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Schools

Moraga School District Addresses Taxes And Sets Its Goals

Tuesday night's Moraga school district board meeting contrasted the level of services the district provides with the monetary issues with which the board must constantly struggle.

Superintendent Bruce Burns opened Tuesday's meeting of the Moraga School District board with a discussion of the recent in-service day for teachers, who had spent the day focusing on Professional Learning Communities, a method for teachers to share and develop curriculum.

Burns also commented on the consent calendar, a normal part of the meeting where usual business is passed in one motion.

“I hear more and more stories of students raising money for the district,” Burns said. In this case, two Los Perales students, Caitlin Murphy and Madeline Landau, ran a bake sale. The sale raised $41, which the students donated to the district.

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“The budget crisis is still here,” Burns said. “We have to wait for further information in November and December. We are in a holding pattern to see if state assumptions hold true."

The district reviewed its intradistrict transfer, not the interdistrict transfer. The intradistrict policy will be updated to include capacity thresholds for each school to provide a quantitative rationale for acceptance or denial of a transfer request within the district.

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Rosy Audette – “Miss Rosy” to her students and lead teacher for the Intensive Learning Center - gave a presentation of the teaching methods the staff uses to teach and to integrate special needs students in the school. The ILC was formed at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School this year.

Sharon Pincus, Director of Pupil Services, introduced Audette with the preamble  that the ILC is not only fiscally sound, but also provides services to special needs children in their home school.

“The goal of the class is to make each student as independent as possible,” Audette said.

Audette’s online tour of the ILC included detail about the services the children require, from physical and occupational therapy to behavioral support and speech and language aid. The center evaluates each student’s goals on an individual basis and integrates the students into the school during physical education, music and art.

On average, ILC students integrate into the school for 44 percent of their day, far above what the individual education plans require. Audette communicates with parents on a weekly or daily basis.  

Burns then provided the board with an update on the goals for the district, focusing on:

  • Improving student achievement
  • Evaluating how best to progress with a potential parcel tax
  • Adopting recently adopted Common Core Standards
  • Embracing the PLC process in the teaching community
  • Updating the district’s mission, core values and vision
  • Implementing the district’s anti-bullying policy

Burns asked board members to evaluate potential elements of a parcel tax. The amount remains under discussion, but Burns asked the board to give input on the term, or length, of the potential tax; exemption standards and whether the tax should include an escalator, or annual percentage, increase.

The current parcel tax, Measure K, is $325 per parcel. It became effective in March 2004 and does not include a “sunset” clause. Low-income residents 65 and older may request exemption from the tax. It replaced Measure B, which passed in July 2000 and expired in June 2005. Measure B also provided exemptions for low-income residents 65 and older.

Lafayette’s recently-passed parcel tax includes an annual three percent increase. Burns noted that some districts also automatically exempt residents 65 and older.

“I’d like input from our wider community,” said board member Kathy Ranstrom. “We get lots of input from parents, but we need to hear from the Moraga community at large.”

“No sunset, with an escalator. I’d be curious to know how passable that would be,” added Kym Leserman. “Exemptions for low-income is a key piece.”

Dr. Dexter Louie wanted to know how many recent parcel taxes that Burns was aware of had an escalator and no sunset. Burns replied that none did.

“Sunset means that the district feels pain when the tax expires. It’s like an earthquake through the schools,” said Leserman.

“Can we structure a parcel tax tied to funding from the state?” asked Charles MacNulty. “In good times, parcel taxes would go down.”

Burns concluded the discussion noting that the committee was still forming and would meet in the next few weeks.

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