The case for Yes on Measure H

The funding gap is real, and old

Ross Valley School District serves about 1,700 students in transitional kindergarten through 8th grade across five campuses. Its annual budget is roughly $30 million. Roughly 16% of that comes from the existing parcel tax — and even with that supplement, RVSD ranks 959th out of 995 California school districts for per-pupil state funding. That's the bottom 4% statewide.^[1]

Marin's mid-century funding model is to blame. Because Marin home values are high, RVSD is a "basic aid" district that depends on local property tax — but with declining enrollment and a small geographic footprint, the math doesn't work without a parcel tax. RVSD has had one since 1987.

What's already been cut

RVSD has not been waiting for Measure H to economize. According to district materials and public Marin IJ reporting:

• Teachers received no salary increase this year, not even a cost-of-living adjustment.^[2]
• RVSD pay sits at the bottom of Marin's school districts, making hiring and retention harder.
• Staff cuts are already in place; class sizes and program breadth are under pressure.
• Administrators report the budget has been "cut to the extreme" through standard means.^[2]

This is the context for the $540 increase. The current $742 figure is mostly the same parcel tax voters approved over a decade ago, plus inflation. The structural increase underwrites teacher compensation and prevents another round of program cuts.

We'd still pay less than every comparable neighbor

The single most useful comparison is to the other Marin K-8 districts on either side of us. Every one of them has a parcel tax. Most of them are much higher than ours, today and after the 2026 ballot measures.^[4]

A few things this table makes obvious:

• Today, RVSD's $742 is the lowest comparable rate in central Marin — and it's about 40% of what Kentfield homeowners pay.
• Even with the increase, RVSD's $1,282 would still be below Mill Valley, Kentfield, and Ross. The opposition's "TOO MUCH!" framing is hard to square with neighbors who pay $400–$700 more per year for the same kind of K-8 service.
• The two districts at our rate (Reed Union and the small unincorporated districts) are either very small or unusually well-funded by other means. Reed Union covers 1,400 students in Tiburon and Belvedere; its per-pupil revenue is roughly $29,700 vs. RVSD's $18,200 — they don't need a high parcel tax.

There's an honest counterargument worth surfacing: Mill Valley, Kentfield, Ross, and Larkspur–Corte Madera are all basic-aid districts — meaning local property tax alone exceeds the state funding floor, so they keep more local revenue per student to begin with. RVSD oscillates across the basic-aid line and has structurally less local revenue to work with. That cuts against the "we should pay less than them" framing in one sense (they have more to lose) but powerfully for Measure H in another: those districts' parents have decided $1,500–$1,900 per parcel is what it costs to run a K-8 school district in central Marin. We're being asked for less, on top of less revenue.

What "no" actually looks like

The current parcel tax does not vanish overnight if H fails — it expires June 30, 2028. But the Marin County Office of Education has already required RVSD to file a contingency plan, and the contents of that plan are not abstract:^[2]

State receivership in particular ends local control: the district is run from outside the community, and trustee decisions can be overridden. It happens when districts can't pay their bills. We don't think it should happen here.

Why renewal alone isn't enough

A renewal-only measure would lock RVSD into the same purchasing power it had in 2012. In the meantime: 14 years of compounded cost growth, several rounds of state mandates that added expense without funding, declining birth rates that reduce the per-pupil share of fixed costs, and a teacher-pay environment in Marin that makes it impossible to compete on salary alone.

Trustees publicly considered increases of $350, $540, $600, and $750 before settling on $540 as the compromise that balances "enough to keep schools whole" with "small enough to win two-thirds approval."^[3] Some trustees argued for $600; the board chose less.

The structure addresses the 2025 lessons

Measure E in May 2025 failed at 62% — a strong showing that fell short of the two-thirds threshold. The board listened. Measure H is structured differently:

• Flat per-parcel. Every taxable parcel pays the same amount. The 2025 per-square-foot model was hard to understand and felt punitive to larger properties.
• Plain ballot language. The ballot title makes the renewal-and-increase structure explicit, with the dollar figures up front.
• Regular statewide ballot. No special-election cost. Voters were (rightly) annoyed at the 2025 special election bill.
• Senior exemption preserved. Existing exemptions roll over; nobody has to re-paper their exemption.
• Independent oversight. An annual audit committee reports publicly.
• No money for administrators or pensions. Codified in the measure.

It costs less than people think — and won't if it fails

$1,282 per parcel works out to about $107 per month for the typical homeowner. The increase portion ($540) is about $45 per month. For most households, that's less than the cost of a month of streaming services. For seniors who qualify, it's $0.

If H fails and a school closes, real-estate brokers will tell you what comes next: a school closure in your boundary lowers home values across the surrounding zip codes more than ten years of parcel tax would cost. That's not a campaign argument; it's how Marin housing has always worked.

Endorsements

Measure H has been endorsed by elected officials at every level of government, every current RVSD trustee, the teachers' union, and major civic organizations.

Endorsements compiled from KeepRVSDSchoolsOpen.org and Marin IJ reporting. Titles and affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

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