Unfinished business: school election Tuesday

Voters will decide whether to approve the proposed $16 million school budget and will fill four seats on the Board of Education.

By: John Patten
   Manville voters will finally have a chance to go to the polls to vote on the proposed $16 million school budget and fill four seats on the Board of Education on Tuesday.
   The rescheduled voting was ordered by state Superior Court Judge Ann Barrett, sitting in Somerville, on April 18 because of flooding caused by the nor’easter that struck the state.
   Polls will be open from 2 to 9 p.m. at Alexander Batcho Intermediate School at 100 N. 13th Ave., Weston School at 600 Newark Ave., and Emmanuel Baptist Church at 34 S. Third. Ave.
   If the budget passes, the school portion of local property tax bills will increase from an average of $3,222 for a property assessed at $150,000, the borough average, to $3,408. The tax rate would change from $2.148 per $100 of assessed property value to $2.272.
   The local tax levy is budgeted at $12,073,755, a 5.76 percent increase over last year.
   "We’re at the bare bones here," Jim Brunn, principal of ABIS, said during the school board’s March 27 meeting. "It took us 10 years to get here and I would hate to regress."
   At that meeting, school officials stressed Manville’s low cost per pupil. Superintendent of Schools Donald Burkhardt said Manville spends $10,772 per pupil while Bound Brook spends $11,115 per student, North Plainfield spends $11,941 and Somerville spends $13,039.
   Also on the ballot are three, three-year seats and one, one-year seat to serve on the Board of Education. Current board members Gary Cortelyou, Ken Lessing and Louis Petzinger Jr. are facing challengers Stephanie Cornelson and Amy Stapleton.
   Former board member Mike Impellizeri is the only candidate for the one-year seat.
   The last time local school elections were postponed was in 1982 after a snowstorm hit North Jersey and then-Gov. Tom Kean delayed school elections for two weeks.