With the state budget crisis looming, a few South Bay school districts are asking property owners for more tax dollars to keep campuses open, raise teacher salaries and preserve everything from libraries to music programs.

District officials are optimistic that this round of parcel tax measures -- unlike the four defeated at the polls last June and another in November -- will capture the two-thirds affirmative vote needed to pass.

Union School District, Mountain View-Whisman and Ravenswood have placed measures on the March 2 ballot asking voters to support new parcel taxes, while Portola Valley Elementary is seeking approval to increase its existing parcel tax by 50 percent.

District leaders and parents say the taxes would provide a reliable stream of local funding to avert deep cuts threatened by the budget crisis in Sacramento.

``We cannot depend on state funding, so this is taking control of something that we can take control of,'' said Phil Quon, superintendent of the Union School District in San Jose, which hopes to raise roughly $2.4 million a year for four years with a $195-per-parcel tax. The district will be forced to close two of its eight elementary schools if the tax does not pass, hiking average enrollment at its remaining campuses to 500 from 350.

Mountain View-Whisman, which hopes to raise up to $1.6 million a year for five years, may have to close a school if its tax measure fails.

This is Mountain View-Whisman's second run at a parcel tax; the district was one of four that failed to pass a similar measure last June. The first time around, Mountain View-Whisman faced opposition from property owners because of the unusual structure of its proposed tax, which would have tied the size of the tax assessments to a property's square footage.

Flat fee

The measure that will be on the March ballot is more palatable to the business community. It assesses a flat fee based on the size of a parcel and caps assessments at $600.

The districts with parcel tax measures on the ballot span the economic spectrum. East Palo Alto's Ravenswood, which is recovering from financial problems that nearly led to a state takeover, hopes to raise up to $550,000 a year for five years with a $98-per-parcel tax to increase teacher salaries to competitive levels.

Superintendent Floyd Gonella said Ravenswood has had high turnover rates and many teachers with emergency credentials in recent years because its teacher salaries are among the lowest in San Mateo County. The district hired nearly 40 new teachers with credentials last year. Higher salaries, Gonella said, are critical to retaining them.

Meanwhile, Portola Valley Elementary is seeking to renew and increase its parcel tax by $95 to $290 per parcel. That would generate $670,000 a year to pay teacher salaries, hold down class sizes and preserve core programs in math, science, reading and writing.

Officials optimistic

San Jose's Cambrian School District and Loma Prieta Joint Union, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, both have measures on the March ballot asking voters to allow them to continue spending funds raised by parcel taxes already in place. These measures require majority approval.

Carl Guardino, chief executive of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, believes the current parcel tax measures have better odds than those that failed in June because the economy is improving.

``Hopefully the stars are aligned this time,'' said Guardino, who is co-chair of a task force researching a countywide school funding measure.

Not everyone is as optimistic. Franklin-McKinley, located in a working-class part of San Jose, has not yet opted to try for another parcel tax after its measure failed last summer. The district has cut everything from librarians to vice principals and raised third-grade class sizes since then, but Superintendent Larry Aceves believes it is too soon to go back to the polls.

``The tech economy is starting to pick up, but a lot of blue-collar jobs have not come back yet,'' he said.

If anything, additional taxes could slow the economic recovery, said George Swenson, president of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, which opposes the measures.

Aceves added that the parcel taxes could also face a tough sell since the state is likewise asking voters for more money on the March ballot. ``I didn't want to have us competing with all those other funding measures,'' he said.

Still, Mountain View-Whisman Trustee Rose Marie Fillicetti hopes voters will recognize that parcel taxes affect their local communities the most. If its tax passes, Mountain View-Whisman will use the money to hold down class sizes, keep libraries open, pay counselors and preserve art and music programs.

The district has had to cut back in these areas following the defeat at the polls in June. Although a massive fundraising drive by the Mountain View Educational Foundation helped reinstate many programs, Superintendent Jim Negri noted that it is not enough to fully restore them.

Plus, he added, ``You can't count on donations.''

It's the same story in the Union School District. Leanne Johnson sees a parcel tax as the only way to preserve Union's small neighborhood schools and the sense of community that they create.

``Small neighborhood schools are a wonderful thing,'' said Johnson, who has a 3-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son who will be starting kindergarten at Alta Vista School in the fall. ``We don't want to give them up so quickly. . . . So a parcel tax is the only way out right now.''