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By Jorge Casuso

February 6 – The School District won a vote of confidence Tuesday from Santa Monica and Malibu voters who easily approved a measure that renews two existing parcel taxes due to expire soon.

With all the precincts counted, Measure R won handidly with 22,309 votes (73 pecent) to 8,446 (27 percent). The measure -- which extends the existing $346-a-year parcel tax -- needed two-thirds of the vote to win.

Proponents of the measure argued that the combined local funding would help retain staff, attract highly qualified teachers and maintain reduced class size. Opponents countered that the measure was a veiled tax increase with no end in sight.

There was little organized opposition to the measure backed by the Campaign to Protect Quality Public Schools, which launched a web site and deployed an army of volunteers on Super Tuesday to make sure the vote got out.

“We had people from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” said Shari Davis, who helped lead the effort. “We had a very systematic way to recruit volunteers and get out the vote.”

The campaign used its volunteer army to check the names of those who had voted and follow up to make sure that supporters who hadn’t voted got to the polls.

Volunteers worked the phones for two separate shifts, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 5 p.m. until the polls closed at 8 p.m. The campaign also deployed poll checkers and volunteers to redirect voters to the correct polling places.

Volunteers also handed out "Remember to Vote" flyers to people in carpool lines at all district campuses before and after school.

The campaign focused some of it efforts on traditional polling places -- including St. Clement’s Church in Santa Monica -- which was not open for Tuesday’s primaries.

“We had to redirect voters,” Davis said. “People were showing up, and their names weren’t on the list. There was a little bit of confusion.”

The opposition -- which was centered in Malibu -- lacked the political muscle supporters flexed on Super Tuesday, although Measure R was opposed by both local papers.

The measure also was opposed by some Malibu education activists and failed to win much support from city leaders, after the School Board voted last year to reduce the amount of bond measure money for facilities improvements at Malibu High School from $27.5 million to $13.5 million.

In Santa Monica, the opposition was led by Matthew Millen, who wrote an opinion piece that ran in the local papers arguing that Measure R was a classic example of “doublethink,” the concept popularized by George Orwell’s 1984.

While supporters said Measure R would not impose new taxes or raise taxes, Millen countered that it would repeal two expiring taxes, replacing them with a tax that will be on property owners’ tax bills forever, adjusted for inflation.

Proponents -- who note that the measure includes an exemption for those 65 and older -- say an expiration date could jeopardize budgeting projections and cast doubt on whether the tax money would be available.