ELECTIONS EL SEGUNDO SCHOOL DISTRICT : Officials Take to the Streets to Win a Property Tax Hike

When William Manahan and Nancy Wernick are not talking dollars and cents, they are thinking about the magic number--66.67%.

Manahan is superintendent of the El Segundo School District. Wernick is board president. And 66.67 is the percentage of the vote they need to win Proposition K, the school property tax measure on the April 14 ballot.

This is the second time in five months that Manahan, Wernick and other district officials have taken to the streets, ringing doorbells and talking to civic groups in an effort to cajole reluctant voters into supporting a temporary $120-a-year hike in property taxes to support local schools.

Last November, the district was one of seven in Los Angeles County to put tax measures on the ballot. The measures were defeated in all seven.

“It costs taxpayers $26,000 a year to keep someone in prison,” said Manahan, reeling off figures he uses to argue his point that schools are a good investment. “It costs around $4,500 a year to educate a child in this district.”

Wernick, who has a child and a grandchild in the schools, said the education system is the “predictor and the protector of the future.” And the quality of schools, she said, is directly related to a city’s property values.

If adopted, the parcel tax will expire after three years and all property owners over 65 will be exempt from the tax. Still, school taxes are harder than ever to sell, something El Segundo officials already know.

In November, more than 59% of El Segundo voters supported the school tax measure, but in the post-Proposition 13 era a majority is no longer enough. The property tax limit passed by state voters in 1978 requires a two-thirds vote for any new taxes.

Critics of the proposed parcel tax argue that the district could sell two surplus school sites it owns and realize a handsome profit if it would only get the sites rezoned for single-family housing. In 1981 a townhouse developer wanted to buy one of vacant lots, at Imperial Boulevard and Sheldon Street, but area residents mounted a successful campaign to defeat the plan, saying they wanted only single-family homes.

Without the parcel tax, Manahan said, the district, which has 2,098 students, will have to cut about 10% of its work force over a three-year period.

Layoffs have already started. Four teachers were let go last year. Seven more were slated to be laid off, but the City Council stepped in, offering to lease some school district property for $400,000, which saved the teachers, at least for a while.

Budget shortages at the state level have cost the district dearly, Manahan said, adding that this year the district is down about $800,000 in state funds. That is a large sum, he said, for a district with an annual budget that hovers around $9 million.

The special parcel tax, if approved, will net the district an estimated $550,000 a year.