Voters pass Measure B in the Cotati-Rohnert Park school district

Voters Tuesday passed a ballot measure to extend a parcel tax to support the Cotati-Rohnert Park school district.

With all precincts reporting and at least 5,262 mail-in ballots counted, Measure B secured 68.2 percent of the vote, just over the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.

The result extends to 2025 an $89-a-year parcel tax that voters first approved in 2012.

“I’m feeling fantastic. We had a great effort in the community,” said Susan Adams, chairwoman of the Measure B campaign.

Supporters held a large get-out-the-vote walk over the weekend. And as the election neared, teachers, parents and school board members manned phone banks and canvassed precincts.

“They did a fantastic job,” said Adams as she waited for results from the registrar’s office.

Final results posted late Tuesday showed the margin of victory at 68.2 percent to 31.8 percent, with 6,299 ballots counted. Rohnert Park has 17,747 registered voters and Cotati 3,751.

The measure went to the polls amid a controversy over the school district’s new grading policies, which were implemented in August and which some said were confusing and lowered academic standards in the district.

Some residents, in the days leading up to Tuesday, had suggested they would vote against Measure B as a result. But there was no way to gauge the level of that opposition, and there was never any evident expression of heavy anti-measure sentiment.

“I certainly hope it passes, but I just don’t have a feel for it at all,” said Lanny Lowery, who campaigned for the 2012 measure and supported Measure B. Lowery has taught English at Rancho Cotate High School since 1980 and is a prominent critic of the grading policy.

The ballot measure promises none of the projected receipts of $1.2 million a year will go to administrative salaries and that they will support services including college and vocational preparatory programs. The funds also will preserve art and music classes and keep class sizes small, the ballot argument said.

Since 2012, tax revenues have helped the district - with about 6,100 students - cut class sizes and strengthen math, science and reading offerings, as well as revive its school libraries.

As results came in Tuesday, supporters were in a buoyant mood.

“We’ll wait for the final results, but regardless, we truly appreciate the overwhelming community support,” Superintendent Robert Haley said.

Staff Writer Jeremy Hay blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach him at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay.