By Rajwa Quasim
A quite conference room meeting at the Ross Valley School District turned into an emotional moment for the teachers as a Marin County resident handed over $1 million to 100 public school teachers, each receiving a check worth $9,161.
Maja Kristin said she decided to donate after learning about what she called an unfair situation involving public school funding in Marin County. According to Kristin, it is ironic that despite the county being one of the wealthiest areas in the U.S., it faces challenges regarding teachers’ pay and funding.
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The teachers were called for a conference room meeting on Aug. 13 where Kristin addressed them and explained how community members could help and support these public teachers. The teachers were not told in advance why they were asked to attend. The school’s principal then distributed envelopes to the teachers which had bank checks, each worth $9,161. The unexpected gift brought up emotional reactions from the teachers, where an educator Sydney Dean described it as “life changing.”
“We as citizens we can write direct checks,” Kristin told assembled teachers. Kristin’s donation would bring short-term relief for teachers as Marin County is an area having high property value and an expensive housing market. Ann Schnell, a teacher, said that the money would allow her family to afford activities for her three children that otherwise might not been affordable to her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a beautiful gift from someone I don’t even know or haven’t taught their kid,” said teacher Amber Bunnell-Wild.
According to the district officials, Ross Valley ranks among the bottom 4% of California school districts in terms of per-pupil funding as it receives $11,771 compared with California average of $14,494. The gap in funding has also been linked to the California’s Proposition 13, which limits property tax by capping the tax rate at 1% of a property’s assessed value, and the county has many homeowners have lived in their properties for years. This means that long-term homeowners can have substantially lower assessed values than current market prices. Hence, district relies on locally approved revenue such as parcel tax to support public educational institutions.
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“The property values are really high in our in our district, but the property, the assessed value is really low because people move here and they stay here, and so Prop 13 has kept our tax base quite low compared to other Marin districts,” said Tyler Graff, Ross Valley School Superintendent.
Kristin hopes that her initiative would inspire many others to support public schools through direct donations or even through political actions that could bring development and funding.
“My hope was then folks like you would be here, and word would get out, and Marin residents who value public education would step forward one way or another, whether it’s a direct gift or a political act, or foundation pull or something,” Kristin said.