Measure A – Scotts Valley Unified School District parcel tax

A new tax to fund area schools could also bring back a handful of teaching positions cut in the last year.

Measure A would assess a flat $108 on each parcel of property every year for five years. Supporters say this would raise $820,000 for schools every year. It approved, the tax would start July 1st, 2019.

In the last year, the district was forced to cut nine teaching positions because of what they say is a lack of funding from the state. The worry is more cuts could be on the horizon.

“[To] keep our high quality of our schools and continue to attract good teachers, we’ve got to have some good financial support to do that,” Vine Hill Elementary School teacher Hannah Walsh tells KION.

Walsh was out on the street earLY Monday morning with about a dozen other people rallying support for Measure A.

The tax would go towards bringing in and keeping good teachers, and maintaining STEM and reading programs.

Monday’s event was started by resident and former teacher Zach Brown. Brown pledged to ride his bike around the district nine times – once for every eliminated teaching position – 119 miles total. His two daughters attend Scotts Valley High School.

“It was really difficult just to get the classes that they needed this year with the lack of teachers,” said Brown.

The district receives the least state funding in Santa Cruz County, and the 9th least in all of California. However, because of not qualifying for basic aid, previous rural district designation, and a lack of English learning and low-income students, dollars from the state are limited.

This led to more students per teacher as classes and programs were cut.

“Without this we’ll have to make significant cuts to our staff and our programs that affect kids,” Scotts Valley Unified School District Superintendent Tanya Krause said.

Ryan Hall, a student at Scotts Valley Middle School has seen this first hand.

“With the teacher cut backs, we don’t have the period enrichment where we get our time to talk with the teachers if we are confused. So that’s leaving students to have to come in after school,” Hall said.

Of course, anytime you talk taxes people will say they’re already hit hard enough, and this is far from the only tax in Santa Cruz County on the November Ballot.

People in Santa Cruz County pay some of the highest property taxes in the country.

The measure needs a two-third vote to pass.

Derek Timm, “Yes on A campaign” chairman, Scotts Valley council candidate said, “We can’t sustain teachers jobs without secured funding. Measure A provides secured funding to help us keep those teachers in our classrooms.”

There are also exemptions in this tax. People over 65 years old and those with supplemental disability income can qualify.