August 12, 2004

7th period saved: Work begins on district parcel tax

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer 

It took about six weeks for a group of parents, with a little help from the Campbell Union High School District (CUHSD) board of education, to raise the needed $200,000 to save the district’s seventh period classes. It was hard labor for everyone involved.  

But two things happened during the short period that made all the difference in the world. First, through the school board’s help an anonymous donor was found and second, the parents and the CUHSD board worked hard together, which made reaching that final goal totally worth all that labor. The fruits of that labor—a giant check for $200,000—will be presented to the school board on Monday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m. at the school district offices. 

Working together
Superintendent Dr. Rhonda Farber deserves a boatload of credit, along with parents Jorey Beamesderfer and Roberta Zarea. Dr. Farber, together with the board, didn’t want to cut the seventh period, but could not find any thing else to cut to ensure a balanced budget. She found the special donor.

Beamesderfer and Zarea did all the leg work, setting up car washes, bowl-a-thons, chefs’ nights, rummage sales and so on and so forth, working most of the summer to reach their goal.  

“When people pull together, you really can make a difference. It’s not one school competing against another, we have to work together for the good of the district,” Beamesderfer said. 

But Beamesderfer and Zarea were both quick to praise all the help they received from other parents at the schools and from the school board. “At least, two dozen other parents had something to do with the fundraising,” said
Beamesder-fer. 

The group had collected about $60,000 when the donor stepped in offering a $30,000 flat donation and matching dollar-for-dollar everything collected above $60,000. The gift, “sped up the project. Once people realized it was possible to reach our goal, things started coming in,” said a joyful Beamesderfer.  

The district said they will reinstate the seventh period, said Beamesderfer, but each school will handle logistics separately. The board was going to leave it up to each of the five principals to determine how best to restore the extra classes. 

She added that after the initial board meeting in June, when it appeared the board might have been indifferent to the students’ plight, the tone changed.  

Relationship warms
Everything changed in July, she added, “the whole tone changed at the July board meeting. There was more warmth and more willingness to communicate. No one felt backed into a corner. We worked together, and it really paid off.” 

“I anticipate a positive working relationship [between the school board and the parents] from here on out,” she said. However, “I don’t ever want to run for the school board. I learned a lot of things [from working on this] including that things are not always what they seem, and to get more information before sticking my feet in and that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” 

Beamesderfer and Zarea, however, have pledged to help work with individual school sites to ease the transition back to a seventh period. The two have also pledged to help with the upcoming parcel tax that will be on the Nov. 2 ballot. 

Parcel tax
During the June CUHSD board meeting, Gail Long, the parcel tax volunteer coordinator, who has been with the district more “30 some odd years” mentioned to a group of parents that the district had done everything possible to keep budget cuts out of the classroom and away from teachers. “They have no fat to cut,” she said. They decided to cut the seventh period because it would impact the fewest students.  

“There’s nothing left to cut in our district. During Prop 13 and through all the other [state cuts] we never cut anything to do with the classrooms, all the cuts were behind the scenes,” Long told the Cambrian Times. 

The decision to go for a parcel tax is not an easy one, she added. There’s not a lot of time to fight for it. She thinks that’s the reason other districts, most notably San Jose Unified, are not trying to pass a tax because the time frame is very tight. Long and her volunteers have 90 days to get the 66,000 votes necessary to win.  

The political consultants expect a 76 percent voter turnout for the upcoming general election. In order to win, they need a 66 2/3 percent majority. Union School District tried to do this last winter, they came extremely close only lacking 200 votes, but they had to close two schools when its parcel tax didn’t pass. If CUHSD’s tax doesn’t pass, the district will have to start cutting, and that’s something no one wants. 

What money will do
The money from the parcel tax of $85 per parcel per year for five years, would not be available until the 2005-06 school year, she added. That’s why the school board wants to go out for it now, they hope to avoid any classroom cuts. 

The parcel tax will provide the district with enough money to restore and improve academic offerings, improve art and music courses, hold down class sizes and retain highly qualified teachers. 

Long equated the tax with taking a family of four to the movies and buying popcorn. It’s not a large amount, and anyone over 65 is exempt. “It’s not meant for people on a fixed income, and it’s not as high as from other areas in Santa Clara County.” 

CUHSD offers a wide variety of classes to produce well-rounded students, she said. “We take a child from where they are and grow them, move them forward. We offer a number of programs—business, home economics, music and art—that the high schools driven toward college prep do not. We think that offering a wide variety of courses to a wide variety of kids is important.” 

In addition, it would ensure that expanded class offerings in English, math, science, arts and drama, AP/college prep, foreign language and music, band and choir will not be cut. It will also take care of problems with increasing class size. CUHSD has the second highest average class size in the county. That means a direct impact on individual attention for students, discipline and classroom safety. 

Working all summer
She started working in June, just after school ended. When the school year starts again, she will be teaching English two days a week at Boynton and working out of her home the rest of the time to get the tax passed.

Among the duties she’s outlined are establishing a Web site, finding locations for a phone bank, gathering parents and community volunteers, setting times for the superintendent to talk with neighborhood associations and working with Barry Barnes, a principal from Terris, Barnes, Walters political consulting group.  

“As with any of these things, we have to raise money. We can’t use district funds or time to work on the tax.

Obviously, the school board will help, but not on school time. Barnes will help us with the ballot argument, we’ve done a brochure and once the school year starts, we’ll get a person who will work during the day on getting the tax passed,” Long said. 

Long’s credentials are impeccable. She’s worked in the district for about 30 years and served as a grant writer for 25 years, English department chair at Leigh High School, worked as a mentor teacher and worked in the recent bond election for the district.

“This district has been good to me for about 30 years. I think it’s a great district. It’s given me lots of opportunities to do what I want,” she said, and now she’s giving some of that back to the district.