Voters in the Freehold Regional High School District have given their approval to raise a general fund local tax levy of $110.9 million to support a $174.6 million budget for the 2008-09 school year. The annual school election was held on April 15.
Voters also elected two newcomers to the FRHSD Board of Education and returned one incumbent to his seat.
According to the Monmouth County 2008 School Election Internet Web site, the unofficial results (to be certified this week) indicate that Thomas Caiazza (923 votes) defeated incumbentMichaelWright (915 votes) to win the Freehold Township representative’s seat on the board.
Caiazza was humbled by his victory, saying, “The first thing I want to do is thank Michael Wright for his service. We appreciate it. I also want to thank the voters for putting their trust in me to deliver quality education to their children. I take that trust seriously and I will do my best to help maintain the education offered by the FRHSD as one of the best places in New Jersey. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to serve.”
For the Marlboro seat on the board, voters elected newcomer Katie Goon (1,549 votes) and did not return Bonnie Sue Rosenwald (1,464 votes) to the seat she held for six years.
Telephone calls to Goon seeking comment about the outcome of the election were not returned. Rosenwald declined to comment on the results.
For the Colts Neck seat on the board, Christopher Placitella ran unopposed and received 2,622 votes to win re-election for another three-year term.
“I am very pleased that the citizens of Colts Neck continue to show confidence in me. However, we have a lot more work to do to move education in the FRHSD forward.”
The $110.9 million general fund local tax levy to support the budget for the 2008-09 school year was approved with a total count of 8,006 yes votes to 6,847 no votes. Those vote totals come from the Monmouth County 2008 School Election Internet Web site.
Greater Media Newspapers called the municipal clerk’s office in all eight FRHSD sending municipalities to obtain budget results from each town.
The totals by town as reported by the municipal clerk’s offices produced a different total than what was posted on the county’s Web site.
The results of the budget vote according to the information provided by the municipal clerks show 8,233 yes votes to 6,991 no votes as follows:
• Colts Neck, 658 yes to 653 no. • Englishtown, 81 no to 33 yes. • Farmingdale, 110 yes to 48 no.
• Freehold Borough, 223 no to 209 yes.
• Freehold Township, 1,298 yes to 1,211 no.
• Howell, 3,274 yes to 2,578 no. • Manalapan, 1,093 yes to 901 no.
• Marlboro, 1,558 yes to 1,296 no.
By municipality the new FRHSD tax rates will be:
• Colts Neck: increase of 1.9 cents from 81.2 to 83.1 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $400,000 will pay about $3,324 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, up from $3,248 in 2007-08.
• Englishtown: increase of 1.4 cents from 25.3 to 26.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $330,000 will pay about $881 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, up from $835 in 2007-08 (2007-08 rate converted to revaluation basis for comparative purposes).
• Farmingdale: decrease of 4 cents from 37.2 to 33.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay about $664 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, down from $744 in 2007-08.
• Freehold Borough: increase of 0.6 cents from 36.8 to 37.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $259,000 will pay about $968 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, up from $953 in 2007-08.
• Freehold Township: increase of 0.6 cents from 70 to 70.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $250,000 will pay about $1,765 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, up from $1,750 in 2007-08.
• Howell: increase of 1.8 cents from 35.3 to 37.1 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $355,000 will pay about $1,317 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, up from $1,253 in 2007-08.
•Manalapan: decrease of 0.4 cents from 36.3 to 35.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $430,000 will pay about $1,543 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, down from $1,560 in 2007-08.
• Marlboro: decrease of 0.8 cents from 85.1 to 84.3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $224,000 will pay about $1,888 in FRHSD school taxes in 2008-09, down from $1,906 in 2007-08.
FRHSD school taxes are one portion of a homeowner’s overall property tax bill. The tax bill also includes municipal taxes, K-8 school taxes,Monmouth County taxes and several other assessments.