Election 2026: Reed schools’ Measure O seeks $115 million bond for campus repairs
Voters will decide Nov. 3 on Measure O, a $115 million bond to repair and upgrade the Reed Union School District’s three schools.
Measure O needs 55% approval to pass. The tax would be levied on properties in the district, which includes Tiburon, Belvedere and east Corte Madera, starting in fiscal year 2027-2028, when the district expects the rate to peak at $30 per $100,000 of assessed value. That works out to $300 a year for every $1 million of assessed value.
Two parcel taxes on the same ballot would also reach district property owners: Measure P, a 15-year countywide childcare tax of 5 cents per square foot of building, and Measure CC, a 30-year Marin Healthcare District tax of 14 cents a square foot to expand MarinHealth Medical Center’s emergency room and intensive care. Together they would cost the owner of a 2,000-square-foot house $380 a year.
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The district estimates the rate would average $26.63 per $100,000 over the life of the bonds, with the tax collected for the last time in fiscal 2060-2061. The levy would raise about $6.2 million a year, according to the ballot question, and the district’s tax rate statement estimates that repaying the full $115 million would cost $213 million in principal and interest.
No bond money can be used for teacher or administrator salaries, and the measure requires a citizens’ oversight committee and annual independent audits. The measure’s text also says the money must be spent on the district’s schools and cannot be taken by the state or county.
Reed Union School District board President Shelby Pasarell Tsai said the bond measure was important because systems at the district’s three campuses — Reed and Bel Aire elementary schools and Del Mar Middle School — need serious work, from leaking and failing roofs to degraded clay pipes and irrigation.
“Anyone who owns a home knows after 20 years, buildings need some pretty serious maintenance,” Pasarell Tsai said.
Pasarell Tsai is the lead author of the ballot argument in favor of Measure O, which she signed with Jessica Etchevers, president of the district’s PTA; former school board member A.J. Brady; Belvedere Councilmember Jane Cooper; and Tiburon Councilmember Jack Ryan. Pasarell Tsai, Cooper and Ryan are all seeking reelection Nov. 3.
No argument against Measure O was filed with the Marin County Elections Department.
School districts in California usually turn to bond measures to pay for repairs, renovations and new construction because they receive no dedicated funding for facilities upkeep. A bond functions as a loan taken out by the school district that property owners pay back through increased property taxes.
The district would set priorities for the money using its long-range facilities plan, a process begun in spring 2022 and completed in 2024 to guide building projects at the campuses over the next 10-15 years. Pasarell Tsai said $115 million falls short of the district’s needs. She said lower-priority and one-time projects, such as playground updates, could be paid for with money the district already has, and that the district has no intention of bringing a second bond measure to voters.
“When you peel back the paint, so to speak, there’s facility needs that are glaring,” district Superintendent Kimberly McGrath said in an interview.
Under state law, the district can spend its funds on educational information about the bond measure but cannot advocate for or against it. The board in June approved up to $48,050 for that informational work. McGrath said the rule also applied to her as superintendent. Advocacy work is being done by the “Yes on O” campaign, whose website is yesonoforreedschools.org.
The Foundation for Reed Schools, the parent-led nonprofit that raises money for district programs, is helping fund the campaign, which also takes donations through its website. The campaign’s goal is $80,000, and half of it has been raised, said Mickey Hubbell, the foundation’s executive director. She said the rest is being sought from the community, and the foundation will cover any shortfall.
Needs across the district include replacing portable classrooms and installing air conditioning in all rooms on all three campuses. McGrath said portable classrooms at Bel Aire Elementary are roped off because they were deemed too unsafe to be used.
But the portables at the other two schools are still in use, Pasarell Tsai said, with prekindergarten programs housed in Reed’s portable classrooms and robotics in Del Mar’s.
“We know that we need to move these kids into permanent classrooms,” Pasarell Tsai said.
Other districtwide work includes upgrading failing clay-pipe plumbing, repairing leaking roofs, removing asbestos and mold from aging buildings and making campuses more accessible than the Americans with Disabilities Act requires.
At Bel Aire, identified improvements include installing heaters in three buildings, repaving the lower playground and creating shade for the lunch area.
At Reed Elementary, other high-priority work includes replacing roofs over the administration building, building a covered lunch area and replacing old walkways.
And at Del Mar, improvements include repaving the playground, fixing concrete and asphalt, replacing stairs from the field to the street and redoing the track.
Though bond money can’t pay teacher salaries, the ballot question itself lists retaining and attracting quality teachers among the measure’s aims. McGrath and Pasarell Tsai both said the money would help keep teachers indirectly, by giving them better facilities they would want to stay in.
“We know from talking to our staff that the temperature in the classrooms, as well as a lot of the degraded facilities, is really difficult for them, and that has — that can lead to staff attrition,” Pasarell Tsai said. “And so, we don’t want that to happen.”
Two surveys the district commissioned from FM3 Research showed tentative support for the measure. In October 2025, 59% of 223 district voters said they would back the bond after hearing educational and critical statements about it. That survey’s margin of error was 6.6 percentage points, putting the low end of its range below the 55% needed to pass. A survey of 255 likely voters in late April and early May found about 62% support after the same exchange, with a margin of error of 6.2 points, leaving the low end of its range just above the 55% threshold.
If the measure fails, the district faces “a really difficult conversation as a community” in addressing facility needs “that we know need to be addressed,” from repairing roofs to replacing portables, Pasarell Tsai said.
“All of that is going to have to come from the district’s bottom line,” she said, adding that staffing and program cuts could be among the ways to offset those costs.
The Reed district’s current general-obligation bond rate is the third lowest among 12 elementary school districts in Marin, according to figures presented to the board June 2. If Measure O passes, the district’s rate would still be in the middle range of comparable districts.
Property owners in the district now pay a combined rate of about $21.60 per $100,000 of assessed value for two earlier school bonds: a $38 million bond approved in 2001 that ends in 2028 and a $13 million bond that ends in 2031, according to district consultant Capital Finance Group.
Pasarell Tsai said that once both bonds end, tax rates will return to a level similar to what residents have paid for the past 20 years, “and they’re going to stay substantially below all of our neighboring districts.”
“Even at the highest point where people are still paying off the residual of the last bonds and the new Measure O funds, our bond-tax rates for our taxpayers will be below Mill Valley, Kentfield, Larkspur, Corte Madera, all of the other neighboring elementary districts,” she said. “So, I think that’s very important to the board, and I think it’s important … for our taxpayers to understand.”
Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.