Nearby School Districts Switch to November Elections

As administrators and board members investigate whether to move school board elections to November or keep it in April, in districts elsewhere officials have made their decision.

Central Regional, Manchester and Barnegat school districts will move to a November election. Each board respectively voted to move to November, in votes held last week.

, officials said the idea was being discussed. Toms River Regional is consulting , said Superintendent Frank Roselli.

Central Regional Moves to November

members voted to move the school board elections to November. They vowed to keep a 2 percent cap on the tax levy so the budget will not go to voters in the district's five sending towns.

"We don't have to go to the towns," longtime board member said at the Jan. 19 board meeting. "That was so agonizing."

"It will give us a little more flexibility," board President Keith Buscio said. "In that respect, we gain a little more control that we had in the past."

Schools Superintendent said that the 2012-2013 budget will be tight. Parlapanides had already begun gearing up to get the budget passed in April.

"We didn't know if this bill was going to pass or not," he said. "We've already scheduled 42 meetings with the senior communities and PTAs."

Business Administrator Kevin O'Shea said he didn't anticipate the district would go over a 2 percent increase for the budget's tax levy.

Board member Robert J. Everett asked if school board members whose terms were previously up in April should abstain on voting.

"Congratulations," Parlapanides joked. "You've got an extra six months. No pay, though."

Keeping the tax levy increase within the two percent cap would avoid repeats of last year's battles when the budget went down by 106 votes.

That meant the governing bodies of all five sending towns - Berkeley, Ocean Gate, Island Heights, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park - had to hammer out a tax cut all five towns could live with.

Barnegat Moves to November Elections

The Barnegat school board added the resolution to its agenda mid-meeting Tuesday, said board president Lisa Becker, rather than wait until it convened again in February. 

“Moving (the election) to November will help with voter turnout,” said Becker, “and it saves money for the district,” since the cost of running a separate election can run from $14,000 to $20,000 she said.

There is a concern that the school elections could become more politically charged, Becker said, "but that’s a risk even if they stay where they are."

She also acknowledged that some residents may balk at the elimination of the budget referendum. But, she said, the new law had widespread support among lawmakers and districts all over the state, in part because Christie’s hard cap on tax levy increases is a recipe for reasonable budgets.

“We supported the governor imposing a cap,” she said, and a lot of districts will have a tough time staying under it. “When you consider that we have no control over health insurance premium costs, energy costs or the fixed costs for special education, it’s extremely hard for boards to meet it anyway,” she said. “(Christie) imposed the hard cap knowing that’s about the reality of what you do in controlling costs.”

Barnegat Mayor Al Cirulli agreed. He said that as an educator, he sees the value in the new measures. 

“Budgets go up because of things that are out of their control,” he said. And as an elected official, he said, he’s happy that the township will have less occasion to get involved in the school budget – which it must in years that voters overturn a school budget referendum.

“Nobody wants to mess around with school budgets,” he said. “You try to leave it in the hands of people that are professionals in that area.”

He, too, anticipated some frustration from voters. “But I think it’s going to make things a lot easier for everyone.”

Manchester Moves Elections to November

"In assessing the proposed law, at least in my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons," said Manchester Board of Education president Donald Webster.

Webster said that, although the board has "some reservations" with the law including how referendum votes will work and whether partisan politics could come into play, the changes should be beneficial. 

Webster said that in 1903 school board elections were legislated to be held in April to avoid the partisan politics associated with the general election. Manchester's municipal government has been nonpartisan since 1990.

Last year, as has happened in years past, the Manchester school district's $50 million budget. A weeks-long process involving meetings between the township council and board of education led to a . Under the new law, this can be avoided provided the budget does not exceed the 2 percent cap.

"This will be a big help for us," said Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway.

Webster read the resolution into the record since it was not originally included on the January 18 regular meeting agenda.

"The Manchester Township Board of Education has determined that the statutory restrictions on the local tax levy increase for annual school appropriations is appropriate and sufficient to control and maintain a thorough and efficient education for the children of Manchester township," the resolution states.

The resolution further says that the change "will save taxpayer dollars" and "attract a far greater number of voters than typically vote in November elections." 

In 2010, township Clerk Sabina Skibo said 14,976 Manchester residents voted in the November general election, compared to the 6,540 who voted in the April school election.