School capital improvement program to be considered by Board of Education.

At the Piedmont Unified School District Board meeting Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, the Board will consider finalizing a School Facilities Master Plan. Funding sources and the total cost are not known at this time.

The meeting will be broadcast live on Cable Channel 27 and on the City website.  The meeting is open for public participation.

MODERNIZATION

The Facilities Master Plan process combines the goals of PUSD’s Education Specifications and the information collected by the design team (including facility assessments) into a comprehensive plan for the schools of the Piedmont Unified School District. The main product of the facility needs assessment and Facilities Master Plan is a detailed proposal for renovations and/or additions to be made at each school campus.

The facilities master planning process takes into account all of the information on the District’s facilities, the needs and desires of faculty, staff and the community and projections about future District needs and creates a comprehensive plan for each campus that addresses these issues. The plan looks at issues holistically and creatively to find unique and inventive solutions that fit the specific needs of each campus and community.

The final Facilities Master Plan document provides a clear narrative and graphic summary of the proposed facilities improvements for each campus and also provides the detailed information necessary to successfully plan and implement the improvements.

View the proposed plan here.

Open to the public!

League of Women Voters of Piedmont

Study on California Public Higher Education

Wednesday, February 24, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

131 La Salle Avenue, Piedmont

The League of Women Voters of Piedmont invites the community to participate in a lively discussion and study of public higher education in California. The program will focus on crucial questions the state faces concerning equitable access and excellence for UC, Cal State and community colleges.

California’s disinvestment in public higher education has shifted costs to students and families, limiting access at a time when demographic and economic changes call for more four year graduates. The Master Plan currently limits UC admission to the top 12.5% of high school graduates and Cal State to the top 33%.

With background material provided by the League of Women Voters of California, the meeting will formulate the local chapter’s position on consensus questions.

Combined with responses from all state chapters, this will generate significant clout for the League of Women Voters of California on state policies and ballot measures affecting higher public education.

To RSVP and review background material for the event, please contact Dale Marshall at dalermarshall@comcast.net.

Other members of the study committee are: Mary Ann Benson, Claudia Harrison, Tam Hege, Susan Penrod and Andrea Swenson.

Is the Piedmont School District Following the Law?

For the third consecutive year, the Alameda County Auditor has unlawfully exempted dozens of otherwise taxable parcels from paying the Piedmont School Support Tax (Measure A), resulting in a loss to date of over $400,000 in District revenue.  Over the eight-year life of Measure A, the District’s loss will be more than one million dollars at a time of costly pension obligations and the apparent need for major facility improvements.

This needless loss should not have been allowed to happen.

Measure A (mistakenly called “School Measure B” on tax bills) required that as of July 1, 2013, each assessor’s parcel wholly or partially within the boundaries of the District pay the annual school tax, now at $2,503 per parcel. The one and only exception was for owners of parcels receiving Social Security Income (SSI). The District’s own attorney has said all other exemptions are “forbidden”. 

Measure A is a special assessment not based on the assessed value of the property. Hence, the Auditor and not the Assessor made the exemptions, most as a continuation of past practices but seven have been made since the passage of Measure A. One tiny sliver of unimproved land on my street has been routinely exempted for over 25 years. Many are small parcels ancillary to a larger parcel that have been exempted by owners in order to avoid paying the tax twice. A few are church parcels, exempt from the ad valorem portion but not the special assessment portion of their tax bills. And, ten are Oakland lots partially in Piedmont (including Mount View Cemetery) that have never been taxed.

Failure of the District to collect the tax from Oakland parcels may be a simple matter of negligence.  But allowing the Piedmont exemptions to continue and even grow over three years is inexplicable.

To date, no one has taken responsibility. The Auditor’s office said the current exemptions are based on a list provided by NBS, the tax-consulting firm retained by the District. NBS has said it has taken no action, formal or informal, to exempt any parcel. The District has said it has taken no action to selectively exempt property from its parcel tax, except for the two parcels that qualified for the SSI exemption. 

Whoever is responsible, there has been an appalling breakdown of communication between the District, NBS, and Alameda County. The Auditor correctly applied the uniform tax rate of Measure A to every Piedmont parcel except for those on the list provided by NBS. Over a period of three years, he has evidently not been told these exemptions are illegal.

The Measure A Resolution “authorized members of the Board, the Superintendent and officers of the District to do all things necessary or advisable to effectuate the purposes of the Resolution.” Although the District staff was apprised of the problem more than six months ago, it has yet to recommend the actions necessary to rescind the unlawful exemptions — and in the process enhance the school’s revenue.

Measure A is the law and every public official, appointed or elected, must obey the law, however onerous that may be.

William Blackwell, Piedmont Resident

Editors’ Note:  Opinions expressed are those of the author.

The Piedmont City / School Liaison Committee will consider topical subjects impacting both the City and School District.  Consensus is frequently reached in an open exchange of information. Decisions are not finalized during the meeting, as they must be referred to the appropriate elected body for action.  Individuals interested in the subjects can participate at the meeting.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

4:00 p.m.

City Hall Conference Room, 120 Vista Avenue, Piedmont, CA

The meeting is open to the public.  The meeting will not be broadcast or recorded for future viewing. Agenda:

• 1. Update on the PUSD Facilities Master Planning Process
•  2. Discussion of City Parcel Tax on the June 7 Presidential Primary Election Ballot
•   3. Discussion of Pick-Up / Drop-Off Zone at High School and Middle School
•   4. Discussion of Plans for Full Day Kindergarten and its Impact to Schoolmates and Opportunities for Cooperation 

Materials for the meeting have not been publicly disseminated, however they can be obtained at the meeting or prior to the meeting through the City or the Piedmont Unified School District.