Students take action for parcel tax measure

A campaign is under way to support a parcel tax in the district.

Imagine a school where budget cuts have begun to limit students’ learning, where students outnumber teachers 40 to 1 in typical classes, where textbooks and resources are lacking quality and electives such as band, orchestra and drama are no longer offered or greatly reduced.

In an effort to limit the impact of budget cuts, juniors Mac Hyde, Anshu Siripurapu and Varsha Ramesh have become student liaisons to an organization called the Saratoga Measure A Committee, which seeks to pass a parcel tax in May to keep Saratoga and Los Gatos High School operating at a high level. The tax needs a two-thirds majority from district residents to pass.

Requiring residents under the age of 65 to pay $49 a parcel annually for six years, the parcel would provide $800,000 in revenue for the district per year, according to Siripurapu. Siripurapu joined the committee when he was offered the position of student liaison by Sharma.

“I was moved to join the committee because I feel it is necessary as students that we help support our school and make sure that SHS retains its top quality education,” Siripurapu said.
“Both I and the committee strongly support the parcel tax measure because it is necessary to secure much needed funds for our district.”

The Measure A Committee is a primarily parent-driven organization, headed by co-chairs and parents Shinku Sharma and Cathie Thermond. The organization’s goal is to preserve the district’s quality of education.

“[The student liaisons’] energy and enthusiasm is encouraging,” said Sharma. “Like any volunteer for the campaign, they may help get the word out about Measure A by phone banking or precinct walking.”

Phone banking is the task of calling members of the community in order to advocate for Measure A. Precinct walking is going door-to-door in order to accomplish the same goal, according to Siripurapu.

In addition to these jobs, student liaisons also gather additional student volunteers for the phone banking and raise student awareness, according to Ramesh.

“Right now we have about 20 [volunteers],” Ramesh said. “It’s just people from the leadership class, but we want as many as possible. The committee offers community service hours for it, and I think it’s really great to be part of a campaign.”

Volunteers began communicating with voters mid-March, with students meeting once a week for phone banking and precinct walking.

“It’s basically our other role to publicize about Measure A,” Ramesh said, “because most people around here don’t really know anything about it, and it directly influences them.”

The committee believes that most voters will support the parcel tax once they learn about the reasons for it, according to Ramesh. Furthermore, informing voters about the tax is the most unrestricted part of the committee’s campaigning.

“It’s really tricky with our roles because of all of the school rules,” said Ramesh. “It’s a campaign, technically, so we can’t always necessarily advocate for it, but sharing information is always completely OK, so that’s our main goal right now.”

The dedicated student liaisons hope to see the parcel tax pass in order to keep Saratoga High’s academic standards from falling.

“Our students are caring and passionate about many causes around town and country,” said Sharma. “They have expressed an interest in getting involved in a campaign to help their school. Their voices are important.”