As a result, on July 27 the board of trustees fully approved a special election on Nov. 2 for a districtwide parcel tax. Cindy McArthur, communications manager for the district, said the proposed tax, which will need a two-thirds approval by voters to pass, would levy a $98 tax per year on each of the approximately 56,300 property parcels in the district.

With exemptions for seniors on fixed incomes, this should raise a little less than $5 million for the district, McArthur said. If passed, the tax will remain in effect for six years.

In March, district Superintendent Dr. Steve Rowley said that Fremont Union wouldn't be ready to place a parcel tax on the ballot until March 2005. But rising student enrollment coupled with fewer funds coming in from property taxes, especially from businesses, convinced the district that the time was now.

"They decided that they couldn't afford to wait," McArthur said. District teachers and staff members had already been informed that salaries would be rolled back for the upcoming school year to avoid affecting programs, which were already hurt by $3 million in cuts taken in the 2002­03 school year.

But there were other outside forces determining the fate of this parcel tax as well. In early July, plans to put a countywide parcel tax on the November ballot fell through, making it more likely that voter support for educational tax dollars wouldn't be stretched too thin. And the two districts that feed into Fremont Union—Cupertino Union and Sunnyvale—have placed their own parcel-tax or school-bond measures on the ballot.

Fremont Union will support the two districts with their campaigns.

McArthur said the respective boards and superintendents have already begun discussing the logistics. In fact, Fremont Union piggybacked several parcel-tax questions on the survey that Cupertino Union performed in its own district, and the results were "pretty positive," McArthur said.

"We know that our community is very supportive of its schools," she added.

The district will need to harness that support to get the campaign off the ground. Employees are prohibited from participating in a campaign on school time, and district funds cannot be used, so PTAs and an already formed community group are working to galvanize parents and students. "For the last campaign in 1998, the students were phenomenal with trying to get the word out," McArthur said.

If the parcel tax passes, the money will be used to "keep from making additional cuts," McArthur said, especially in the areas of keeping qualified teachers (administrator salaries are not included), maintaining academics and continuing programs that help students get into college.

During the last round of budget cuts in the 2002­03 school year, programs like the advanced placement statistics class were cut. If students were interested in that class, they had to take it at De Anza College. McArthur said programs like these help students maintain the competitive edge that attracts families to area schools, which increases area property value.

Only time will tell whether those families are willing to pay a little more.