Our Town: Finding their religion Our Town: Finding their religion (May 04, 2005)

by Don Kazak

The Palo Alto school community kicked off the Measure A election campaign Saturday morning with echoes of an old-time tent revival -- a hand-clapping, music-playing rally, complete with rousing speeches and a fiery determination to win one for the kids.

School district voters will go to the polls June 7 to vote the Measure A parcel tax -- $493 a year per property - up or down, with a two-thirds majority needed. The district fell just short on a similar, $521-a-year measure last November, losing by just 221 votes.

The sin of the previous election -- complacency -- has been recognized and cast out by the congregation. A much larger volunteer effort has been mobilized, and the Measure A co-chairs are taking nothing for granted this time around.

A large meeting room at Lucie Stern Community Center was festooned with brightly colored balloons Saturday morning. While the big people did the talking, there were children underfoot everywhere and sitting on laps, playing with the balloons and maybe wondering what the fuss was about.

The music made the packed, big-person rally feel good. A group of four district moms, called (naturally enough) Hey Mom! played pleasant, harmonizing versions of "This Land is Your Land" and "Teach Your Children," while a Palo Alto High School student band, Backlight, rocked out at the conclusion.

Backlight even composed "The Measure A Song" with its refrain, "What's important here, children or the money?"

In between, speakers exhorted the crowd to get out the vote, pass out lawn signs and volunteer to work the phone bank.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important to us, to our community, than the education of our children," said former Mayor Gary Fazzino, a co-chair of the campaign.

Megan Swezey Fogarty, another campaign co-chair, explained that the district will lose $5.5 million in annual revenue once the current parcel tax expires next year. Because of state budget reductions, the district has cut its budget $6.5 million since January 2003.

She said the district has been able to do "a fantastic job of keeping those cuts away from the classroom, but it won't last if this doesn't pass."

If Measure A is defeated, Fogarty added, the class-size reduction program will be threatened (triggering a chorus of boos from the audience); an elementary school might have to be closed (louder boos), and as many as 107 teachers may have to be laid off (really loud boos).

Jon Foster, the third campaign co-chair, was the only speaker who mentioned the Measure A opponents. "The opposition will distort the facts in their arguments," he said.

Which made Wayne Martin the most significant person not in the room on Saturday. Martin and a small band of dedicated opponents led the opposition last November and are gearing up again.

Martin said last week that a main reason he opposes the parcel tax is that "they didn't say it would go on forever" when district leaders convinced voters to approve the first parcel tax in 2001. "They have to put this on (the ballot) in perpetuity," Martin said. "Their honesty is a core issue."

School Board President John Barton said the parcel tax is not "in perpetuity," because it will last for five years. But it will then be up to the voters to renew it again.

"That's the system," Barton said.

Martin and his group of Measure A opponents are loading up to fire back at pro-Measure A arguments, with responses to a set of "frequently asked questions" from the Measure A campaign.

And to get more facts, Martin put in a Public Records Act request to the school district March 15, an exhaustive list of 67 questions. By state law, the district must respond to the request.

Finally, Martin said he and his group may push to end the court-ordered Tinsley desegregation program that allows about 570 East Palo Alto students to attend Palo Alto schools. Martin said it costs too much, at about $4 million a year. The fight over that three-decades-old court order would be monumental. Martin insists his argument is about money, not race.

As the pro-Measure A campaigners prepare to go out into the neighborhoods to woo voters, Martin is poring over district facts and figures, sharpening his pencil.

Weekly Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.

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