That said, plenty of cities have chipped in money to school districts to make up shortfalls – and money spent on exorbitant city salaries and pensions isn’t available to help schools.

Just as importantly the schools that San Ramon kids go to are full, there’s no money for new schools, and the city and Dougherty Valley include 4600 units that are already approved but not yet built–which will make the problem worse and increase the calls for new school bonds for new schools, paid for by residents.

Yet these same city staff want to approve more development with Measure W – by breaking the voter-approved urban growth boundary in the Tassajara Valley and the west side hills, and with redevelopment at North Camino Ramon – another 5500+ housing units, much of it high density, on top of the 4600 already approved. That’ll just make things worse.

On November 2, please vote NO on Measure W.

Couple that with the ridulous “fees” we had to pay (roughly $760) – everything from a $90 “sports” fee to a “technology” fee, an “art” fee. I thought this was a PUBLIC school?

Perhaps if they didn’t pay the city manager of San Ramon 3 times the median salary of the citizens who’s taxes pay his wages – they would have the money to pay the teachers.

This is an abuse of the public trust & the city manager needs to step down, or be forced to resign.

Public servants are supposed to be just that – PUBLIC SERVANTS. They are NOT supposed to live a more privileged lifestyle than the citizens who pay their salaries!!

Out of curiosity, I checked the city manager salary for my boyhood home of Goodland, Kansas, a farm town of less than 5,000 people, 150 miles from nowhere, where the median income is less than $30k. I was surprised that it was above $75k. When you consider the difference in cost of living (median house price there is about $80k) and the comparison in population and job complexity, perhaps the city manager salaries in CA are not that out of line.