VOTE NO on MEASURE R

You Can’t Trust the School District...they don’t tell you the whole story

FACT: The DISTRICT BROKE A MAJOR PROMISE TO RWS!  RWS taxed itself with Measure C to build RWS Elementary school specifically, according to the language of the measure:“To allow every local child to attend a NEIGHBORHOOD elementary school.”  But the District recently adopted a new attendance policy forcing RWS children living west of Shell Pkwy. to cross highway 101 to attend the lowest performing school in the District, Nesbit.

FACT: Property values west of Shell may be lowered by 10% to 20% because of the District’s attendance policy of assigning the western Shores to the lowest performing school, Nesbit. Property values are strongly associated with school assignment. These Nesbit assignments are likely permanent, not just one-year rotations for Kindergarten like they were several years ago.

FACT: This year, the District displaced half a classroom of RWS kindergartners from RWS neighborhood schools to Nesbit to make room for out-of-district transfers from East Palo Alto (Tinsley Act).  The District placed almost all of the Tinsley transfers into our overcrowded Redwood Shores schools, while placing NO Tinsley kids at the Belmont schools of Central, Cipriani or Fox. Tinsley transfers, by law, should never displace neighborhood children. Local neighborhood children take priority over Tinsley transfers.

FACT: Despite what the District repeatedly says, Measure R is NOT a renewal tax - It is a NEW TAX collected annually for the next ten years. There is no such thing as ‘renewal’ of taxes - only NEW TAXES.

FACT:  RWS already pays FOUR taxes to the District annually - Two Parcel Taxes (Measures G and U) and Two Bond Taxes (Measures C and N).  This is above and beyond the thousands in property taxes you already pay to support local schools (45% of property taxes) and totals nearly $725 per home (based on $1 million assessed home value).

FACT: Asking for more taxes now is premature and disingenuous - CA’s Prop 30 will provide billions of dollars annually to schools and could be a windfall to this School District. They want to tax you BEFORE you find out about their new funding.

FACT: The District uses intellectually insulting scare tactics in their ballot language - threatening that students will not receive math, science, reading and writing programs if Measure R does not pass. Taxpayers should not tolerate or be intimidated by false and misleading tactics repeatedly, which their paid professional consultants recommend, relying on voter amnesia and ignorance.

FACT: The District says they will go broke or school programs will suffer if we don’t pass this parcel tax now, when in fact, their current two parcel taxes do not expire until 2015 and 2016 - a full two and three years away.

FACT: The District doesn’t want you to know about their surplus - more than $500,000 this year alone was left unspent.

FACT: The District is NOT broke.  The BRSSD is better funded than neighboring districtssince we are a Basic Aid District. This means the District keeps 100% of its property tax dollars.  BRSSD is funded like other wealthy Basic Aid Districts including Woodside, Hillsborough, Portola Valley and Menlo Park.  Nearly 50% of your property tax bill already goes towards funding local schools.

FACT: We have the highest teacher salaries compared to similar school districts (San Carlos, Burlingame, San Mateo/ Foster City, and Redwood City), and almost $1 million in total cost of employment for one Superintendent and his five central office administrators. What educational tools and supplies could be purchased with this ADMINISTRATIVE BLOAT?

FACT: The District spent THOUSANDS of your tax dollars (intended for educating kids) to hire pricey consultants to run this misleading campaign and send  expensive fliers asking you to pay NEW TAXES they don’t need now and may never need.

Measure R is premature, fiscally unnecessary and irresponsible. STOP the BRSSD from AGAIN sacrificing RWS children and negatively impacting RWS property values.   AND, it is also BEMONT property values since some  homes in the Central neighborhood were also re-boundaried to Nesbit. 

It is NOT a coincidence that another  Nesbit classroom emptied out as parents made other choices for their children.

The Social Engineering and use of our children as pawns must stop! 

The BRSSD must MAXIMIZE every square foot of space in our schools and bring in more portables to insure that all of our children attend their LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS  with their peers and in the communities where their parents made deliberate choices to invest in homes and raise their families.