Including all Students in Parcel Tax Proposal
By Cinthia Rodriguez - El Observador

On Thursday, May 13, Alum Rock Union Elementary School District (ARUESD) parents, students, community leaders, and taxpayers urged the school district and Superintendent Jose Manzo to include charter public school students in the Parcel Tax Initiative, Measure I.
"Alum Rock School District has a partial tax on the ballot for this June's election. The tax, if it passes, will raise 3.4 million dollars to serve public schools in this district but the language in the ballot is misleading and does not state explicitly if charter public schools will be included," said Silvia Ramirez, parent of two charter students.
Parents like Ramirez would like to see the board members agree to sign a resolution that stated they will share the money with charter public schools. They are willing to work with leaders in the charter public schools to negotiate the equitable distribution of a parcel tax refund to the schools through a memorandum of understanding.
The Alum Rock School District approved inclusion of a parcel tax in the June 8 ballot to help offset budget deficits in its public schools. However, the proposal does not include charter public schools as beneficiaries of the potential revenue generated by the tax. This would create inequity in public education, as charter public school parents are taxpayers also, yet their children and schools would be excluded.
"I am disappointed to learn that not all public school children in the Alum School District are going to benefit from the proposed partial tax that I will potentially be mandated to pay," said Gilne Desales-Tosco. "I am asking the Alum Rock School District to think about what is fair for all the children."
Currently, there are nearly 1,000 Alum Rock charter public school students, over five percent of the student population. ARUESD has a $112 parcel tax in place that was passed in 2004 and it expires this year. There are examples for the inclusion of charter public schools in parcel taxes in San Francisco and Oakland.
"I'm here to say that these are our kids, these are our parents, they're attending schools within our school district area and so we should have a discussion, we should talk about what, and if, and how a partial tax might help our kids," said board member Esau Herrera. "I don't know if we can or not, but we should at least have that discussion."
Parents addressed the board for a second time and asked for the support of three members of the board to call a special session of the board to take action. Four board members out of five expressed their support for a special board session, stated Alicia Gallegos, Director, San Jose Charter School Consortium, in an email.
"If the district will not include charter public schools in these potential tax proceeds, we are asking them to make a clear public statement, the community deserves to know the truth," said Silvia Ramirez.
A special session to discuss and hopefully make a decision was called and scheduled for May 20 at 6pm.