Measure L, the $98-per-parcel tax placed on the ballot by the Fremont Union High School District, was at press time hovering at 66.93 percent approval, with 42,319 votes for it and 20,910 against. That figure is just above the two-thirds majority needed to pass a parcel tax.

According to district communications manager Cindy McArthur, the district is on hold in case the remaining absentee and provisional ballots push their approval rating back. "We are not declaring that it passed," she said. "They still have a third of our votes to count." Also waiting for further word from the county is the Cupertino Union School District, whose similar parcel-tax measure is currently at a 66.02 percent approval rate.

Residents in the Fremont Union district have also largely affirmed the placement of two incumbents on their board of trustees. Unofficial results show that Nancy A. Newton and Homer Tong both won re-election--Newton with 42.68 percent of the vote, and Tong with 32 percent of the vote. Challenger Michael Anthony Flores received 22,093 votes for 25.13 percent of the ballots cast. But counters still don't have the final tally.

Newton and Tong have been with the board for 17 and 12 years respectively. They will begin their new four-year terms in December.

The two bond measures on the ballot in Sunnyvale passed with wide margins. In the Sunnyvale School District, Measure P, the $120 million school bond, passed with 15,029 in favor, or 72.85 percent of the vote. Measure J in the Santa Clara Unified School District, which put a $315 million bond on the ballot, passed with 24,621 approving, or 71.88 percent of the vote. Both bonds only needed a 55 percent approval rate to pass.

The bonds have been earmarked for facility upgrades, while the parcel taxes are intended for more program-based improvements. Sunnyvale school board member Linda Kilian explains that because of that, bonds are an easier sell. "There's no ambiguity," she says.