Board to Look Closer at Charter Schools, Tax

The Hermosa Beach School Board unanimously decided to further study two options that could save Hermosa View and Valley schools from financial failure: implementing a charter school system and seeking a sales or parcel tax to raise revenue.

Board members agreed to direct a subcommittee that has been studying charter schools since March to continue meeting and outline what a charter school model would look like in Hermosa Beach.

The subcommittee analyzed in a final report how a charter school system could financially benefit the Hermosa Beach City School District.

"This [charter] system that exists allows and affords an opportunity for enhanced funding in this district," said board member Lisa Claypoole in Wednesday's meeting.

The School Board suggested that now the team focus on what a charter school curriculum could afford.

The board also saw a tax measure as a potential fundraising option, but agreed it would be laborious to pursue, as any tax requires an election vote.

The board could seek either a parcel tax (which requires a two-thirds majority vote) or a sales tax (which requires a majority vote if revenue is shared with the city or a two-thirds vote if all money goes to schools.)

School Board President Cathy McCurdy said that while she served as a poll worker in Tuesday's , she spoke with some residents about the possibility of a tax supporting local schools.

"When they found out there was an option of a sales tax, where everybody who comes to Hermosa is going to help pay for the schools, they were much more in favor of that," she told her fellow board members.

The board favored a sales tax, but "the timing is unfortunate," said board member Carleen Beste.

A special election could be held for a parcel tax, but a sales tax requires a municipal election vote, Beste said.

Even though there will be a municipal election in Hermosa Beach on Nov. 8, the August deadline to approve measures for that ballot will arrive before the city has time to review the School Board's proposed tax measure, Beste said.

The next municipal election will be in 2013.

McCurdy suggested that the board's parcel tax subcommittee reconvene and calculate how much revenue a proposed parcel tax measure seeks to attain, "and I'd like more information on a sales tax," she said.

Subcommittees in June  on the various possibilities for the future of Hermosa’s public schools, which also included the option of unifying or sharing services with a neighboring school district or developing a minimum-level curriculum to save money.

The board decided not to pursue minimum schools as an option. 

McCurdy supported the option of unification, but her fellow board members argued that Hermosa's schools are a key component of the Hermosa Beach community and merging with a neighboring district takes that away.

"The schools in this community define us. I’m not talking about school unification... I’m talking about community unification," Claypoole said. "Giving up the schools, gives up that great identity and I don’t want to be any part of that."

The next board meeting was rescheduled to Aug. 24.