By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
MONROE — Monroe’s school budget saw overwhelming defeat in Tuesday’s elections.
In total, 2,075 voted in favor of the budget while 2,697 — mostly in senior voting districts — voted against it.
”These are very tough times — people are hurting,” said Amy Antelis, school board president. “People are just really fed up with the spending. You hear how bad the economy is and then you’re asking them to vote to raise their taxes.”
The Board of Education presented the public with a $100.427 million budget. If passed, the budget would have increased the tax rate by 3.8 cents to $2.06 per $100 of assessed valuation, up from the current year’s $2.03. Under that rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $168,100 would have paid $63.88 more than last year.
Only 16.6 percent of the 29,430 registered voters in Monroe cast ballots this year.
Aside from Monroe Village, all seven other senior communities in Monroe voted down the budget by staggering numbers.
According to the election results, age-restricted communities voting against the budget were: Greenbriar at Whittingham voted against the budget 480 to 204, Concordia 240 to 123, Encore 169 to 35, Rossmoor 269 to 167, Clearbrook 257 to 121, the Regency 269 to 90, and the Ponds, 118 to 52.
One Rossmoor resident, who preferred not to share how he voted, did shed some light on the numbers.
”As seniors we’re all concerned, because when we first moved here (the board) was very aware of holding the budget,” he said. “(The money’s) got to come from somewhere.”
One older senior resident, who would not give his name, said he voted against the budget because “Taxes are high enough,” and added, “We don’t have any children.”
Still, not every resident was opposed to the budget increase.
Robert Malkiewicz, 21, said that ever since the township passed a large referendum to build its new high school, it has been difficult for the district to gain support from the community.
”We just need to get more money for the school,” he said.
Some residents said they voted in favor of the budget to ensure the district was providing the best resources for its students.
”First of all, I’m a senior,” said Adele Collier. “But there was a time when I had kids in school. There’s nothing more important than education.”
Also on the ballot were four residents vying for three, three-year seats on the school board. Incumbents Marvin Braverman and John Leary and newcomer Mark Klien were elected to represent the district.
Mr. Klein received 2,988 votes, Mr. Leary 2,809 votes and Mr. Braverman 2,732 votes.
Unsuccessful in his campaign, the fourth candidate, Anthony Prezioso, received 1,997 votes.
Ms. Antelis said she understands why the budget failed. Now, she added, comes the really tough part as school officials must decide what further cuts can be made to the budget without affecting the quality of education.
”Once we knew that the budget went down we started looking at things,” she said. “We’re going to have to really look at everything. We don’t want to do anything that hurts programs or the kids. We might look at staffing, courtesy busing and items like that.”
Under state law, the budget will go to the Township Council for review. The council is allowed to make cuts to the tax levy, or approve the budget without change. If it decides on cuts, the council would provide a number and it would be up to the school board to figure out how the cuts would be made.
The school board plans to have an amended version of the budget presented to the council prior to the board’s next meeting, scheduled for May 6, Ms. Antelis said.
”We’re going to meet with the mayor and some council members and then they are going to give us a number for what (amount) has to be cut out of the budget,” Ms. Antelis said.

