Budget proposal voted down.
By: Purvi Desai
MILLSTONE Voters rejected Tuesday night the district’s proposed $28.8 million budget by a vote of 552-348 but re-elected two incumbents and added a newcomer to the Board of Education.
There were three seats up for election on the school board. Incumbents Tom Foley and Laura Dreifus retained their seats for another three years, while the third incumbent, Paul Kinsey, lost to Sergio Galindo. Mr. Foley, Ms. Dreifus and Mr. Galindo received 459, 402 and 401 votes, respectively. Mr. Kinsey received 338 votes.
The remaining challengers, Janice Weiss and Deborah Novellino, took 323 and 309 votes, respectively. Ms. Novellino ran in last year’s school elections but lost to Holly Deitz and Peter Kudrik. Each seat carries a term of three years.
Mr. Foley and Ms. Dreifus are residents of Compton Court. Mr. Galindo lives on Sugarloaf Hill.
Millstone School Superintendent William Setaro said Tuesday he would be meeting with his budget staff this week to prepare a packet of materials that they will present to the Township Committee, which will review the defeated budget for possible cuts.
"They can leave the budget the way it is, they can cut the budget or they can add to it," Mr. Setaro said. "It is not likely that they’ll tell us to add."
He said the board’s option is to accept their recommendations, cut it in other areas or appeal to the commissioner.
"This was the one of the leanest budgets that we put together," Mr. Setaro said. "This is one of lowest tax increases in the county. It was only a 6-cent increase. Many places were asking for double-digit increases."
"Everyone knew this was going to be a tight year," he said. "I knew this was going to be tough. We really put together one of the tightest budgets we ever put together."
Kathy Winecoff, school board president, said she knows Mr. Setaro and his team "have some hard decisions to make."
"They’re going to have to come to the board with some recommendations about how best to proceed from here," she said. "We’ll sit down as a board to look at it. Once the board reviews it, the administration will review it."
Ms. Winecoff said she is looking forward to working with the newly elected board members.
"I’ve worked with Mr. Foley for the last nine years. Ms. Dreifus has just finished six years, I think. I don’t know Mr. Galindo. We look forward to working with each other from here on."
She added that the budget’s defeat is "kind of disappointing because the increase this year was not as much as in past."
"We’ll make do with what we can," she said.
Ms. Dreifus said Tuesday she is very happy that the voters have confidence in her.
"I look forward to serving the school district again," she said. "I look forward to working with the board to meet the goals we set (and) see the middle school completed."
She said the board worked hard on developing the budget and will now need to go back and evaluate where to go next and to redevelop a budget that can be accepted by the public.
The proposed school budget for 2006-07 in Millstone Township reflected a 8.5 percent increase over last year.
A house assessed at the township average of $401,000 would have paid $7,300 in taxes an increase of $249 from last year if the budget had been approved by voters.

