Measure L, the $39-per-home parcel tax to raise $2.4 million for public schools, has 66.75 percent of the votes cast in San Leandro.
That puts it above the 66.66 percent margin needed for passage by a mere 47 votes.
Thursday's lead is the first time since the November 6 election that Measure L has cleared the two-thirds threshhold.
Supporters are ecstatic.
"This is the best thing that could happen to this town," said Measure L campaign coordinator Deborah Cox. "I'm still in a state of shock."
For days her camp has been biting its nails as Measure L, which started out several percentage points below passage on election night, slowly gained votes as the late ballots were counted.
As of Wednesday the measure was just shy of passage with 66.54 percent of the vote.
But on Thursday morning the registrar's office told School Superintendent Cindy Cathey that there were still 12,000 votes countywide left to tally and that these ballots should be accounted for by the end of the day.
So while Thursday's vote isn't certified -- and could still be subject to a recount if opponents are willing to pay for it -- supporters believe they have cleared the difficult two-thirds hurdle.
"If anyone ever tells you your vote doesn't count, this proves that it does," said San Leandro School Board member Mike Katz-Lacabe.
Mayor Stephen Cassidy said many people worked very hard to pass the tax.
"I hope Measure L continues to stay in the lead," he said.
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It seemed to me like the height of lunacy during the recession, when voters passed all the bond measures, and schools were adding wings, getting painted and fixed up. The High School got a "performing arts building" a track and a new pool, as my neighbors were holding fund raisers in vain to keep the public pools operating for just a couple of months. Teachers were getting laid off across the country and taking pay cuts. We built a beautiful new Senior Center, then didn't have the money to staff it so it couldn't open. Meanwhile, property taxes and sales taxes keep going up. Being a graduate of public schools, I guess the logic in all of this is eluding me.
My high school had 30%+ English learners, 30%++ "low income" (vouchers), and yet managed to have a 95%+ graduation rate with other better outcomes. Oh, and teachers earned far less money. Enough? Enough indeed. I'm not one of your students. I pay your salary.
Heck, I wonder if I could support it, rather than just, you know....
Math teachers talked about the problem. Students in upper levels of Math are doing well, but the abysmal 85% problem is in Algebra 1. The 85% have not passed Algebra 1 in middle school, when, theoretically they are supposed to pass it.There was a recent State mandate that high school math HAS TO begin with Algebra 1. In other words if kids enter high school without basic math skills, they can't go into Arithmetic 1 or 2, they are mandated to go into Algebra 1. We have tried to solve the problem by adding " companion Math " an additional class to teach them the basic skills concurrently. Many of us believe that adding more math classes for students who are failing math is not a great solution. We also have daily after school free tutoring in our library. We have to follow state laws and NO ONE wants the school pass rates to excel more than San Leandro teachers. We live it every day.
We had so few layoffs because the union and district chose to keep jobs , programs and pay cuts, rather than have competitive wages. I went to all the meetings, i was there. One last thing : go see the play at the Theater !
You have given way over contract hours to SLHS students through the hard and now perhaps the less difficult fiscal years. You use your own time and resources. You helped create the CA State teaching standards for art largely on your own time, something that was missing 20 years ago. People invest in what they value. David has an agenda to get vouchers in place and has never taught younger than adults publicly. SLUSD has been less funded per student than surrounding school districts and has had to stretch to fund programs for years.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/fd/ec/currentexpense.asp
Why i think it sucks that people have to pony 39 bucks a year (large buildings more) on top of prop 30 and the lottery money, I am realist that I can spend 39 bucks on some pretty lame sutff (beer, A's tickets, starbucks). I just would like them to present a plan of what they are going to do with this specific money annually and who is going to be on the oversight committee. supervising the process...if there is an oversight committee...
In fact, all of SLUSD is sub-par, with the possible exception of 2 grade schools everyone knows.
Furthermore, as the link (that I've linked to in the past, repeatedly) indicates, neighboring school districts (quoting from memory): Oakland: Spends 25%+ more than SLUSD, worse outcomes Berkeley: Spends 30%++ more than SLUSD, worse outcomes for minority students, better for white students. Alameda: Spends 10-15% more than SLUSD, far better outcomes Castro Valley: Spends a bit less than SLUSD, far better outcomes San Lorenzo: Spends about the same as SLUSD, about the same outcomes Hayward: Spends 20% or so more than SLUSD, worse outcomes. How does spending more correlate at all with better performance? Answer: It doesn't. But the teachers' unions will keep lying to keep the money flowing.
Like old Albert Shanker,United Federatiojn of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers president said: "When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children."
Please send us all a post-card when you've moved to Finland and/or Singapore....
Not only are SLUSD enrollment numbers flat, but locally--Oakland public school enrollment is DOWN 20-30% over the past decade, and state-wide the California public school enrollment is flat over the past decade. As for Oregon, who cares? It's another loser "blue" state that would rather pay teachers' pensions than pay for kids' schooling.