It’s official. Acalanes Union High School District trustees voted unanimously on Aug. 5 to return to voters Nov. 3 with a proposed $168-per-parcel annual tax.
If approved by the required two-thirds majority, the eight-year educational parcel tax would be used to prevent further staffing and program cuts and reduce the district’s reliance on reserves.
The proposed levy would bring AUHSD’s annual parcel-tax total to $469 per taxable parcel: the new $168 tax plus the district’s existing $301 in parcel taxes that include $189 from Measure G, approved in 2009, and $112 from Measure A, approved in 2014.
The district’s existing senior exemption applies to Measures G and A. The ballot language for the proposed measure also provides exemptions for eligible seniors and qualifying residents with disabilities.
The board’s decision follows the May 2025 defeat of Measure T, a proposed $130 annual parcel tax. Measure T received 19,448 yes votes and 11,115 no votes – 63.63% support – but fell short of the two-thirds threshold required for approval.
The proposed measure also comes after significant district reductions. Recent cuts include a reduction in academic counseling staff and a shift from four high-school librarians to a single district librarian, along with reductions in teaching, administrative, technology-support, professional-development and enrichment-program staffing.
Unlike Measures G and A, which do not expire, the proposed tax would end after eight years. Board members said the limited term reflected feedback received during the district’s community outreach effort.
In presenting the resolution, Superintendent John Nickerson said AUHSD receives “the lowest allocation from the state of all high school districts in the state of California” because of the structure of the Local Control Funding Formula.
The district, he added, depends heavily on the state’s base funding amount, which he called “grossly inadequate.”
The figures help illustrate the district’s argument that the purchasing power of the current parcel taxes has declined substantially.
The Bay Area Consumer Price Index rose from an annual average of 252.3 in 2014 to 356.6 in 2025, the latest full-year figure posted by the Association of Bay Area Governments – a 41.3% increase. On that basis, $301 in 2025 had purchasing power equivalent to about $213 in 2014 dollars.
AUHSD’s labor-heavy budget is especially sensitive to inflation because salaries and benefits account for more than 80% of district costs. Rising local housing, transportation, food, health-care and child-care costs can also complicate the recruitment and retention of teachers and other staff.
Why does the board believe this higher tax could pass only 18 months after Measure T failed?
Nickerson said the district mounted a more structured “listening campaign” this time, using volunteer phone banking, community communications, a field poll conducted by True North Research, four town halls, and written and online feedback.
More than 1,000 people submitted feedback through the latter channels, according to Nickerson. The outreach was intended to assess whether voters might support a new measure and to identify their priorities.
Results of the True North poll were presented at a July 15 special board meeting. The survey tested support for a $168 annual tax described as funding the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers, manageable class sizes, and advanced programs in science, technology, engineering, math and the arts.
According to the district’s presentation, support remained at or above 70% even after voters heard negative arguments against the measure – above the two-thirds threshold required for passage.
But the polling also identified potential vulnerabilities, including concerns about inflation and tax fatigue following other local tax measures.
At the Aug. 5 meeting, trustee Paul Chopra said the board’s outreach showed that residents continue to value the district’s schools, but he acknowledged the uncertainty of another campaign.
“There’s no guarantee,” Chopra said. “At the end of the day, we’ll just have to work as hard as we can to get more and more messages out to the community and make sure they understand why it is ‘do or die’ for us at this point in time.”
Acalanes district will once again ask voters to approve parcel tax
