New Haven Unified School District

UNION CITY (Tuesday, June 23, 2009) – An overwhelming majority of New Haven Unified School District voters say the District is doing an excellent or good job, but scientific polling also shows that voters are unlikely to approve a parcel tax that the District needs to avoid further budget cuts.

 

The Center for Community Opinion polled 402 District voters, scientifically selected to represent those likely to vote in a parcel tax election. Asked to grade the quality of New Haven’s work, they responded as follows: A (excellent) 20.1 percent; B (good) 47.0 percent; C (satisfactory) 17.9 percent; D (poor) 3.7 percent; F (failing) 1.0 percent; Don’t Know 10.2 percent.

 

The results compare very favorably to national numbers, according to pollster Dr. J. Bradford Senden, president of The Center for Community Opinion and a veteran of school elections throughout the country. Nationally, he said, only 12 percent of respondents give their schools an A and only 34 percent give their schools a B, while 11 percent give a D and 5 percent give an F. 

 

An overwhelming majority of New Haven voters also say they are aware or very aware of the significant budget cuts that the District has made because of the State of California’s ongoing financial crisis: Very Aware 25.1 percent; Aware 43.8 percent; Somewhat Unaware 15.9 percent; Totally Unaware 14.9 percent; Refused to Answer 0.2 percent.

  

But asked whether they would favor or oppose a parcel tax to help the District avoid $9 million in additional cuts, a proposal that would need a two-thirds majority to pass, less than half said they would approve: Favor 43.5 percent; Oppose 52.2 percent; Undecided 16.0 percent; Refused to Answer 0.2 percent.

 

“Voters like the District and they’re aware of the problem, but they’re still saying ‘no’ to a parcel tax,” Dr. Senden said. “I can only interpret that to be a sign of the times and the voters’ overall distaste for increased taxes, especially after they rejected the Governor’s ballot initiatives in May. It also may tell us that they haven’t really seen or felt the impact of the cuts.”

 

When callers asked voters whether they would be favor a parcel tax knowing that the District might otherwise be forced to lay off teachers and increase class sizes, support increased slightly: Favor 54.0 percent; Oppose 42.0 percent; Undecided 3.5 percent; Refused to Answer 0.5 percent.

 

From there, though, support fell slightly when callers asked voters if they would favor a proposal that set the annual tax at $125 per parcel: Favor 51.7 percent; Oppose 45.0 percent; Undecided 3.2 percent.

 

“Obviously, we’re taking these results seriously as we consider whether to ask voters to approve a parcel tax,” Superintendent Kari McVeigh said. “The news from Sacramento continues to be bad, and we’re going to have to make more cuts to our budget. We’ve pretty much managed to keep cuts away from the classroom so far, but I don’t know how much longer we can do that without a change in Sacramento or another source of revenue.”

 

The scientific poll, conducted by telephone between May 28 and June 8, has a margin of error of plus/minus 4.5 percent.

 

In addition to commissioning the scientific poll, the District used e-mail and automated telephone calls to invite parents and other members of the New Haven community, as well as historically likely voters, to take an online survey that included most of the questions from the telephone poll. Paper surveys also were made available at all District schools and the Educational Services Center, the Union City Library, the Ruggieri Senior Center and at local businesses.

 

The response rate was impressive, as 998 people took either the online survey or the paper survey. The results were similar to the scientific poll, but many more respondents were “undecided,” and it was evident from contact information voluntarily submitted by a large numbers of respondents that the online survey reached a greater percentage of people who are pre-disposed to the District’s needs and a lower percentage of likely voters. 

 

On the question of awareness of the cuts that the District has made: Very Aware 42.0 percent; Aware 36.8 percent; Somewhat Unaware 17.8 percent; Totally Unaware 3.4 percent.

 

Asked to grade the quality of New Haven’s work, survey respondents voted as follows: A (excellent) 12.8 percent; B (good) 41.6 percent; C (satisfactory) 26.0 percent; D (poor) 9.0 percent; F (failing) 3.1 percent; Don’t Know 7.5 percent.

 

 On the question of whether they would favor or oppose a parcel tax: Favor 42.2 percent; Oppose 31.5 percent; Undecided 26.3 percent.

 

On the question of whether they would be favor a parcel tax knowing that the District might otherwise be forced to lay off teachers and increase class sizes: Favor 57.2 percent; Oppose 27.5 percent; Undecided 15.4 percent.

 

On the question of whether they would favor a proposal that set the annual tax at $125 per parcel: Favor 51.6 percent; Oppose 27.8 percent; Undecided 20.6 percent.