Beverly Hills Unified School District

With Beverly Hills' financially strapped school district the focus of widespread attention, it seems fitting that Vicki Reynolds will take the mayoral reins this week. Reynolds, 55, who has served as vice mayor the past year, has championed educational causes during her nearly 25 years of public service. And she is one of the strongest advocates of a measure on the June 4 ballot for a parcel tax to finance the schools.

Is it "Three strikes and you're out?" Or "The third time's the charm?" Beverly Hills schools supporters are hoping that it's the latter as they try for a third time to obtain voter approval of a tax that would benefit the schools. Last June, a parcel tax proposal fell just four votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority needed for approval. Parcels of land in the city would have been assessed $250 to $750 a year, depending on their size and use.

The Beverly Hills school board is hoping that the third time will be the charm to pass a parcel tax to help the city's financially strapped schools. At Tuesday night's public hearing, board members were told that preliminary results of a community survey it commissioned showed that the public would, in fact, support a parcel tax. Based on those findings, the Yes on Schools Committee urged that the measure be placed on the June ballot.

The City Council on Tuesday approved an amendment to the Joint Powers Agreement with the city's school district that will give the district a one-time payment of $4.9 million. Under the agreement, the council had been giving the Beverly Hills Unified School District the money in four quarterly payments. The amendment allows the city to make a single payment rather than spread it over an entire year.

The Beverly Hills Board of Education has named Sol Levine, a key figure during the 13-day teachers' strike last year, to succeed Robert French as superintendent of the Beverly Hills Unified School District. Levine, a longtime principal of Beverly Hills High School, has been doing the district's top job since June, when he was named acting superintendent after French's unexpected retirement.

A tax to benefit Beverly Hills schools fell four votes shy of passage, according to results of a recount announced Wednesday. The parcel tax measure in the June 5 election collected 6,862 votes, or 66.63%, elections officials said. Votes against the proposal numbered 3,436, or 33.36%. The levy needed approval by two-thirds of the voters--or 6,866--to pass. Supporters of the tax requested the recount, done by hand, after a computer tally last month showed the measure fell five votes shy.

The Beverly Hills City Council adopted a budget Tuesday that leaves the city with a cushion of barely half a million dollars between income and what it expects to spend. The 5-0 vote came after the City Council, pressed by a cash-poor school district and the demands of operating its newly expanded Civic Center, debated every line on the budget in a series of unprecedented working sessions that were aired over cable television.

Beverly Hills school district and teachers union officials are clinging to the hope that a recount of the school tax vote will give them the six votes they need to claim victory. But with semiofficial results showing that the measure failed, they geared up for the worst and began implementing staff and program cuts.

A tax that proponents said would prevent Beverly Hills schools from slipping into mediocrity fell six votes short of passage, election officials said Monday. Semiofficial results show that the parcel tax measure on the June 5 ballot collected 6,814 yes votes, or 66.6%, said Marcia Ventura, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder's office. Votes against the proposed tax numbered 3,416, or 33.39%. The levy needed approval by two-thirds of the voters--or 6,820--to take effect.

Voters on Tuesday will be tested in the Beverly Hills Unified School District--on civics and social responsibility, according to one view, or on economics, according to an opposing view. On the ballot is Proposition B, a proposal for a parcel tax that would raise about $4.5 million a year for the school district. For the next five years, residential and commercial plots of land in the city would be assessed between $250 to $750 annually depending on their size and use.