Incumbents voted back in office; taxation shift approved
By: Nick Norlen
Residents of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District decided Tuesday they liked current school board members and the proposed school budget, but not the current system of school taxation.
District voters re-elected West Windsor incumbents Hemant Marathe and Robert Johnson, the current board president and vice president, respectively, as well as Plainsboro’s Ellen Walsh.
Along with approving the 2007-2008 school budget, residents in each township overwhelmingly approved the switch to a per-pupil system of taxation from one based on equalized valuation.
The change will take effect during the 2009-2010 school year.
In West Windsor, Mr. Marathe was the frontrunner with 967 votes, followed by Mr. Johnson with 736, Michael Donnelly with 407, Jay Bryant with 318 and Brett Boal with 310.
Ms. Walsh, who ran unopposed, garnered 522 votes in Plainsboro.
Now that he has been re-elected, Mr. Marathe said Wednesday, his top priority will be to "choose the next superintendent and to make sure that we build on the successful program that we have in the district."
Mr. Johnson said he sees his re-election as a sign that voters are satisfied with the direction of the current board.
As far as the upcoming year, Mr. Johnson said he is hoping for a "smooth transition to the new superintendent," but noted that the district will face a challenge in "sorting through all of the bills that the legislature has been passing and that the governor has signed."
Ms. Walsh was unavailable for comment in the days following the election.
District voters also approved a budget totaling $147,155,853 albeit by a margin of only 267 votes. The total vote approving the budget was 1,282 to 1,015. West Windsor voters backed the budget 859-764 and Plainsboro 423-251.
Assistant Superintendent for Finance Larry Shanok said the voters’ approval was encouraging.
"We feel we’ve gone through a lot of care in both communicating with the townships as well as to the public through the board meetings," he said.
But both Mr. Marathe and Mr. Johnson said they were disappointed with what they said was the lowest voter turnout in years.
"I think the small margin of passage has something to do with lower turnout," Mr. Marathe said. "People are probably satisfied and happy and that’s probably why they didn’t come out to vote."
Mr. Johnson agreed, but downplayed the small margin of approval.
"It wasn’t an enormous margin, but we didn’t squeak by with a few votes," he said. "Would you like a bigger margin? Sure. But I’ll take the approval of it."
As a result of the budget approval, West Windsor residents will see their tax rate increase from $1.14 to $1.20 per $100 of assessed valuation, while Plainsboro residents will see their rate drop from $1.45 to $1.44.
That ratio of tax levies roughly 60 percent to 40 percent could change with the switch to a per-pupil taxation system, which passed more easily in both townships by a vote of 1,251 to 365 in West Windsor and 519-146 in Plainsboro.
Mr. Shanok said he believes it simply made sense to people, not to mention the fact that it had support from officials in both townships before the board even voted to put the question on the ballot.
"I think everyone expected it to pass," he said.

