Alameda schools Superintendent Kirsten Vital broke down Tuesday night as she spoke to volunteers for the Measure A school parcel tax campaign. But unlike the night nine months ago when the school district’s last parcel tax try narrowly failed, these were tears of joy.

Voters approved the tax Tuesday night, with 68.43 percent of the 18,818 voters who cast ballots registering “yes” votes, according to unofficial results. Roughly 45 percent of Alameda’s 41,609 registered voters turned out for the special election.

“I just thought about so many bad things that could happen for our children. And we just can’t have that,” Vital told a crowd of ebullient campaign volunteers who spilled down the steps of Tucker’s Ice Cream during a post-campaign event Tuesday night.

The school district will capture an estimated $12 million a year for each of the seven years the tax is in effect. Without it, Vital and other school leaders said they would be forced to close schools, raise class sizes and slash programs.

Opponents of the tax said it unfairly gives bigger property owners a tax break while pushing their tax burden off on homeowners and small business owners, and they questioned whether the cuts school district officials said would come without the tax would be made. On Tuesday night, they said the tax will delay needed reforms.