Measure N passes, in a squeaker

PACIFICA

A near-heartbreaker for the Pacifica School District turned to cautious happiness Monday as school officials realized that the final ballot tally had given them a victory on Measure N in spite of signs last week that it would fail.

The five-year parcel tax, which will cost homeowners $96 per year, reached the precise two-thirds vote threshold of 66.7 percent it needed to pass in a final semi-official tally released June 12, but some school officials still did not allow themselves to believe it was true on Monday.

On election night, the measure had looked set to squeeze by with 67 percent support, but the number dipped to 65.9 percent in subsequent tallies.

The June 3 election results are still being audited and will need to be certified, said County Elections Manager David Tom. These are standard procedures that will not alter the final vote count his office completed on June 12.

"It's the final release because we're finished counting ballots," he said.

The seesawing results were due to the large number of provisional and other ballots that remained to be counted after election day - between 26,000 and 27,000 ballots that were mostly mailed in, Tom said.

The fact that Measure N passed with the precise margin it needed, a tenth of a percentage point, may have been unprecedented in San Mateo County, Tom said.

"As far as my election knowledge is concerned, it's unusual that a measure got exactly the number of votes it needed to pass," he said.

The outcome slowly sank in for Principal James Rogers of Ortega Elementary School, although he still could not allow himself to believe it when reached for comment Monday.

"I'm taking deeper breaths at the moment with this news," Rogers said. "If it holds, what a wonderful outcome for the people who worked so hard to pass (the measure)."

It's an especially good outcome for the school district, which will now have enough cash on hand to avoid making $1.1 million in cuts to teaching positions and after-school programs if the state slashes the public education budget this summer as much as is feared.

The ballot measure asked for money to "maintain high quality education, preserve small class sizes, attract and retain qualified teachers, protect vital academic programs and maintain classroom and school facilities."

At Ortega Elementary, that means being able to keep on a "science consultant" who helps fourth- and fifth-graders prepare for state-administered standardized tests each year.

It also means the school will be able to buy its own school supplies next year. With a 10 percent budget cut, Rogers said, that would have not been possible.

"We had talked about asking our community to be the funders of basic supplies like copy paper, crayons, scissors, glues, binders, notebooks ... all the things we usually supply. We have a letter to go out and I may need to go modify that letter," he said, happily.

School District Superintendent Jim Lianides said the last vote tally was encouraging, but he would wait for the results to be certified before popping the champagne.

"Our concern, and the fact that we're not jumping up and down quite yet, is we've gone through a roller coaster ride," Lianides said. "There's not one vote margin here. We're a little nervous about all of that."