PLEASANTON — Talk of a parcel tax for schools was resurrected by concerned parents Tuesday, even as Pleasanton school district trustees voted to reduce summer school offerings due to budget cuts.

The school board wasnearly through presentations by search firms hoping to help the district find a new superintendent, when trustee took a break to allow a group of 50-60 parents speak about the need for stable funding. They asked the board to schedule a discussion of a parcel tax at its next meeting.

Patti Ingram, a mother with three kids in the Pleasanton school system, spoke for the group. She told the board that an alternate source of income is needed to help maintain district quality for its current and future students.

"I stand before you to discuss an issue that is very important to us," Ingram said.

"... We know we need to increase revenue from a reliable source. We don't want any more cuts."

The item was not on the agenda so the board could not discuss it. Instead, Superintendent John Casey said the board would try get the item on the agenda for the n Dec. 16 meeting, or for the first meeting in January.

Later in the meeting, the board voted 5-0 to reduce summer school and offer just academic support and remedial classes. There is a possibility to add enrichment classes, like Dual Immersion, but students would have to pay for those classes and there would have to be enough interest makea class pay for itself,

The district chose not to cut summer school last year because the decision came too late in the year. It operated with normal offerings but each parent was asked to contribute $55 per student.

Some Pleasanton residents pushed for a parcel tax last year but Measure G, a $233-per parcel tax on the June 2009 ballot, won only 61.7 percent of the vote — short of the two-thirds approval required for passage. Before placing that measure on the ballot, the board spent months discussing its budget situation in which it cut $11.2 million dollars.

Without the parcel tax, one of the biggest cuts the district has made was to increase class size from 20-to-1 to 25-to-1 for kindergarten through third grade and freshman English and math.

In September, the board announced that the district was already facing a $3.6 million shortfall in the 2010-11 budget. Pleasanton's budget for this year is roughly $128 million.

The board opted to delay selecting one of the three search firms until a special meeting at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at the district offices.

Robert Jordan covers Pleasanton and Dublin, reach him at 925-847-2184.