School board hears parcel tax survey results

The findings of the $35,000 survey taken to resolve the issue of whether to seek a parcel tax again was heard by the Sonoma Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees at its meeting on Tuesday evening.
When he was hired in April, John Whitehurst of Whitehurst Campaigns told the school board that his findings would be part art and part science – he would be the art and his data research team would be the science. Whitehurst was armed Tuesday with both, his art and his science.
The science, Alex Evans of Evans/McDonough Company Inc. surveyed 350 registered voters by telephone and within a margin of error of ±5.24% – his key scientific findings were that voters find education and teachers to be important and recognize a need for funding.
Of those surveyed, 56% approved while 34% rejected a possible parcel tax ballot measure at $175. At $125 there was no difference in the survey findings and at $225 only 34% approved and 64% rejected the parcel tax idea.
The science of the survey also revealed a shocking reality regarding the overall performance of the SVUSD and its administration. “You’re not the best messengers,” Whitehurst said. 2% of those surveyed believe the quality of the SVUSD Board of Trustees is excellent – 10% say teacher quality is excellent while only 4% say that SVUSD overall is excellent.
“If the vote were held today, it would not pass,” Whitehurst said. With only a 2% approval rating for the district’s budget management, Whitehurst told the board that they needed to: 1) unify in the message, 2) pick a dollar amount easy for the public to swallow, and 3) pick an election soon.
“You’re not in a position to ask for $175,” Evans said. “It’s not like selling a car – you don’t want people thinking about the dollar amount – they need to be thinking about the benefit – you don’t have to convince the public that money is needed, but you do need to show where the money is going and then produce results.
“But we have to begin somewhere,” Superintendent Barbara Young said. “When you want to buy a new car – you don’t go out and buy a Rolls Royce at first.”
Trustee Helen Marsh was worried that there would still have to be budget cuts with a parcel tax amount as low as $75. “With plan A there will be with cuts and with plan B will be with significant cuts,” Marsh said.
Wondering what it is that the board wants, what they need and what they can squeak by with, trustee Dan Gustafson said, “we’re between a rock and a hard spot – but without the parcel tax we’re headed for disaster – like a ship headed for the iceberg without enough life boats.”
This special school board meeting was only for information and there will be “ballot language” for action placed on the agenda for the regularly scheduled June 12 meeting.