Shoreline’s trustees initiated the process of levying fees for new construction within the district’s boundaries and decided to continue a discussion about cutting their own health benefits in a contentious three-hour meeting at West Marin School last Thursday.
The board members also announced their intention to negotiate teachers’ health benefits and considered hiring a consultant to trim food service costs, though the latter proposal was rejected. Only one of the cost-cutting measures discussed that evening won the board’s approval: hiring a Sacramento firm to compile a study that would justify how developers should pay a fee—a minimum of $3.36 for each square foot of residential development, or $0.54 for commercial development—to offset the district’s future costs, primarily for school facilities. Only one other district in the county, Ross Elementary School, does not currently charge such fees, said Tom Stubbs, the district superintendent
In 1986, partially in response to Prop. 13’s slashing of property tax revenue, the legislature allowed schools to begin charging development fees, arguing that each new home or business would bring more students and impact schools scaled for a smaller population. The fees are paid directly to the school—often as a hand-delivered check—before the county can approve any permits. Rates are adjusted by the state every two years.
Shoreline trustee Jim Lino, who first assumed a seat on the board in 1996, said he had lobbied for the fees for the past two decades but was told each time that it “didn’t work for Shoreline.”
There was some reservation about whether the fees—along with steep land values and the cost of permits—would prevent some families from moving to West Marin, but trustee Kegan Stedwell responded, “Those aren’t the people that are building the land around here. It’s millionaires and billionaires. We need to make sure we get what’s fair.” The board approved a $3,275 contract to initiate the study.
Last month, to appease county officials, trustees approved two resolutions to cut $1.34 million, or the equivalent of 9.51 full-time jobs, to meet reserve requirements, and issue layoff notices to roughly seven more positions. Any dollar the district can cut by this spring—through restructuring special education, negotiating a cheaper sewer bill or fundraising for field trips, to name a few—will go toward saving an employee from receiving a pink slip. The latest budget figures, which include the layoffs, still leave the district with $409,000 to cut to avoid to layoffs.
A decision to analyze food service expenditures, however, was tabled for a future meeting. Over the past decade, food costs have increased nearly tenfold, from $25,000 in 2003-04 to $240,000 last school year. Ten years ago, the school paid only one-sixth the cost of the total program—16.2 percent—but the district now shells out more than half—55 percent.
Board president Jane Healy said a consultant would know how to structure “a system that’s obviously not working for us” into a more efficient program in accordance with regulations and state benchmarks. But others chimed in that information should be collected internally first—about the waste observed daily and the direction outlined in a new wellness policy—before writing a check to a consultant. The board agreed to turn the item over to the wellness committee, with hopes of finding a consultant later this year.
Health benefits for board members, a topic discussed at prior meetings, was also tabled, despite urgings from parents and staff that were punctuated by Ms. Healy banging the gavel. “I know it’s a sacrifice and I know you give a lot,” said Donna Faure, West Marin School’s PTSA treasurer. “But we can’t afford it now.
After Ms. Stedwell argued that future candidates may need “incentives to make a four-year commitment,” trustees seemed to agree they should buy in to the district’s plan at their own expense, at least as a temporary measure during the budget crisis, and decided to look at the issue more carefully at the next meeting.
At the end of the night, proving just how arduous layoffs could be—in the practical considerations of how to restructure classrooms and in emotional costs—trustees grappled with whether they should move a Bodega Bay School classroom aide who had been at the bottom of the seniority list into a recently restored job at the district office.
“Now that we’ve reached that big milestone and passed,” said business manager Susan Skipp said, referring to the county’s approval of the district’s budget, “we can move forward with how we want to make budget reductions and avoid layoffs… We’re hoping that we can save through attrition and retirements. We want to keep the people that we have here.”