Measure E: Mill Valley schools funding measure cruising to victory

Updated June 9.

Mill Valley School District voters are backing Measure E, a parcel tax that would fund roughly a quarter of the district’s budget for the next eight years. The initiative would spare Strawberry Point Elementary and the district’s other schools from the staffing cuts officials warned would follow a defeat.

Measure E was ahead with 73.6% of the vote as of June 8, above the two-thirds majority it needs to pass. Of the 8,630 ballots cast across the district’s 12 precincts, 6,352 favored the tax and 2,278 opposed it. In Strawberry, Measure E led with 70.6% support, with 1,644 votes in favor and 686 opposed across the community’s two precincts. A single Tiburon precinct, covering the Cypress Hollow neighborhood, also falls within the district, where the measure drew 77.8% support, 42 votes to 12. Most of Tiburon lies in the Reed Union School District and did not vote on Measure E.

Additional returns were expected to be posted June 10, after The Ark’s press deadline.

Mill Valley School District board President Natalie Katz said the early results felt like “a meaningful vote of confidence from our community” at a critical time for the district, citing increasing enrollment across the district’s six elementary and middle school campuses. “Mill Valley is a community that has always understood that great public schools are one of the key pillars of what makes this an extraordinary place to live,” she said. “Strong schools attract families, support local businesses and enrich the broader community in ways that benefit everyone.” She added that voters recognized the measure was “not just about school funding” but “about the kind of community we want to be and the legacy we want to leave for the next generation.”

Measure E would replace the district’s existing parcel tax with a single combined levy of $1,754 per parcel, beginning July 1 and running through June 30, 2034. It merges two pieces: a renewal of the district’s primary parcel tax, now $1,520 per parcel, and a restored $234 levy that voters first approved in 2012 for an eight-year term that expired in 2021. The restored levy would return at its original rate, with no adjustment for the years it lapsed.

The county’s impartial analysis estimated the tax would generate about $14.9 million a year, about one-quarter of the district’s $58 million budget. The $1,754 rate would hold through the first year, with a 5% annual increase starting July 2027. Seven such increases would push the rate to about $2,468 by 2034.

Supporters argued the tax was needed to protect stable funding, preserve educational quality and head off budget disruption. Without it, they warned, the district could lose more than 80 positions, the equivalent of closing two of its elementary schools. Superintendent Elizabeth Kaufman said the loss could mean a 25% cut in teachers at Strawberry Point Elementary.

Opponents, led by the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers, which wrote the official ballot argument against the measure, said it asked too much too fast. They urged the district to return with a measure that grows more slowly, at 3% a year instead of 5%, and argued voters should hold out for a cheaper proposal.

Mimi Willard, the coalition’s president, said the burden falls hardest on three groups: young residents priced out of the county by stacking local taxes; mid-career homeowners in their 50s and early 60s juggling retirement savings and college costs; and seniors who, though eligible for exemptions, risk losing friends and family who cannot afford to stay.

In a statement last week, Willard said she was “proud of the thorough, diligent work” the coalition had done to inform voters about the “unprecedented number of local tax proposals” on the June and November ballots.

“With spiking insurance, utilities, rent and living costs, many people can’t afford this level of taxation,” she said. “COST has sought to help voters prioritize which proposals were truly necessary, fair, transparent and as affordable as possible.”

Willard said the coalition would continue tracking results from the June election and “will continue to engage the public with our ballot-measure evaluations this fall.”

Katz said she understands that affordability is a “real and serious challenge here and across California” but pushed back on the idea that support for schools is the cause.

“Investing in public education is an investment in the richness and vitality of this community — it’s what makes Mill Valley worth living in — and that benefits everyone,” she said. “The affordability crisis is a much larger problem that requires much larger solutions, like more affordable housing.”

Katz said California needs to rethink how it funds public education. She said she hopes state lawmakers eventually revisit the school funding model so communities like Mill Valley are less reliant on local parcel taxes. Until then, she said, taxes like Measure E are necessary to protect what the community has built “for the next generation.”

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