, MHUSD Vice President
