It’s (semi) Official: San Carlos Measure S is Dead…

November 20, 2008

flatline

flatline.jpg

According to the “semi-official” results that were posted yesterday on the San Mateo County Election Website,   the “San Carlos School District Excellence in Education Act of 2008,” also known as Measure S, was finally declared defeated.   There was a significant quantity of mail-in ballots to be counted, and those ballot actually raised the “Yes” percentage up to 65.6% — but this was still just shy of the 66.67% required for the passage of this measure.

While I find the whole “semi-official” moniker rather amusing (isn't it “official” when the votes are all counted?) it's important to know that members of the San Carlos School Board have finally acknowledged the defeat of the Measure yesterday, and have spoken out about upcoming budget cuts.  The District was already operating in a deficit-spending mode prior to the defeat of the bill, but The loss of Measure S funds will now force additional cuts in upcoming school budgets to avoid a rapid depletion of the School District's reserves.  Here's an article in the San Mateo Daily Journal with some additional details:

Bond Loss Leads to Budget Cuts

This probably isn't the the last time you'll see a parcel tax initiative on the ballot to support San Carlos schools.   There is already talk of disecting this loss and submitting a revised initiative in a future election.   But until then, there will be some serious belt-tightening taking place at our schools.

Posted in:

1 Comment

  1. Linda Collery on December 9, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Hi, I just wanted to let people know that some of the high schools are still raising money for “Scrip” via cards such as Starbucks, Peets, Itunes, etc. I was surprised to find this out as a freshman parent at Sequoia High School. The school treasurer attends every PTA meeting with a box full of these cards. I asked about Escrip. I reassigned my Escrip to Sequoia many months ago. It supports Boosters only, although Boosters does a lot for school spirit benefiting the whole school apparently. My daughter does not do sports, so I’m starting to purchase more of the cards at PTA to benefit PTA programs that seem to me to have a broader scope. If you have kids in high school, you might want to check this out and consider buying Starbucks cards at your school. (I bought a Peet’s card.)



Leave a Comment