No ordinary election

School district, candidates brace amid local snub, rising tax rates.

By: Dick Brinster
   Ordinarily, it might not take school board member James Hauck very long to figure out the fate of the school budget.
   But this is no ordinary year in the East Windsor Regional District, where voters resoundingly defeated the school spending measure in 2005. This time, parents will be asked by their children to go to the polls, and interest also might be piqued by the public feud between the head of the local teachers union and longtime board member Bruce Ettman.
   At stake is a $79.2 million budget with a local tax levy of $52.8 million. If approved by voters, the spending measure would hike school taxes by $307 in East Windsor for the average home assessed at $130,000, and by $179 in Hightstown on an average assessment of $120,000.
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Students at all six schools
to play own roles at polls




   They’ll select a mural for Hightstown High School and decide between a fun hoop and a basketball goal at Grace Norton Rogers Elementary School.

   School elections simply aren’t what they once were, especially with children accompanying their parents to the polls.

   Much of the responsibility for that can be laid at the feet of high school teacher Scott Kercher. His Choosing to Participate program is the centerpiece of the Mission Democracy effort.

   Children in each of the East Windsor Regional School District’s six schools will vote on an issue Tuesday night at a polling place adjacent to where their parents will choose three people for the Board of Education and decide the fate of a $79.2 million budget.

   Mr. Kercher’s charges will determine which of three murals will grace a 12-by-14-foot spot on the wall at the new entrance to the high school. The process began with eight student submissions painted in miniature. A committee reduced the nominations to three. Then, campaigning began in September.

   "We have had debates between the candidates, we’ve had candy give-aways," Mr. Kercher said. "The whole idea of our Mission Democracy was to have students vote on something that they had an interest in, something that we could do."

   Board of Education member Bonnie Fayer said she was impressed after seeing a recent presentation of the Mission Democracy plan to younger children.

   "They were great mentors to the young kids, who loved the idea," Ms. Fayer explained, praising the work of Mr. Kercher’s CTP students.

   The children at Melvin H. Kreps Middle School will vote on a name for their cougar mascot, and at Ethel McKnight Elementary it will be a graphic to display the mustang mascot.

   Walter C. Black Elementary students will choose a school flag, and at Perry L. Drew Elementary it’ll be a favorite book and author.

   Ms. Fayer, speaking at the April 3 school board meeting, touched on what she called a major positive of the Mission Democracy program.

   "The idea hopefully will bring all the parents out to vote," she said. "What these children will have to do is vote for their issue at their parents’ polling place. "So, whether you’re going to vote yes or no on the budget, this will force you to go out and vote."

   She’ll get no argument from Radek Myslowski, a fourth-grader at Rogers who’s excited over the prospect of casting his first ballot.

   "I think Mission Democracy is a good idea because it’s good for the students to choose instead of the adults because the things that the adults choose can be boring," he said.

   Jeffrey Weingast, also from Sonya Hunt’s fourth-grade class, welcomes freedom of choice.

   "I think Mission Democracy is pretty cool because the kids get a say to what piece of equipment that they would get because a teacher can say, ‘OK, we are going to get monkey bars.’"

   As to the question of a basketball goal versus a fun hoop (a receptacle similar to a basketball hoop but with various exits): Purely unofficial polling based on responses of the children showed the basketball goal leading by about three to one last week.

   Can the fun hoop close the margin? That won’t be known until the kids vote from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday.

   "It’s going to be hard to read," Mr. Hauck said when asked about Tuesday’s election. "You can do exit polls and you can schmooze with people. But all you can really do is hope they feel like they’re getting a better bang for their bucks and will have a little more consideration than in the past."
   Mr. Hauck, Mr. Ettman, board newcomer Kennedy Paul and first-time candidate Harjit Bajaj are in a four-way fight for three, three-year terms on the board.
   Mr. Hauck has closely monitored the effect of voter turnout for the last four years, but he’s not so sure what to make of this year’s factors.
   One of the added dimensions is Mission Democracy, a program in which students at the district’s six schools get to vote on issues of their own while parents are casting their ballots in an adjacent room.
   "I’m hoping more people will come out to vote as a result of it," Mr. Hauck said. "The percentage of eligible voters who actually vote should be higher."
   He’s been following the numbers closely since 2002, and last year a big turnout led to defeat of the tax levy supporting a $66.6 million budget. He said voter approval of school budgets fell from 61.5 percent in 2002 to 53.9 percent in 2004 as turnout declined from 1,361 to 1,119 over the corresponding period.
   But last year 1,642 went to the polls, he said, and the budget was thrashed 61 to 39 percent.
   "That was a concerted effort by a group of people that had a problem," Mr. Hauck said. "They came out for the sole purpose of defeating the budget."
   Mr. Hauck is hopeful that the dispute involving Mr. Ettman will not affect voting for the budget. Mr. Ettman, upset that he was not endorsed by the East Windsor Education Association, has blamed teachers association chief Jan Amenhauser.
   "I would not think it would have any effect on the budget," said Mr. Ettman, who contends hatred of him by Ms. Amenhauser is the reason he was not endorsed for a fourth term on the board.
   At the board meeting on April 3, Mr. Ettman, the board president from 2003-05, accused Ms. Amenhauser of "lying and cheating" in the process to hire a new superintendent three years ago. He believes his record on the board and what he calls strong support of teachers should have been enough to win an endorsement.
   "I’m just hopeful that people will realize that integrity and candor are important," Mr. Ettman later said of his complaints against Ms. Amenhauser. "If anything, it should motivate people to watch what’s happening and make sure the district is being taken care of in a fair and honorable manner."
   The EWEA endorsed Mr. Hauck, seeking his second three-year-term, and Mr. Paul, appointed to the board in February.
   Ms. Amenhauser has denied her differences with Mr. Ettman led to the snub, and never addressed his accusations.
   "The candidates who were endorsed seem to share the same educational philosophy as the East Windsor Education Association," she said.
   Also failing to win endorsement was Mr. Bajaj, who has proposed a salary cap while making improvements in infrastructure the keystone of his candidacy.
   "It’s one of the frustrations the public has," he said at a recent candidates forum. "We still need teachers, but we need equipment."
   Mr. Paul was delighted to get the nod from the teachers, noting that he grew up in a home where both parents were educators. But he blames the woes of school board on the method in which budgets are funded.
   "With property taxes and unfunded mandates, this is a state issue," Mr. Paul said. "This is not an issue the school board has much power to change."
   Polls will be open from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Hightstown High School, 25 Leshin Lane; and at four sites in East Windsor: the Kreps middle school, 5 Kent Lane; the McKnight elementary school, 58 Twin Rivers Drive South; and the Drew elementary school, 70 Twin Rivers Drive North, and the auditorium of the Meadow Lakes retirement community, 300 Meadow Lakes.