Students enrolled in the Lorena Independent School District trudged back to class last week, but some of their parents have been studying all summer long, embracing new lessons and throwing away at least one old rule book. Come Thursday, we’ll see if they get a passing grade.

That’s when they make a second stab at passing a tax hike for the school system. Proponents see it as vital in preventing the closing of a Lorena campus and the cutting of school programs. In the last two years, the district has eliminated school staffing positions, including teaching positions.

Lorena ISD already has one of the lowest tax rates in our area — and, not coincidentally, some of the lowest-paid teachers.

But while those parents and community leaders behind the tax ratification election — the fancy name given these things now — lost at the polls 313-263 in November, they’ve changed their ways. Now they’re employing new strategies to get word out about the school system’s dire financial straits and the need for a graduated tax increase.

During the last election, critics accused the district of trying to slip by the tax hike. In defeat, supporters realized, in truth, few voters had been paying attention because of so many other fall activities.

“I had two town hall meetings that were very poorly attended,” Superintendent Sandra Talbert recalled. “In the fall, you can’t pick a night where there’s not an event. And in Lorena, we try to avoid Wednesday nights because we understand some people go to church. So either you’ve got that or a volleyball game or football game or something going on.”

Result: Folks didn’t really get engaged last time.

“We made an effort to get the word out, but that was it,” Talbert said. “It was not that we had anything to hide. It was kind of the philosophy that you put the information out there and you offer to answer their questions. But some of them thought we were trying to sneak this thing by.”

Not this time. When school supporters resolved to try again, they took a different course, including everything from old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning and fliers to e-mail blasts, blogs and websites. The movement has been energized by no less than a savvy political action committee and guidance from a consultant.

They also decided to hold early voting as the school year was gearing up rather than late in the fall. Just last Tuesday, they continued early voting into the evening hours at the Lorena High School Commons so families taking part in a back-to-school celebration centered on “Meet the Leopards Night” could, if they had sufficient school spirit, take a moment to vote, too.

Logic: What better time to catch voters than at the start of the school year, when optimism is high, rather than when classroom doldrums have set in and the football team has possibly been consigned to failure (though this sure wasn’t the case last year, when the Lorena Leopards played well enough to reach the quarterfinals).

Same for Election Day, which oddly is not on a Saturday or even the first Tuesday of the month but this Thursday, right before Labor Day weekend, scheduled around the freshman and junior varsity home games that afternoon and evening.

Smart. Who’s not fired up for the local football teams?

Granted, conventional wisdom suggests that, unlike full-ballot elections drawing lots of voters, single-issue elections attract mostly discontented folks set on voting something down, not up. But Talbert is betting that’s not true, not this time around.

She’s betting that, through a well-orchestrated campaign about the very issue itself, parents with a stake in their kids’ future will also have the impetus to get out and vote. We’ll see Thursday evening when the votes are finally counted and school officials learn whether they’ve truly rallied this spunky community to their side.

Of course, Lorena ISD supporter Paul Romer cites other methods that might clinch the vote, as well.

When Romer was talking with a local TV reporter about the matter, the reporter thought about the approaching election a moment, then offered this advice: “Just tell them you’re going to cut the football coaching staff. It’ll pass right away.”