Novato school district sends new tax measure to June 2 ballot

Voters in the Novato Unified School District will decide this spring whether to approve an additional parcel tax that will double the annual payments.

District trustees voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of placing the tax proposal on the June 2 ballot. The measure will need approval by two-thirds of voters to pass.

The measure would levy $249 per parcel annually for a term of eight years, with no annual increase. The district would offer exemptions for residents 65 and older and people with disabilities.

The tax would generate $4 million a year to support student programs in math, science, reading and writing, and to attract and retain qualified teachers and counselors. It would be in addition to the district’s Measure A parcel tax.

Voters passed Measure A in 2009 and renewed it periodically, most recently in 2023 for a term of eight years. Measure A has stayed at $251 a year since its inception, and would continue at the same rate for the rest of its term.

That means that the rate for the two parcel taxes combined would stay at $500 per parcel annually until at least the expiration of Measure A in 2031.

“This is how much we need to balance the budget,” Joshua Braff, the chief finance officer, said at the trustees’ meeting on Tuesday. “This is the number that we need to get us across the finish line.”

Trustee Diane Gasson said district officials have met with community members for weeks to discuss the urgent need for the new tax, and to get an idea of an amount that voters might be willing to accept.

“We know in Novato that they don’t want the inflator,” Gasson said of annual increases. “We’re going to respect and honor that. It’s not included.”

Gasson said trustees are asking for “the amount that we need to stay afloat.”

The district has already announced preliminary layoff notices and other planned budget cuts for 2026-27. The layoffs and cuts are intended to close a $9.5 million deficit this year and a projected $2.3 million shortfall for next year in the $138.5 million budget.

Without a new infusion of revenue, more of the same is expected, Braff said.

“Our budget has been hit left, right and center since COVID,” Braff said.

The source of the district’s state per-student funding, the local control funding formula, or LCFF, “doesn’t feel fair anymore, if it ever did,” he said.

State and federal funding sources, “don’t really really make up for it,” Braff said. “The parcel tax is locally controlled, reliable and ongoing, with a predetermined period.”

Prior to the vote, nine people spoke at a public hearing on the proposed measure. All nine said they are in favor of it.

“Novato is the lowest-funded district, per student, in Marin County,” said Mike Joly, a 43-year resident of the San Marin neighborhood. “We’re 10% less funded than the California state average.”

Joly said the new tax must pass if residents do not want to see the district become insolvent and be forced to cede control to the state.

“Above all, we cannot lose local control of our schools,” he said.

Susan Mathews said the tax is needed to “keep our great schools strong.”

“These cuts that will be necessary if we don’t pass the parcel tax are really going to affect our students,” she said. “We can’t afford to sit around and let those cuts happen.”

Fran Rozoff, a retired district teacher who lives in Novato, said, “The parcel tax isn’t just a line item on the budget. It is the bedrock of our students’ daily experience.”

She said the revenues “are essential for preventing millions of dollars in budget cuts that would directly affect our classrooms.”

The school district serves about 7,110 students from transitional kindergarten to 12th grade at eight elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools.