Much has been going on within the Long Beach Unified School District – disappearing board members, talks of closing a school and the possibility of yet another parcel tax presented to property owners in Long Beach. Here are the outcomes of last night’s board meeting.
First, and probably most importantly, the board approved to place a $92 annual parcel tax on the November ballot to help fund school district operations and close one-third of the expected deficit for next year and beyond. The parcel tax would raise an estimated $11.553 million annually and would expire in five years. In addition to cutting $35 million from next year’s budget, district officials have already trimmed $112 million from their budget since 2002 and are in dire need of a short-term solution.
Prior to the vote, three community members spoke in favor of the item while no one spoke in opposition. Joe Boyd, executive director of Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB), expressed support of the tax while not endorsing it officially. “We’re on the endangered list,” he said. “We’ve been able to do more with less, but you can’t always do more with less…
“We’re looking for a stopgap until we can get back on our feet.”
A two-thirds voter majority is required to pass the measure, the same percentage needed to pass the infamous Measure I infrastructure parcel tax spearheaded by Mayor Bob Foster last year. While that failed to reach its 2/3 requirement, this tax may have better luck as it aims to support education, not city infrastructure. It is still a high number to reach in times where nearly all individuals and families are watching their spending. According to board members, the parcel tax proposal is vital to funding public education in Long Beach, which has been consistently ranked as one of the nation’s very best urban school districts. “We keep underestimating the size of the problem,” said David Barton, in support of the high $92 size of the annual tax. Boardmember Felton Williams added, “There’s a vacuum out there that we’re trying to plug and we’re coming up with our best guess scenario to make that plug.”
In other much-anticipated business, the board postponed a vote on whether to extend Constellation Middle School’s charter extension for five years. The postponement came after the school reportedly requested a 30-day extension. Meanwhile, district administrators are recommending that the board deny the city’s oldest charter school a contract extension due to financial mismanagement and less than stellar school-wide test scores over the years.
And surprise surprise, Mr. Michael Ellis, elected to the school board in 2006 to represent District 3, was absent once again. He has now missed seven of the last eight meetings, and ostensibly abandoned his responsibilities. The district is fortunate to have other qualified officials in office however, and just last night elected Mary Stanton as next year’s president, and Felton Williams as vice president.
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