LITTLE SILVER – The Red Bank Regional High School District 2007-08 budget was approved by voters April 17, despite a low voter turnout.
District Business Administrator Steve Terhune said he was “a little disappointed in the low voter turnout, the lowest in a decade-and-a-half. ”
Terhune was relieved, however, that voters did approve the proposed tax levy of about $17.3 million, a 4 percent increase from last year’s levy of $16.7 million.
The budget was approved by a vote of 577 to 472.
With a pool of about 13,500 people eligible to vote, from the sending districts of Red Bank, Shrewsbury Borough and Little Silver, the turnout rate for Red Bank Regional was 7 percent, 1,001 voting on the board candidates and 48 who voted only on the budget .
Terhune said that school officials are in the process of “trying to figure out how to figure out what the reason was” for the low turnout.
“Was it the weather [the tail end of a nor’easter], or a lack of information, or something else?” he asked.
Re-elected to the RBR Board of Education for three-year terms were Leslie Taylor, Emily Doherty and Ronald Horton, receiving 257, 275 and 262 votes, respectively. Another incumbent, Frank Neary, received 207 votes to complete the last year of an unexpired term.
– Sarah Klepner