Tiny Marin County district clings to struggling school

[XemaSab]

Despite the state's economic recovery, a Marin County school district is struggling to make ends meet and is planning to cut teachers, administrators and special programs in the coming months.

While unusual, that wouldn't normally be noteworthy save for one not-so-minor detail: The Sausalito Marin City School District, thanks to a property tax loophole, has almost $30,000 a year to spend on each of the 150 students at its single school.

That's triple or quadruple the amount spent by most public schools and several thousand more than elite private schools. It's also just shy of the cost for a year of college at UC Berkeley, including room and board.

And it's still not enough to pay the bills - or lure the area's middle- and upper-class families to send their kids there.

http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Tiny-Marin-County-district-clings-to-struggling-5378122.php

[2banon]

1. An Affluent Community at that..

Cost of living, and property values always too high for working class, just because of location in relation to the City, and there's Sausalito / Mill Valley - schools in Marin County were much better than neighboring northern communities in the past.

My things have changed in a relatively short period of time.

[CreekDog]

2. Marin City isn't affluent

Marin County is affluent and the county's schools are excellent.

To understand the story, it's important to understand some geography, notably that there's a very poor community within very wealthy Marin County.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

3. Believe it or not, there are two poor parts of lower Marin

In addition to Marin City, there is the unincorporated Strawberry Point, between Mill Valley and Belvedere on Richardson Bay. There's a Southern Baptist seminary there that houses 600 families, and they're mostly poor. They just announced this week that they're selling the land (110 acres), and moving to a less expensive neighborhood. I suspect they also want to get away from liberal, tolerant Marin, as they've become more conservative and less tolerant over the years. How do I know all of this? I grew up there. My dad was in seminary, and we were poor, but we had a great view of the bay, the city, and Alcatraz.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. They're paying over $1,000 per pupil for a superintendent

Why do you need a highly-paid superintendent to superintend one school? Give the principal the powers of the superintendent, and eliminate that job ($165,000 plus benefits for a 3 day week - that's probably about 40% of their $500,000 deficit right there).