If the city wants extra revenue, why not follow what other cities are doing and fly a drone to catch illegal fireworks during 4th of July, then issue fines after. The city will be rich.
https://www.kcra.com/article/manteca-police-deploy-drones-enforce-illegal-fireworks-ban/71814046
What do we need to get something like that in EPA?
Measure A will further increase your taxes for 30 years, rationalized by a one-time anticipated increase in students that may or may not become reality, as declining enrollment continues, and students get distributed across options such as charter schools and private schools, which are a common choice to avoid the underperforming school district.
The already highly-funded school district is asking for an additional $70 million in funding over 30 years, on top of:
We are paying way too much, and about to sign up for basically yet another lifetime increase in taxes. Life is too expensive now, can we please collectively not vote for more self-inflicted financial torture?
Vote NO on measure A.
Edit: Please also vote No to funding a new city hall. The existing city hall is fine.
What was the point of Webster Lincoln going to Chongqing? Before you know it, EPA is going adopt an anti-Chinese hate proclamation to protect the five Chinese people in EPA, and then out-of-towners are going to protest at City Hall because China.
I'm being facetious of course, but in all seriousness I think Lincoln should reimburse EPA for all the foreign political trips he has taken.
Despite falling enrollment over decades, and continually low performance, Ravenswood School District keeps asking for more and more money.
Tax payers: even if you don't vote for Measure A, your parcel tax will already be increasing soon from $196 to $434. Furthermore, you will be paying for Measure I for another 30 or so years, since this multi-decade, "once in a generation" bond was introduced only 4 years ago.
Now, you are being persuaded to pay for another "once in a generation" bond Measure A, which will add ANOTHER 30 year tax burden. All for an estimated one time small increase in enrollment (see the yellow bars in the chart below), which may not even materialize if families, like many others, choose to avoid this underperforming district.
And most likely, if the past is any indication, you will see no return for your money other than some fancy new buildings.
Ravenswood School District raised $110M just four years ago with Measure I to build new campuses and renovate others. This was supposed to be a once in a generation ask.
Despite being one of the highest funded school districts in the area, outcomes have barely improved. I believe if the past is any indication of the future, Measure A will not measurably improve outcomes for this district.
Furthermore, following the closure of the Primary School, the district is already receiving $65M in funding and they are asking $70M on top of that.
Please note there are a number of teachers and members of the school board campaigning for Measure A online, who obviously have a vested interest in this passing.
Don't take my word for it:
https://epasun.org/ravenswood-school-funding-compared-to-other-local-school-districts/
Ravenswood School District receives considerably more funding per student than nearby Menlo Park and Los Lomitas School Districts.
“This literally is the worst school district I have ever come across,” said Mark Hinkle, president of the SVTA.
HInkle said that for the 2024-25 school year, 87.9% of Ravenswood students scored below grade level in English and 92.8% scored below grade level in math, according to data he cited from the Education Data Partnership.
“Why are we building new buildings for students that can’t read and can’t do math?” said Hinkle. “When you reward bad behavior, you get more bad behavior.”
Hello Palo Alto friends, a well-meaning group of out of town protestors joined East Palo Alto's City Hall meeting tonight, which caused all of EPA's very limited police resources to be diverted to City Hall. During this time, other calls for assistance went unanswered. I'm not saying the protestors were from Palo Alto - just that if any Palo Altans are considering protesting in EPA, please reconsider, as you are hurting the community. If you do feel like helping East Palo Alto, please consider protesting at the Palo Alto airport which disproportionately harms East Palo Alto. Thank you so much.
Thanks a lot for consuming more city resources for your virtue signaling agenda. You guys suck.