If you have a kid at Hidden Valley Elementary School (or you’re a Sleepy Hollow neighbor who walks past Green Valley Court on your way to the open space trails), Measure H is on your June 2, 2026 ballot for one big reason: Hidden Valley is Sleepy Hollow’s only neighborhood elementary, and Sleepy Hollow has no realistic walkable backup if it closes.
This page is a Hidden Valley–specific look at Measure H: what the parcel tax funds at Hidden Valley, why the geography of Sleepy Hollow makes a closure scenario uniquely disruptive for Hidden Valley families, and the case for voting Yes.
Our recommendation: Yes on Measure H. Hidden Valley serves about 300 students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade at 46 Green Valley Court in the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood of San Anselmo, with views of Mt. Tamalpais and a 9/10 GreatSchools rating. It is Sleepy Hollow’s only walkable elementary, and the geography offers no realistic neighborhood substitute if it closes. We recommend voting Yes on June 2, 2026.
A school built into Sleepy Hollow’s hills
Hidden Valley opened in 1957 as Upper Brookside, the counterpart to the Lower Brookside campus that had opened on Butterfield Road in 1946. The pairing reflected the era — San Anselmo was building out its hill neighborhoods, and the Sleepy Hollow Homes Association had been founded in 1946 alongside its now-iconic clubhouse and pool. Hidden Valley took its current name and identity over the following decade, and the campus has been the Sleepy Hollow elementary ever since.
Sleepy Hollow itself sits in a small geographic pocket: north of Butterfield Road, south of the open space ridge, with one main artery in and out (Butterfield Road into San Anselmo proper). Per the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood guide on Homes.com, the area scores 2/100 on Walk Score and 2/100 on Bike Score — emphatically car-dependent for adults. But for kids, the catchment for Hidden Valley is hilly but compact, and a substantial share of students walk, ride, or get shuttled by parents on short trips. That’s the practical experience of being a Hidden Valley family.
What’s at Hidden Valley right now
A few things to ground the conversation in 2026 specifics:
- Enrollment: approximately 300 TK–5 students, with typically two classes per grade level.
- Principal: Kristi Fish. From Hidden Valley’s official description: “With approximately 300 students, typically two classes per grade level, dedicated and skilled staff embrace the process of building relationships, making connections, and discovering how each student learns best.” The relationships framing is central to Hidden Valley’s identity.
- GreatSchools rating: 9/10, an A grade on Niche, ranked #13 Best Public Elementary School in Marin County by Niche.
- Strong test scores: 87% proficient in math, 77% in reading on state assessments (per Niche, drawing on California Department of Education data).
- Specialists every student sees weekly: music, art, PE, library — supported by a strong PTO and the YES Foundation.
- 14 classroom teachers plus a rich special-education program with resource specialist services on site. (The district’s Special Day Classes are housed at Brookside, but Hidden Valley has its own resource specialist for IEP-supported students.)
- Active student clubs: Green Team, Student Council, Noon Sports, Lego Building, Art Club, Library Lunch, and Children for Change.
- Walk-n-Roll Wednesdays. Hidden Valley’s PTO runs a weekly walk/bike-to-school program, with bike trains and walking school buses starting from the Sleepy Hollow Clubhouse and from Caletta & Butterfield. Green Ways to School is a real piece of campus identity embedded in how the week runs.
What Measure H specifically funds at Hidden Valley
Measure H is a qualified special tax: the ballot text restricts spending to attracting and retaining qualified teachers, maintaining STEM/reading/writing programs, and keeping class sizes manageable, and prohibits spending on administrator salaries.[1]
Translated to a TK–5 campus the size of Hidden Valley, parcel-tax dollars fund:
- Classroom teacher compensation for those 14 teachers. RVSD teachers received no salary increase this year, not even a cost-of-living adjustment, because the district couldn’t afford one,[2] and RVSD pay sits at the bottom of Marin K-8 districts. Without the parcel tax, Hidden Valley loses further ground against neighboring basic-aid districts like Mill Valley ($1,520 parcel tax) and Kentfield ($1,842) that pay substantially more per teacher.[3]
- Two-sections-per-grade staffing. Hidden Valley’s signature “small-school feel with strong instruction” depends on holding roughly two classes per grade with manageable ratios. That’s a class-size-management line item in the budget, and parcel-tax revenue is what keeps it.
- Resource Specialist services on site for IEP-supported students, beyond what federal IDEA funding covers.
- Specialists (music, art, PE, library) as weekly classes.
