Voters to decide on school budget Tuesday; polls open from 2-9 p.m.
BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — In addition to deciding the fate of the 2004-05 school budget, the incumbents running unopposed for the school board want the community to think about the district’s future.
Polls will be open on Tuesday from 2-9 p.m.
The $24,012,339 school budget is supported by a local tax levy of $22,310,465, on which voters will be asked to decide. If voters approve the levy, the tax rate will increase to $2.33 per $100 of assessed property value.
On the average home in the borough, which is assessed at $184,100, school taxes would increase $213 per year to $4,287, if voters approve the hike.
Devra Golbe, William McDuffie Jr. and Laura Kahn are all running unopposed to reclaim their seats for additional three-year terms.
All three cite the high school’s dire need of renovations, which will be the subject of a December referendum, as a priority.
McDuffie, a retired borough police officer who currently works as a security operations manager for NJ Transit, is the chairman for facilities and physical plant and the liaison for the Youth Service Board.
McDuffie said he considered not seeking another term, but decided to stay on primarily to remain involved with the high school projects.
"The high school is very important to me because I graduated from that school," he said. "I saw it in its early stages as a beautiful new facility."
McDuffie described the high school’s need for new science and physics labs and renovation of all its bathrooms as "imperative."
McDuffie also cited improvements to the district’s athletic fields, which will be part of the referendum, as being important not just to the students, but to all borough residents.
"We also need to do some things at Campbell School," he said, where the first grade is expanding so rapidly it’s "bursting out of its seams."
Kahn, a retired attorney, has been a Metuchen resident since 1987 and a board member since 1997.
She is the curriculum chairwoman and the personnel liaison for the Metuchen High School Parent Teacher Organization and the Parent Advisory Council.
Kahn stated as a primary goal her intention to "continue development of the K-12 curriculum improvements to meet and exceed New Jersey core-curricular standards, so that students are prepared for 21st century workplace and college opportunities."
She also pledged her support for the efforts to upgrade and renovate Metuchen High School and the district’s athletic fields.
Kahn said she intends to "continue the superintendent’s effort to strengthen the district’s personnel and business practices and policies."
Golbe, a professor of economics at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, is the chairwoman for finance, and is the negotiations liaison for the Metuchen Education Foundation.
"My goals for a second term are to address what I view as the most important issues for the district," she said.
Among them, "I would like to see us continue to strengthen curriculum, and to raise the academic bar for students at all levels of achievement," she said.
Golbe is also focused on the district’s financial situation. "I am also concerned that we use taxpayers’ funds as efficiently as possible in the face of rising costs," she said.
Golbe said she is eager to move forward on improvements to the high school.
"I think it’s an opportune time to complete the work begun in the last referendum by renovating the high school," she said.