Good afternoon RVSD community, 
 
As many of you already know, the district’s financial situation and staff compensation have been important topics of conversation over the past few years. Before accepting the superintendency, I understood that this would likely be the most significant challenges we’d face this school year. During these first sixty days I have scoured the budget, reviewed last year’s Board meetings, spoken with other Superintendents, compared the salary of our staff to that of other districts, collaborated with our Union partners, heard from our Board of Trustees, surveyed families about the primary challenges across the district, and asked our principal’s where we may be able to make spending adjustment. From that learning, I have a few important takeaways about our budget that can be seen in this video and summarized below:   
 
RVSD has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. 

• What’s clear to me is that in RVSD, we do more with less. Our schools provide excellent support for students, engaging enrichment programs, a strong community, and have dedicated employees. We’re able to do all of this without staffing levels other districts enjoy. We run a razor thin budget and are seeing increased outcomes for students (more on that when state test scores are released!). Our budget just doesn’t have many areas to cut without significant impacts.

The funding formula for the state of California is inequitable 

• Although we are compared to other districts in the area, school funding can differ vastly from district to district. Some districts in Marin have an additional $21,000,000 dollars in excess property tax above the state funding level, while others receive extra funding to serve multilingual learners, foster youth, and low-income students. What this means for RVSD is that we often receive just the state minimum to serve our students. This disparity in revenue makes it difficult to compare ourselves with districts around the County.  

Our Board has been aggressive with salary increases as compared to similar districts. 

• Over the past three years, teachers have received salary increases totaling 14.49%. Comparable districts have given raises between 12.5% and 15.5%. We know this isn’t enough, but it shows that we’re doing what we can within our given budget constraints.

We need your help to solve this complex problem 

• Because revenue is tied to attendance and enrollment, we need your help! Send your children to school if they’re not sick and tell your neighbors with little kids about the great things happening in our district! Later in the year, we’ll also be studying the viability of a supplemental parcel tax that could be used for increasing educator salaries. We will share information on this topic when it has been developed.

Everyone wants to pay our teachers more! 

• To a person, everyone I’ve spoken to believes that our teachers and staff are the most important people in our organization. To have the best staff, we need to offer the most competitive salary and benefits package possible. 

If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about the budget don’t hesitate to sign up for our Town Hall meeting on 10/22 by following this link or reach out directly to me. 
 
We look forward to collaborating with you to solve this complex problem. Our collective goal is to maintain the excellent academic programming we have here in RVSD, giving students the support and challenge they deserve while finding ways to attract and retain excellent teachers for our students. 
 
If you found this information helpful or informative (including the linked video), please share it with those in your network. 
 
In partnership, 
 
Tyler Graff
Superintendent, Ross Valley School District  
tgraff@rossvalleyschools.org