Many are asking what’s next for the Ross Valley School District. The answer is straightforward: We will keep providing exceptional, inclusive education to our students while we navigate inevitable budget cuts and gather community input to improve a future parcel tax measure that will pass.

Our financial state will not allow us to continue “as is.” Budget cuts and an increase in revenues are essential if RVSD is to survive and thrive under local control.

It was disappointing to see the Measure E school district funding effort fall short of the 66.7% threshold that was required for passage in the May 6 special election.

However, it was tremendously encouraging to see that a majority of voting residents in the Ross Valley, across all areas, were in favor of a parcel tax to support the children in our community.

Having volunteered on other campaigns, I suspected that a special election would be a hindrance due to lower turnouts, where a small group of very vocal opponents could block what was a popular and well-supported effort to provide necessary funds for our Ross Valley schools.

But RVSD is facing revenue shortfalls and is already deficit spending. When given the choice between putting a parcel tax on the May ballot, or making painful cuts to teachers and student programming, we chose to be optimistic and hope that our community would come out to support our schools.

With this understanding, the RVSD Board of Trustees placed a measure on the ballot because the fact remains that the district is at a huge disadvantage as one of the lowest per-pupil funded school districts in Marin County. We urgently needed an increase in funding to avoid cuts in staffing and classes to balance our budget.

We were not wrong: More than 62% of voters approved Measure E and it is only the extremely high threshold of 66.7% required for this tax measure that prevented its passage.

In light of the recent election results, I recognized two things:

• The majority of people in our Ross Valley community deeply care about the quality of their kids’ education and want to support our excellent public schools.

• There is a need to ensure that the residents of our community understand why we are asking for funding, how we should go about asking for that help and where that funding will be spent, if approved.

I would like to address a few of the most often misunderstood items:

• RVSD has minimal administrative staff compared to most districts and has one of the lowest percentages of administrative cost in the county and state. Even if it was possible to cut admin costs (which impedes district operations), there isn’t anywhere near enough to make a meaningful impact on the budget.

• We’ve made steady, thoughtful budget cuts since 2020 to stay fiscally responsible.

• Enrollment in the district is projected to increase in the next several years so closing a school or campus is not a feasible option.

• Test scores and attendance are improving — three schools won national or state awards this year.

• Merging school districts, while a common sense action, is not realistic. With lower state and local tax funding and a lower parcel tax than nearby districts, convincing another district to merge would be unlikely, as their funding would be negatively impacted. The Marin County Office of Education can initiate mergers and has a dedicated committee, but that would be a complicated, long-term effort for community members.

• RVSD has a lower parcel tax and total property tax revenues (due to lower housing turnover) than most towns in Marin.

• We have lower nonprofit funding (through the Yes Foundation) than many of the nearby or comparable districts in the county (in some cases, the “ask” is less than half).

I am sure there were other issues in play with Measure E. It would be beneficial to hear how we might work together to help students flourish in the coming years.

We will be focusing on other outreach efforts in the near future, but for now I invite the Ross Valley community to complete our feedback survey online at bit.ly/43ANjkS (which we have been circulating) and I encourage people to stay involved.

Rachel Litwack is president of the Ross Valley School District Board of Trustees. Email Trustee.Litwack@RossValleySchools.org.