Like most California schools, Antioch's Bidwell Elementary School and Orinda's Glorietta Elementary are feeling the financial crunch and facing the reality that there will not be state funding for physical education, libraries, music and other programs.

Bidwell, frankly, needs a miracle. The Antioch Unified School District is floundering under a crushing $7 million deficit, and the school board reluctantly voted 4-1 on March 10 to close Bidwell to save $460,000. Some parents were so angry that they resorted to personal attacks on board members.

Meanwhile, Glorietta parents gathered Saturday at the Claremont Resort & Spa for their annual fund-raising auction. Among the items up for bid was an hour of flag football with 49ers reserve quarterback and Glorietta grad Ken Dorsey. The room was packed, the bidding spirited, the checkbooks open. Marina Wright, a Glorietta parent who helped organize the event, was thrilled with the take -- about $195,000.

Welcome to the new world of school financing.

With state money dwindling, parents in some of the Bay Area's most affluent communities are increasingly taking over the moneymaking role. These aren't bake sales for a new flagpole. They are well-oiled fund-raising machines that raise staggering amounts of money.

Tom Terrell, who has spearheaded parent donation programs at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, said that, when a parent group raised $120,000 a few years ago, folks figured that was about the limit. But Terrell's group recently sold parents on the need to keep classes like advanced placement English and wood shop when administrators planned to cut 15 classes.

"We're at $380,000 now,'' Terrell said of the fund-raising drive, which aims to raise $400,000.

That's a fraction of what's raised by some of the heavy hitters. The Piedmont Schools Annual Giving Campaign has raised $1.19 million. The Palo Alto Foundation for Education awarded $425,000 to the city schools during the 2002-03 school year, and Palo Alto's All Schools Fund will donate $1.17 million in 2004-05.

"It's a different public school system than when we were kids,'' said Shelia Hopkins, president of the Miramonte Boosters Club in Orinda.

California school districts have two main sources of funding: local property taxes and money from Sacramento. The more revenue a district receives from property taxes, the less revenue it receives from the state.

Often, this means districts in affluent communities such as Orinda receive less state money than those in urban areas. The West Contra Costa Unified School District, which voted earlier this month to eliminate high school sports, libraries and other programs to close a $16.5 million deficit, receives $4,691 per student. Orinda receives $4,399, the lowest of any district in the Bay Area.

Almost every school district is in financial trouble. But some affluent school districts, such as Acalanes Union High School District, which includes Orinda and has a $1.5 million deficit this year, have been able to draw upon generous private sources to fund programs that otherwise might have been cut.

Without an influx of donations, elective programs like art, physical education and advanced placement classes would have to be canceled, said Chris Learned, assistant superintendent of the Acalanes Union High School District, which includes Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette and Walnut Creek.

In the East Bay, Orinda and Piedmont are the models.

The Educational Foundation of Orinda, a nonprofit, tax exempt organization, was founded in 1978 to step in "where government funding leaves off.'' This year the program will give $374,500 to Miramonte High and $710,000 to the four elementary schools and one middle school in the district.

But that is only part of it. EFO President Alison Holland said each elementary and middle school is raising another $150,000 to $200,000 apiece.

At least three major parents' groups work on individual projects at the high school. Hopkins, the boosters club president, said her group raised $100, 000 last year to upgrade equipment, pay a full-time team trainer and help fund a new $70,000 weight room. There's also the Miramonte Parent Club, which lists its income this year at $147,000, and the Visual and Performing Arts Club, which contributed some $35,000. There is certainly no arguing with the results. Miramonte was named "State School of the Year'' by the high school sports publication "CalHi Sports.'' It earns the highest academic marks on the statewide Academic Performance Index. And 98 percent of Miramonte graduates go to college.

But there is a nagging sense that the system has created "have" and "have not'' schools. "In essence,'' said Dawn Block, the vice-chair of the Pleasant Hill Education Commission, "they are creating a private school situation.''

Debra Lee, Director of Curriculum for the Antioch Unified School District, can only envy the well-funded districts. There are some fund-raising programs in Antioch, like the "Adopt a classroom,'' in which people can donate $150 to help teachers buy supplies, or the annual golf tournament that raised $60,000 for all 22 schools in the district.

But Bidwell Elementary needed $460,000 to stay open. That could be raised with a couple of major fund raisers in a community like Orinda, where the average annual household income is $185,246, but it is an impossible amount to raise in Antioch, where the average is $70,700.

"We never see that kind of money,'' Lee said.

Dick Nicoll, assistant superintendent of the Mt. Diablo School District, said the self-financing trend could "raise the same kind of legal questions as the Serrano-Priest ruling.''

In that case, John Serrano, who lived in the Southern California community of Baldwin Hills, sued State Treasurer Ivy Baker Hill in 1971, claiming that his son Anthony was not getting an education comparable to students in Beverly Hills because of an unequal distribution of property taxes. The State Supreme Court agreed and ruled that, with few exceptions, state school funding for all schools must be relatively equal. Critics say that rather than improving poor schools, Serrano-Priest pushed everyone toward mediocrity. Taxpayers began to feel there wasn't any point in voting to raise taxes to support local schools since the money was dumped into a general fund for all schools.

Such thinking was the genesis of the parental fund-raising phenomenon. As Las Lomas' Terrell said, "If I said I wanted to collect money for Sacramento, people would say no.'' But if he can tell them that their check goes to one school and one program, it makes more sense.

Cliff Swisher is a prime example. A custom concrete contractor in Walnut Creek, Swisher's son Brendon is a Las Lomas football standout. When the district failed to pass a bond measure to upgrade the field and a member of the girls' soccer team stepped in a hole and broke her leg, Swisher had seen enough.

"I went ahead and put new sod in,'' Swisher said. "Cost me $48,000 to do it. And then this year I put another $10,000 in for sod for hash mark to hash mark.'' Swisher's contribution was appreciated by the booster club, which raised enough money to pay him back $24,000. But as far as he was concerned, it was worth it for Brandon either way.

"It paid off for me,'' he said. "He got a pretty good ride (football scholarship) to Princeton.''

But costs and donations are rising every year, and some wonder how long parents can be expected to carry the weight. There also are concerns that the fund-raising groups are setting themselves up as a de facto school administration influencing policy.

"What you are saying,'' said Dawn Block, who also serves as education committee chairman on the board of directors of the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce, "is that all these contributions come with a price, bordering on governance.''

For example, one father reportedly offered to fund a high school lacrosse team with one stipulation: He wanted to pick the coach.

Oakland attorney Chris Kuhner graduated from Miramonte in 1986 and spoke up for former Miramonte basketball coach Tom Blackwood when he was ousted by a parents' group in June of last year after 38 years and a 636-337 record.

"People sort of put up with it in sports,'' said Kuhner, who played for Blackwood. "They say, 'Oh that's just sports.' But teachers? 'Wait a minute, you didn't give my kid an A? You see these textbooks? Where do you think they came from?' It erodes the authority.''

Still, the trend shows no sign of slowing. When interviewed, parent after parent used the same phrase: We don't have any choice.

"I don't begrudge them,'' said Block, an active parent at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill. "They could easily put their kids in a private school. Instead they have chosen to stay and enrich the public schools.''