SMCSD bond for schools makes sense

The Sausalito Marin City School District faces a serious challenge.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra investigated and confirmed complaints about racial segregation of the district’s Bayside-Martin Luther King campus in Marin City.

He ruled that they violated constitutional guarantees that outlaw racial segregation in public schools and gave the district five years to solve this longstanding, untenable and unfair situation.

This is not a school district problem. It is a community challenge. School leaders have come up with a desegregation plan to unify the Willow Creek Academy charter school and Bayside-MLK by creating a twin-campus program promising state- of-the-art schools and curriculum.

One of their tougher challenges is that their campuses, including one that dates back to the 1940s, need repairs and improvements.

Willow Creek was started as a charter school by parents and community leaders to create a Sausalito-based alternative for parents who didn’t want to send their kids to the Marin City campuses.

It has grown to be much larger — and more diverse — than Bayside-MLK. Beccera determined that the twoschool system had drained educational resources and opportunities from the muchsmaller and mostly minority Marin City school.

Substantive change is needed.

Some of the repairs are needed just to bring the campuses up to modern codes, including complying with accessibility standards for disabled students, faculty and parents. Some are needed to replace temporary buildings and classrooms that have been in use far longer than was intended.

School leaders know that the creation of top-notch facilities will be part of the equation needed to retain a student body that is as diverse as the community it serves.

In addition, the condition of our public school campuses and the facilities they provide should reflect the importance in which the community places the education of its youth.

Asking voters to take on the tax obligation of a $41.6 million bond during a pandemic when many households have taken a financial hit is not optimal.

But the district — the community — faces a state-imposed timeline to make progress toward desegregation. In addition, unlike most other Marin school districts, Sausalito-Marin City does not have a parcel tax on the county property tax bill.

In someMarin school districts that parcel tax exceeds $1,000 per year and the cost for paying for school construction bonds is on top of that levy. The proposed Measure P bond would cost $30 for every $100,000 in a property’s tax — not market — value. That would be about $210 per year for the average home in the district.

The current plan under discussion is to unify the kindergarten through fifth grade programs at its Sausalito campus and have a new pre-kindergarten program and sixth through eighth grades at the Bayside-MLK campus in Marin City.

Supporters of Measure P point to recent community polls that showed strong voter support for top- quality school programs and campuses.

As Shirley Thornton, a former longtime school board member and supporter of unification, said, Measure P is about creating “a better environment for learning” for all students.

That not only means improved and upgraded classrooms, but facilities for art, music and athletics that are also important in promoting youngsters’ interest in school.

School officials stress that passage of Measure P will be a big step in that direction.

Measure P supporters add that the timing of the start of the 20-year bond will be determined by when the district is ready to start construction, which could be after we’ve made further progress in recovering from this pandemic.

Measure P needs a 55% majority vote for passage.

Measure P and improving the district’s campuses means progress on a path that promises unification and an end of a longstanding environment that’s led to racial segregation in the community’s schools.

On the Nov. 3 ballot, the IJ recommends passage of Measure P.