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East Bay School Districts Brace For More Cuts After Parcel Tax Defeats

(KCBS) - The defeat of several parcel tax measures has forced educators in Pleasanton, Rodeo and Union City to weigh how many more programs can be reduced or eliminated, and just how big class sizes will become.

"We just cut our last librarian. We cut our last grounds keeper," said Superintendent Mike McLaughlin of the John Swett Unified School District in Rodeo.

KCBS' Anna Duckworth Reports:

Dr. McLaughlin said districts won't know how much money Sacramento will take away until Gov. Jerry Brown presents his revised budget to the legislature May 16.

McLaughlin had been counting on Measure A to bring in nearly $1 million a year to save the music program and some athletics programs.

In Pleasanton, classes from kindergarten through third grade will now seat 30 instead of 25, said Superintendent Mila Grasso.

The Pleasanton Unified School District may have to give up full-time reading specialists and other programs for at-risk children without $2 million from Measure E, she said.

"The parcel tax would have been that stable source we could have counted on for four years as opposed to this sort of roller coaster ride that we are on with the state funding," Grasso said.

Victory seemed within reach in Union City until the New Haven Unified School District measure lost by less than a hundred votes. It needed a two-thirds majority to pass and got only 65.7 percent once all the mail-in ballots were tallied.

The only East Bay parcel tax measure approved was in Lafayette.

Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties overwhelmingly approved parcel taxes in the mail-in special election this week.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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