Measure B: Residents will vote on $289-million bond for high schools

Tiburon Peninsula residents will be among those voting Nov. 5 on a scaled-back $289-million facilities bond measure for the Tamalpais Union High School District, money officials say is critical to completing urgent upgrades across the district’s campuses without having to make cuts to staff and programs.

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Measure B, which would need 55% approval to pass, would charge a tax of $17.60 per $100,000 of assessed value on properties in the district, which includes Tiburon, Belvedere, Strawberry and more than a dozen other communities along the Highway 101 corridor south and west of San Rafael, netting the district some $20.7 million annually. For the median district home assessment of $1.1 million, the tax would be about $193 annually. The assessed value is based on the purchase price of a home and cannot increase by more than 2% each year.

The tax would be levied starting in fiscal year 2025-2026, which begins July 1, and would sunset in fiscal year 2052-2053. The district estimates that the total debt service, including principal and interest, would be $579.2 million.

Under state law, Measure B revenues can’t be used for teacher and administrator salaries or other operating expenses, including pensions, and the district cannot offer senior exemptions.

The $289-million proposal is nearly half the $517-million bond that narrowly failed at the polls in March, garnering 54% support where 55% was needed to pass. It’s also significantly lower than a $440-million proposal that was considered by the district board in the spring but was abandoned after a survey showed tepid support from voters.

District officials have said the scaled-back measure is intended to be a compromise of sorts, securing funding for what they’ve identified as the highest priority projects for student safety — among them, district-wide heating, ventilation and cooling upgrades and roof repairs, as well as a kitchen expansion and new covered eating area at Redwood High School and classroom upgrades at Tamalpais High School — while also taking into account resounding feedback from many district voters who said the price tag of the $517-million measure was just too high.

They’ve also stressed the importance of passing a measure in November, saying that if it fails, state law dictates the district would have to wait until 2026 to try again. District board member Emily Uhlhorn said there’s about $17 million of time-sensitive safety upgrades, including the HVAC work and roof repairs, that must be done over the next couple of years. If the district fails to secure funding through the bond measure, it will have to pull money out of its general fund, about 85% of which goes toward teacher and staff salaries and benefits, to pay for the projects.

That $17 million in critical work is equivalent to the salaries of about 50 teachers, Uhlhorn said, and re-allocating those funds toward facilities projects would force the district to scale back its broad courses of study, move from a seven-period day to a six-period day and lay off teachers and staff, resulting in schools that would look “drastically different.”

“The consequences are incredibly severe if this doesn’t pass,” Uhlhorn said.

Corbett Elsen, the district’s assistant superintendent of business and operations, echoed that sentiment, reiterating that if the measure fails, the district would need to cut $8.5 million from its budget each of the next two years.

“That’s what’s at stake is the robust programming, electives and support services the Tam district is known for because we have to make sure our buildings are safe for students and staff,” he said.

District focuses on priority projects across five schools

Following the March failure of Measure A, which fell just short by some 564 votes, the district attempted to solicit feedback from community members to figure out what bond-measure amount might be more palatable. Those efforts included sending out informational mailers, a survey that garnered some 400 responses and a series of community meetings on district campuses, Elsen said. Uhlhorn said the district also tried to speak at school board meetings for its feeder districts and at local government meetings across the district.

“We tried to gather as much both quantitative as well as qualitative data as we could to really hear from our voters,” Uhlhorn said.

The $289-million bond measure includes some $103.3 million in work at Redwood, the main high school for students on the Tiburon Peninsula, including spending some $72.1 million to build a new two-story art building and a new music building on campus and to expand the school’s existing cafeteria and kitchen. As part of that project, the district will construct a new multipurpose eating area that would include indoor and outdoor dining areas and also serve as an instructional space for students, staff and the community.

Under Measure A, the district had been looking to build an all-new cafeteria and kitchen, but the project became one of the main targets of criticism from opponents of the bond measure, prompting the district to scale it back under Measure B.

Officials have noted Redwood’s current cafeteria seats about 150 students, while Redwood’s enrollment is about 1,800. A new state law implemented last year requires all school districts to serve breakfast and lunch to any student who wants it; since then, officials said, the district has been serving meals to about 750-800 students a day, up from about 300 previously. On days with inclement weather, students are frequently forced to eat in their cars or in school hallways, they said.

Uhlhorn said nutrition is “foundational” for student learning, and Redwood’s current kitchen and cafeteria simply can’t meet the new demands.

“We have this (state) requirement and we’re excited that we feed that many kids, but right now, they stand in lines that might be so long they only have 5 minutes to eat,” she said. “We need to be able to increase that capacity.”

Other projects planned at Redwood include an estimated $22 million in roof and HVAC replacements; spending $400,000 to replaster the pool; and a $1.1-million replacement of the turf on Ghilotti Field, which Uhlhorn noted is coming to the end of its life “as dictated by concussion protocols and concussion testing.”

Tamalpais High School would see $120.6 million in work, including $76.6 million for a new three-building science, technology, engineering, arts and math complex with updated classrooms and a music center. Other projects include an estimated $33.5 million in roof and HVAC upgrades along with kitchen modernization, resurfacing of the school track, replastering of the school pool and elevator replacement.

The district’s third traditional high school, Archie Williams in San Anselmo, would see about $60.3 million in funding, including an estimated $27.4 million for roof and HVAC replacement, $11.3 million to modernize its performing arts center and $2.4 million each to replace its football and baseball fields.

Uhlhorn said another thing the district “heard loud and clear” after the failure of Measure A was that the Archie Williams community felt like they were receiving a disproportionately smaller share of funding relative to Redwood and Tamalpais schools. While officials previously stressed that the Archie Williams campus simply didn’t need as much work as Tamalpais and Redwood, Uhlhorn said further study revealed additional needs on that campus, mainly involving Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades to the performing arts center.

