Napa Valley Unified School District is going ahead with a poll to find out how amenable district residents would be to a new school parcel tax.

Unlike most school bond measures, in which the amount of a tax is dependent on the value of the home, a parcel tax is a flat fee.

Implementing the tax requires approval from two-thirds of voters in the district, which includes Yountville, Napa and American Canyon.

The telephone poll comes with a $16,250 price tag for the school district. The contract with Goodwin Simon Strategic Research — which has offices on the east coast, in the Bay Area and in Southern California — includes an option to do an American Canyon survey for an additional $1,500.

The district received seven contract proposals, according to Superintendent John Glaser.

Pollsters will make between 1,000 and 2,000 calls, coming up with complete data from 400 Napa registered voters planning on voting in the June election.

Forty additional qualified responses from American Canyon could be added to the poll sample.

The 15-minute survey calls will go out before Dec. 21, the beginning of the school district’s winter break.

School officials have not detailed what programs would receive parcel tax funds, should such a tax go to a ballot and be approved by voters.

Nearby school districts have successfully passed parcel taxes of about $150 per property in recent elections, district board Vice President Robb Felder said at a school board meeting Thursday. Parcel taxes tailored to districts’ needs are generally “more palatable” to voters, he said.

Poll results will determine whether the district goes ahead with putting a parcel tax on the ballot. The poll will also yield information about how much voters might be willing to tax themselves and for how long.

The district must decide by January or February whether to go ahead with a parcel tax if it is going to be placed on the June ballot, he said.

Trustee Jackie Dickson said that while the district doesn’t have an exact dollar figure in mind, it should analyze the poll results carefully to gain a “set expectation” from the public regarding the minimum amount they might be willing to tax themselves.

The district also needs to gain a sense of what dollar figure it needs for the tax effort to be worthwhile, as well as what figure is most likely to gain the two-thirds approval necessary.

The district has plans to use school board and public input to generate about 30 percent of the polling questions, while leaving the rest to the polling company, Glaser said.