PUSD board gives initial support to potential parcel tax measure

The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously expressed support of placing a parcel tax on a future election ballot during last week’s board meeting.

While the board agreed the district still has a lot of work to do — such as polling the community, deciding on an election date and settling on what the potential new revenue would be used for — all five trustees concurred with the notion that a parcel tax would be a big help to the district’s future financial security.

“If we’re going to maintain our quality of education in Pleasanton, then I think the parcel tax represents a viable opportunity to generate stable income,” Trustee Laurie Walker said during the Sept. 25 meeting.

Over the past couple of years, PUSD leadership has been warning the community and the school board of a structural deficit where revenues are being outpaced by expenditures due to several reasons including declining enrollment, depletion of one-time funds and rising costs of salaries and benefits.

During the 2024-25 fiscal year, the district’s unrestricted expenditures exceeded its revenues by $7.2 million and reserves fell to 0.55%, which staff said is “well below the state’s 3% requirement,” according to the staff report.

In the face of financial strain, for the past year Superintendent Maurice Ghysels has been floating the idea of introducing a parcel tax discussion to the board.

A parcel tax is “imposed as an incident of property ownership and collected on the annual property tax bill”, according to the California Controller’s Office. “Generally, the tax is charged on a parcel of property based on either a flat per parcel rate or a variable rate depending on the size, use and/or number of units on the parcel.”

Ghysels kicked off last week’s discussion by stating that not only is a parcel tax one of the better revenue generating options for the district, but it is one that many districts around the Bay Area use.

“Parcel taxes, in most of our surrounding districts with our demographics, exist,” Ghysels said.

PUSD assistant superintendent of business services Ahmad Sheikholeslami further noted some of the surrounding counties that have school districts with parcel taxes.

“The majority of school districts in Santa Clara, the majority of school districts in Marin County, the majority of school districts in San Mateo County have parcel taxes,” Sheikholeslami said

Walker also pointed to neighboring communities Livermore, which already has a $138 parcel tax, and the San Ramon Valley, which has a $144 parcel tax in place.

“These districts are using the parcel tax to maintain their excellence and their educational programs,” Walker said.

However, Walker and the other trustees also expressed several concerns they had regarding the specifics of a potential parcel tax, such as the cost of placing the measure on a ballot and the timeline.

In order for the Board of Trustees to place a district-led parcel tax on a ballot next year, the board will need to decide if the ballot will be standalone or if it should be consolidated with either the primary or general state elections next year.

The cheapest scenario would be for the district to place the parcel tax on the Nov. 3, 2026 statewide general ballot, which could cost voters anywhere from $230,000 to $322,000. The most expensive option would be placing it on a standalone special ballot in April 2026, which would cost anywhere from $1.05 million to $1.15 million. 

Sheikholeslami said the board could also place the measure in the June primary election, which could potentially have the district see some revenue as early as next year.

“If the election occurs in June and it’s certified by early July then we would be able to get the parcel tax information to the county in time so it would make it into the collection for … the 2026-27 fiscal year,” Sheikholeslami said.

A November 2026 election, Sheikholeslami said, would likely mean revenues would be reflected in the 2027-28 fiscal year.

Board President Justin Brown, and most of the other board members, said he prefers the November 2026 date because it would allow the district to go through its upcoming budget reduction process and show the community that PUSD is doing everything in its power to cut down on costs before asking the community for financial support.

Currently, PUSD is in the early stages of preparing for upcoming budget cut discussions where the board could be poised to make anywhere between $8 million to $10 million in cuts next year.

Another reason others on the board preferred the November date was because many people tend to be busy or on vacations during summer months.

The board also discussed how the district should use funds from a parcel tax if they decide to move forward with pursuing one and voters approve it.

Pleasanton resident Bill Foley spoke during public comment and said that while he has heard from community members who said they don’t think it’s wise for PUSD to move forward with a parcel tax, if the district were to go through with it the trustees would need to show the money won’t just be used to increase salaries and benefits.

“I think you need to tread very lightly,” Foley said. “(Residents are) leery. They want to see some responsibility by the district (and) the board on our financial crisis. I think they’re willing to put money behind it, but they have to see some action first.”

While the board did not make any decisions about what exactly they would want to use parcel tax revenues for, Trustee Charlie Jones said the district should consider prioritizing programs such as special education, music and English learning programs.

“With the loss of students over time, and our budgets going down because of that, if we don’t do something and we’re not creative, we’re going to continue having to do these cuts and eventually it’s going to hit those programs that we really love and care about,” Jones said.

The board members agreed that there should be some sort of surveying or community polling to gauge how residents feel about such a tax and what it should look like, particularly regarding costs.

According to Sheikholeslami, the district estimated that through the parcel tax, every $50 dollars could generate about $1 million of revenue for the district.

The overall sentiment from the board was that they still need a lot more information before making any concrete decisions on how to move forward with placing a parcel tax on a future ballot.

Board members also noted that even if the tax passes, it wouldn’t be a solution in the short-term to address the district’s current budget reduction challenges for the upcoming year. “This is more a longer term, how do we avoid cutting forever,” Brown said of a potential parcel tax.

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