The percentage of bond funding allocated to Archie Williams is 21% under Measure B, up from 14% under Measure A, which is closer to its 25% proportion of the district’s 4,600 or so students.

Work proposed for the district’s alternative high schools, Tamiscal and San Andreas, and the district office would total about $5.5 million, prioritizing roof and HVAC upgrades.

Uhlhorn reiterated the need to make the upgrades the district has identified as urgent, noting portable classrooms across campuses are “30-40 years beyond their usable life” and that the district is facing new heating and cooling requirements post-COVID that require a higher standard of air circulation, something that’s also become an issue with the impacts of climate change, including heat waves and smoky days from wildfires.

She said the pandemic also prompted a more critical look at the district’s facilities, and the district realized “a number of our classrooms were undersized relative to the average size across the state of California,” which she said is not conducive to current teaching methods that focus more on collaboration.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to just teaching and learning has changed,” Uhlhorn said. “We want to make sure our kids are in up-to-date classrooms as much as possible with the facilities that they need.”

Opposition argument questions scope of work

Supporters who signed a ballot argument in favor of Measure B include Marin Superintendent of Schools John Carroll; U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman; Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, who represents Southern Marin; Kevin Hagerty, the president of the League of Women Voters of Marin County; former district trustee Chuck Ford; and district graduate Bitsa Freeman.

The Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers, or CST, which was the primary opponent of Measure A, is staying neutral on Measure B, group president Mimi Willard said in an email.

She said the group considered the reduction of the overall bond and the reduced scope of the Redwood High cafeteria project, which was central to the group’s criticism of Measure A, to be “victories.”

However, she said the group still considers the messaging around Measure B “misleading,” saying the district initially identified about $80 million of roof and HVAC work as being critical to complete in the next two to five years but has now “broadly defined pretty much the entire project list as critical.”

She also said the district failed to meet the “guidelines and guardrails” criteria for bonds that CST and other community leaders developed to improve transparency and suggested the district’s focus should be on improving its academic performance.

“We question the priority scheme that puts a huge amount of taxpayer money into buildings instead of in the classroom where it’s really needed,” she said.

A formal argument against the measure filed with the Marin Elections Department and signed by Benedetto Cico, owner of the San Anselmo Inn; Pascal Sisich, a former member of the San Anselmo Planning Commission; Michael Mackintosh, owner of the Marin Town and Country Club in Fairfax; and district residents Diana Perdue and Kathy Flores.

Cico, whose four kids graduated from Redwood High, said those who signed the argument against the measure did so as individuals and had not formally organized as an opposition group.

Like Willard, he questioned whether the projects identified under the bond measure were truly critical, saying he thinks the district has historically used bond money to make repairs they should have addressed earlier.

Beyond the roof and heating and cooling upgrades, the portable classroom replacement and some of the turf upgrades, he said, the other priorities under the bond seem like “vanity” or “decorative” projects.

“There is a big chunk of money that they really are pressed to justify as absolutely essential,” Cico said.

Sisich said part of his opposition to the measure was simply a general opposition to the number of taxes Marin residents are being asked to pay.

He said his current tax bill includes “something like 15 or 16 add-on taxes” and said his own calculations about the growth of his tax bill have led him to fear that he won’t be able to stay in his home in his retirement.

“Taxes are the No. 1 reason people are going to be leaving Marin as they age,” he said.

Sisich also questioned the number of administrative positions in the district and the salary of district Superintendent Tara Taupier, who earned $286,633 in the 2023-2024 school year.

“They have to tighten their belt, they have to be fiduciarily responsible, and when you see all these people they’re hiring on that aren’t in academic positions to support the superintendent and then you look at what she makes, I cannot support paying taxes for a school district that can’t keep its budget in order and maintain some sense of fiduciary responsibility,” he said.

Uhlhorn, however, reiterated that the projects identified under Measure B are “really dictated by the most critical, time-sensitive needs that we have,” noting they’ve been determined in part by Americans with Disabilities Act access laws and state law that says if the work to update an existing school building is estimated to be more than half the cost to replace the building, then the building must be replaced and cannot be repaired.

Elsen said the district has performed routine maintenance as issues have cropped up but noted all aging facilities eventually need more substantive work.

“When roofs are 20 to 30 to 40 years old, at some point, much like your home, they have to be replaced,” he said, adding the same thing is true of heating and cooling systems and portable classrooms.

He stressed the importance of ensuring that classrooms are air-conditioned, particularly as climate change brings hotter weather, and noted some of the buildings on the Tamalpais High campus were built before Americans with Disabilities Act laws were in place and need to be brought up to code so they’re accessible to all.

“I don’t think those are vanity projects,” he said.

Elsen also reminded voters that Measure B is on this November’s ballot alongside Proposition 2, a state proposition that would provide $10 billion to fix and renovate K-12 schools and community colleges across California. He said that in order to be eligible for a share of that funding, schools have to demonstrate matching local funds. If both Measure B and Proposition 2 were to pass, he said, the Tam district would be eligible for some $40 million-$60 million in state funding, which would allow it to complete some projects included in Measure A that were scrapped under Measure B.

He said the scaled-back measure shows the district board had generally been responsive to the community but noted that the all-volunteer Yes on Measure B campaign would continue to reach out to voters in the lead-up to election day.

“We can’t take anything for granted either,” he said. “The stakes are too high if Measure B were to fail.”

To read the full text of the measure, county counsel’s analysis and the full arguments in favor and against, see the county voter information guide mailed Sept. 26 or visit marinvotes.org.

Reach Assistant Editor Emily Lavin, The Ark’s education and youth reporter, at 415-944-3841. DONATE to support local journalism, or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery and access to the digital replica.

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