Morgan Hill school officials want to scrap their plans to place an education parcel tax on the Nov. 6 ballot, according to the recently released June 19 school board agenda.
The board will hear from district staff on the matter at the June 19 meeting inside the 15600 Concord Circle boardroom. Closed session is scheduled to begin at 4pm with public session (when the parcel tax will be discussed) immediately following at about 6pm.
The surprise move comes a little more than a month after MHUSD’s Board of Trustees voted 5-2 in favor of including two local charter schools in the funds generated from the measure.
“Since the board’s vote approving the ballot measure, staff has reviewed the resolution and conditions set forth by the board with respect to the legal implications of the measure, legal challenges in process for implementing the tax measure if it passes, and predictable opposition that will create additional costs to assure the effective administration or oversight of the measure,” the “G6” agenda item states.
The board surprised district staff at the May 15 meeting when, in a last minute maneuver, added language to the five-year, $75-per-parcel tax resolution to allow a percentage of the revenues to go to Charter School of Morgan Hill and Voices College-Bound Language Academy. That percentage would be based on student enrollment.
“Staff generated many questions after the review such that the District staff needs to address these questions prior to ordering such a measure on a ballot,” according to the staff report.
The withdrawal of the resolution “will enable staff to craft a legally defendable ballot measure which will support the board’s interest as stated during the May 15, 2018 discussion and direction.”
The deadline to submit resolutions to the County Registrar Office is July 5.
Citing “inconsistent language, verification of eligible students and determination of allocation of funds,” district staff is requesting the board not place the parcel tax measure on the Nov. 6 ballot.
“Based on these three risks, and consultation with other Districts, staff is concerned that legal arbitration cost may exceed any benefits of the measure if passed as stated,” according to staff.
At the May 15 meeting, Board President Tom Arnett, Vice President Mary Patterson and trustees David Gerard, Gino Borgioli and Teresa Murillo voted to include the two charter schools to give the measure a more likely chance of passing in the November election.
Trustees Donna Ruebusch and Ron Woolf were against the revised resolution, since it came late in the process. The district’s final version was crafted by a special committee and consultants after months of planning that included a pair of community surveys. It was exclusively for district-run schools. It did, however, have a clause that addressed charter schools, promising their inclusion in future parcel taxes, but not the one headed to a Nov. 6 vote.
If successful, the property tax was estimated to generate $1.5 million annually over the next five years.
Other general business items to be discussed June 19 include:
• Presentation from the Food Services Department by Michael Jochner, Director of Food Services.
• Request for approval of the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan.
• Request for approval of the district’s 2018-19 budget, which has $93,195,350 in revenues, $91,168,368 in expenditures and $13,489,621 in reserves.
• Presentation on Multi-year financial projections.
• Request for approval of Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) for 13 school sites.
