DO OR DIE

South Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge voters approved property tax increases in June to channel $1.7 million and $900,000, respectively, into cash-strapped local schools.

Now Pasadena Unified School District officials have hired the same political consultant that those cities worked with to help pass a parcel tax aimed at closing an expected $18.5 million budget deficit and avoiding possible layoffs and school closures.

The Pasadena Board of Education voted Sept. 22 to pay Tramutola LLC of Oakland $12,000 over the next three months to help evaluate the feasibility of a parcel tax. Their work will include examining the PUSD’s needs and priorities, then working with a pollster to develop a questionnaire and conduct a survey of 400 voters, according to district spokesperson Binti Harvey. Representatives of the company did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Officials hope a parcel tax, if approved, will close by June the projected $18.5 million gap — money equaling the salaries of about 30 percent of the district’s more than 1,300 teachers — in the PUSD’s 2010-11 general fund budget.

“If voters are not open to a parcel tax, or we can’t pass it, I think we would have to look at all options,” including layoffs, said Board of Education President Tom Selinske.

“I think we might have to ask teachers to take pay cuts. We could be looking at layoffs at all levels — administrative, teachers and classified — schools consolidation and closures. I don’t know if we would end up choosing that, but we would have to look at it.”

Districts across Southern California have been seeking tax increases to combat the financial devastation done to public education by budget cuts implemented by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor’s $12 billion in education cuts has led to 17,000 teacher layoffs and the closure of arts and afterschool programs, according to the California Teachers Association. California currently ranks 47th among the states in per-pupil spending.

“We anticipate a much more difficult job promoting the parcel tax because of the timing and the economy,” PUSD Board member Renatta Cooper told the Weekly. “The bond measure [passed by voters last year] was easier because we had the presidential election, which was a juggernaut, due to the candidates. This one will be harder, because we won’t have a popular candidate in a general election to run with. We will connect this one to the budgeting process and the $18.5 million in cuts that we will have to make. It will be clear to everyone what will happen if we don’t pass this.”

Tramutola beat out five other applicants responding to the district’s request for proposals in August. The proposals were submitted to a committee, which chose the best three. A second committee reviewed those three finalists and conveyed its choice to the board on Sept. 22. Selinske said Tramutola was picked because of its familiarity with the process and the fact that “They have done this throughout the state,” helping 150 school districts pass parcel taxes, according to the company’s Web site.

“It’s a tight time frame,” Selinske told the Weekly. “The budget cuts kick in this June, so we have our backs against the wall.”

Many residents have found their own backs against the wall since the collapse of the banking and housing sectors and the subsequent recession. Just as the recession was starting, local property taxes were raised when voters approved in November a $350 million school repair bond, Measure TT, which added to the debt obligation of local homeowners who are still paying off a $250 million bond passed by voters in 1997.

Property owners will pay $46 per $100,000 of assessed valuation for TT, along with $35 per $100,000 they were already paying on Measure Y, the 1997 bond.

Funds from Measure TT, which was passed by 75 percent of the vote in November, can only be spent on improving schools’ physical infrastructures, not on salaries, books or programs.

“It’s not an ideal time to be going to the Pasadena voters and asking for more money,” said Altadena software designer Jeremiah Small, who has two children attending classes in the district. “I guess the question is what other options are there? I think stable funding to schools is critical, but how do you do it? I can see people being upset about it if times are tough, but I have a special interest in the district. I have kids there.”

A survey conducted last year by San Francisco-based Dale Scott & Co. to gauge voter response to a potential parcel tax found that 58 percent of the voters polled, unlike Small, never had children attending school in the district.

The district hired Scott & Co. last year after the district first considered placing a parcel tax on the November General Election ballot, prior to opting to present voters with a bond measure instead. That was primarily because the survey found that voter support of a $50 parcel tax fell just shy of the two-thirds support needed for passage. At the time, only 60 percent of those polled said they would support a parcel tax and only five additional percent said they were likely to vote in favor of the tax.

The survey further found that likely voter support decreased to 37 percent when voters were asked if they would support a $60 parcel tax. Forty nine percent of the voters also said they were more likely to support a 10-year tax increase, compared to a tax increase that would last 15 years. The survey also concluded that 22 percent of the voters could possibly end up ignoring the parcel tax on the ballot.

This summer, 68 percent of voters in South Pasadena agreed to hike their taxes by $288 per parcel in order to raise $1.7 million annually for schools. In La Cañada Flintridge that same month, 75 percent of voters approved a $150 per parcel levy.

Despite the previous survey, Selinske said that increasing test scores could help raise the PUSD’s  positive profile and its chances of passing the parcel tax. Last month the district showed increases in math and English on the statewide Academic Performance Index (API). Nine of Pasadena’s 29 schools have an API of more than 800, and 14 have scores in the 700 range. Only six schools have scores below 700. The district average is now 742, up 35 points since 2006.

“I hope parents and residents see the good that is happening in the district,” Selinske said. “If we have fewer teachers, we would have larger class sizes. It takes us in the wrong direction. I think we need to have more adults in children’s lives, and teachers should be the last to go, but at the same time $18 million is a huge number.”