Kudos to the voters of Albany, CA who came out and voted YES for two school bond initiatives to stave off the cuts from the Governator. Albany loves our schools!
The vote was over 75% yes for each of the bonds -- even though one was a $149/parcel/year emergency tax, and the other was a little confusing, consolidating several prior bonds and extended low income and senior exemptions.
Albany CA is a 1-square-mile town with 16K citizens, and known for our schools. We are one block from Berkeley, We have great parent volunteers in the classrooms. We support two school funds (one raises $250K/year to "grant" back programs to sites that would otherwise be cut, as selected by school site councils; the other funds field trips and teacher out-of-pocket expenses.
Voters came out to support Albany schools, even though one big landlord and two local curmudgeons posted appalling, personal attacks on school board members who worked their butts off to get the initiatives passed.
Nobody is surprised in Albany. We really love our teachers, our students, and our schools.