Voters Rejecting Measures to Raise Taxes for Schools : Elections: The seven revenue measures are falling short of the two-thirds vote needed for approval.

Voters appeared to be rejecting attempts by seven Los Angeles County school districts to raise property taxes to provide more money for local schools.

Returns as of late Tuesday showed that six of the tax measures had failed to achieve the two-thirds vote required for approval. Incomplete returns also showed the seventh measure losing.

Voters in Claremont, Culver City, El Segundo, La Canada Flintridge, South Pasadena and the Las Virgenes unified school districts were asked to approve parcel tax increases ranging from $97 to $250 a year. Newhall voters decided a school bond issue that would also be repaid by higher property taxes.

Based on unofficial complete returns, the measures in Claremont, Culver City, Newhall, La Canada Flintridge, South Pasadena and Las Virgenes were defeated. Incomplete returns showed the El Segundo tax measure also falling short.

“We’re going to have to continue the cutbacks that we have in the schools and the children are going to suffer,” complained Culver City Supt. Curtis Rethmeyer, as the district’s $98 per parcel parcel tax went down to defeat.

“Everyone talks about trying to improve education but they are not willing to put their money behind it, “ he said.

Burbank voters, meanwhile, rejected a residential and business tax that would have financed a $43-million police and fire headquarters. With all the city’s precincts reporting, Measure D, which needed a majority vote to pass, drew only 37.5%.

Mayor Michael Hastings said he was “hurt and disappointed” by the measure’s defeat, but not altogether surprised. “People are being very conscientious when it comes to the pocketbook and they’re scared,” he said.

All residences would have paid a monthly charge of $3.58, and commercial establishments would have been taxed $2.02 per month for each full-time employee.

The votes on the measures were among more than 100 elections throughout the county Tuesday. More than 50 school districts were electing board members, while a dozen cities were selecting city council members. Seats on a handful of community college boards and water districts also were at stake.

In other issues on local ballots, early returns showed Hermosa Beach voters favoring a proposal to develop a beachfront property.

Walnut residents, meanwhile, passed a measure banning fireworks.

In the Centinela Valley Union High School District, early returns showed voters supporting two school board incumbents, despite charges they had created racial dissent among teachers and students.

Local school officials and community groups had turned to voters in hopes of winning back education funding cut by the state.

All of the school measures had been carefully crafted, specifying programs that would benefit from higher taxes. The Las Virgenes district, for example, sought to mollify potentially skeptical voters by assuring that none of the money would go to increase the salaries of teachers or administrators. The money would be reserved for adding elective classes and reducing class sizes.

“This is the only option we have,” said Donald Zimring, the assistant superintendent in a district that includes Calabasas, Agoura Hills and surrounding communities. “With the state’s financial crisis, I told the school board that it’s about time we took back local control.”

In Walnut, community leaders cited the failure of the state government to act in putting the fireworks ban on the ballot, saying the Legislature was unlikely to pass a statewide ban.

As returns showed the measure enjoying a solid lead, City Councilman William Choctaw said, “We are extremely pleased that the citizens of Walnut have chosen safety over money and profits.”

Choctaw, who led the anti-fireworks campaign, added, “If the State Legislature had been able to do its job, we wouldn’t have to do this in the city.”

Choctaw is a physician and burn specialist who said he has seen the damage fireworks can do.

But the Walnut measure presented voters with a dilemma: If they outlawed pyrotechnics in the San Gabriel Valley community, would they be seriously harming the service clubs that raise much of their money through fireworks sales.

“I think things have gone too far,” said Gerald Heffern, president of the Walnut Lion’s Club. “Next year they’ll probably try to ban Christmas trees--they cause more fire damage than fireworks.”

The Hermosa Beach property whose development fate voters were deciding is the former site of the Biltmore Hotel. Residents have been at a loss about what to do with the property for a quarter century--with 10 previous ballot measures failing to draw a consensus.

This time, two measures let the beach community decide whether to turn the property into a park or sell the land to a developer so the city can buy open space elsewhere.

Times staff writers Aaron Curtiss, Tina Griego, Bernice Hirabayashi, Tracey Kaplan, Kim Kowsky, Ronald Taylor, and Michael Utley contributed to this story.