Novato school closure scrapped

Voters in San Rafael strongly favored a pair of parcel tax measures to support the city school district, but the election outcome remained undetermined on Wednesday.

Measure G, which supports the high schools, is hovering above the two-thirds approval needed for passage, according to preliminary results of the mail-in election on Tuesday.

Measure H, which supports district elementary schools, was lagging by about 42 votes, according to district trustee Gina Daly, a leader of a campaign backing the measures.

“Because we really did focus on getting out the vote — and getting out the yes vote in particular — we do have a lot of reasons to be optimistic,” Daly said Wednesday.

Daly said volunteers helped with phone banks late in the campaign.

“We are so thankful for the deep community support,” she said. “It’s been a tough year for everyone — parents, students, teachers.”

“We are optimistic we will get over the threshold when all the ballots are counted,” she said.

With 16 of 19 precincts reporting, Measure G’s margin was 67.42% yes and 32.58% no. For Measure H, 66.44% of voters said yes and 33.56% no.

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Marin County Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts said Wednesday that there were at least 1,800 ballots received Tuesday that remain to be counted.

“We can accept timely postmarked ballots through Friday,” she said. “Also, voters will have time to cure their signature if they didn’t sign the envelope or their signature is a mismatch.”

The elections office plans to provide the next update on Friday, she said. Roberts expects the county could have unofficial final results by late next week.

If approved, each measure would renew the parcel tax and add $36 per parcel for a term of eight years.

Measure G would provide about $5.4 million in annual funding for the high schools by renewing the $196 rate and adding $36 per parcel for a total of $232.

Measure H would provide about $5 million in annual funding for elementary and middle schools by renewing the rate of $287 and adding $36 per parcel for a total of $323.

Both measures would have a 3% annual inflation adjustment.

The money would go to supporting academic programs.

San Rafael City Schools serves about 7,200 students at three high schools, one middle school, one K-8 school and six elementary schools.

The annual budgets are about $62.7 million for the elementary district and $41 million for the high school district.