About 16% of RVSD’s general fund is parcel-tax revenue,[4] and Measure H renews that share at a higher rate.
Why Hidden Valley’s geography matters for the closure conversation
This is the Hidden Valley–specific argument, and it deserves to be made plainly.
Sleepy Hollow has one way in and out: Butterfield Road, southward into San Anselmo. Hidden Valley sits at the end of Green Valley Court, inside the catchment that Butterfield serves. There is no walkable RVSD elementary that would accept Hidden Valley students if Hidden Valley closed. The nearest alternatives (Brookside on lower Butterfield, Wade Thomas in central San Anselmo) are 1.5 to 3 miles away through hilly terrain that is, per Walk Score’s own assessment, not designed for foot traffic.
What that means in practice:
- A closure of Hidden Valley would convert a walkable elementary into a drive-required one for nearly every Sleepy Hollow family.
- The Walk-n-Roll Wednesdays and bike trains would functionally end — the Sleepy Hollow Clubhouse start point doesn’t reach Brookside or Wade Thomas in any reasonable walking time.
- Sleepy Hollow’s 2/100 Walk Score becomes a daily logistics problem for every Hidden Valley family with a kid in school.
We are not arguing that Hidden Valley would necessarily be one of the two elementaries closed under Tier 3. The district has deliberately not named which schools would close.[5] The factors pulling against a Hidden Valley closure: it has the second highest enrollment among the four elementaries, strong test scores, and the geographic isolation we’ve just described. But all of those factors cut both ways: the district might close Hidden Valley because Sleepy Hollow’s geographic isolation makes consolidation of its students less convenient (putting them on a bus toward Brookside is one outcome), or it might preserve Hidden Valley for exactly the same reason. It’s not knowable in advance.
What is knowable: the closure conversation does not have a no-disruption outcome for Hidden Valley families, regardless of which two elementaries the district eventually picks.
What happens to Hidden Valley if Measure H fails
The two scenarios:
- Tier 2 (Measure H fails June): $1.04M in cuts including elementary PE, the second elective at White Hill, two coordinator positions in special education and English-language development, one instructional coach.[5] At Hidden Valley specifically: PE goes away, your child’s resource-specialist support gets thinner, and the school year starts August 2027 with measurably fewer adults across RVSD.
- Tier 3 (Measure H fails June and November): $3.1M in cuts including closure of two of four elementary schools by August 2028.[5]
We’ve covered the geographic disruption argument above. The fiscal picture: receivership at the district level becomes likely if Measure H fails twice, with Superintendent Tyler Graff naming August 2028 as the receivership date.[5] Under receivership, closure decisions would move from the local board to a state-appointed administrator whose only mandate is fiscal stabilization, with Sleepy Hollow walkability outside the scope of that mandate.
What Yes on Measure H would do for Hidden Valley
The opposite picture, concretely:
- Two-sections-per-grade staffing holds. Class sizes don’t balloon.
- Specialists stay. Music, art, library, and elementary PE all remain weekly classes.
- Walk-n-Roll Wednesdays continue because the school continues.
- Sleepy Hollow keeps its neighborhood elementary. Whatever walkability Sleepy Hollow has for school-aged kids stays intact.
- Teacher compensation has room to recover across the 10-year term of the levy, after this year’s no-raise contract.
We’ve made the broader budget case for Yes in our main case-for-Yes page: RVSD ranks 959th of 995 California districts on per-pupil state funding,[6] and even at $1,282 the proposed parcel tax would still be the lowest among Marin K-8 districts.[3] The Hidden Valley–specific point is geography: Sleepy Hollow has one way in, one elementary, and Measure H is what keeps it.
Where we land
Sleepy Hollow has one walkable neighborhood elementary, and the geography isn’t going to produce another one. Tier 3 of RVSD’s MCOE-required contingency plan kicks in if Measure H fails on both June 2 and November 3, 2026, and closure decisions then move to a state-appointed administrator whose mandate is fiscal stabilization, not Sleepy Hollow walkability.
For these reasons, we recommend voting Yes on Measure H on June 2.
How to vote
Election Day is Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Marin County mails ballots to every registered voter in early May. You can:
- Return your ballot by mail (postmarked by June 2)
- Drop it in any Marin County drop box (closest to Hidden Valley is at San Anselmo Town Hall on Tunstead Avenue)
- Vote in person at the San Anselmo polling location
Full deadlines and drop-box locations are at the Marin County Elections Department. Homeowners 65+ are exempt from the parcel tax — the exemption form is on the RVSD site, and existing exemptees do not need to reapply.