Herb Marinari, who served on the Plumsted School District Board of Education for 15 years before deciding not to run for re-election several years ago, appeared to have won a new three-year term on the board through a write-in vote in the April 20 election.
Marinari told the Tri-Town News last week that people who viewed the write-in votes that had been entered on the voting machines at Plumsted’s four polling places on April 20 told him he had received enough votes to win one of two available terms.
On the morning of April 27, Beth McGuckin, assistant supervisor at the Ocean County Board of Elections, said the school election votes had not yet been certified for Plumsted and likely would not be certified until next week.
There were three candidates on the Plumsted ballot in the race for two three-year terms: Garrett Midgett III, Lawrence Downs and Paul Milligan.
According to the unofficial results, Midgett received 850 votes and won a seat on the school board.
There were about 700 write-in votes cast in Plumsted and those are the votes Marinari said gave him the seat on the board.
The unofficial results showed that Milligan received 570 votes and Downs received 492 votes.
Marinari said he came close to filing a petition to run for a seat on the board this year — which would have placed his name on the Election Day ballot — but ultimately chose not to do so. However, after attending several school budget hearings and listening to members of the public express concern, Marinari said he decided to seek a return to the board via the write-in vote.
He said his decision to return to the board does not reflect any displeasure with the school board.
“The current board is a good board, but the majority of the members have less than three years of experience on the board. I just thought that I could help with my experience. We have a relatively young administration and a superintendent who has only been in place for two years. I have a close relationship with the Township Committee and I think that I have gained the respect of the teachers,” he said.
Marinari reiterated that he is not dissatisfied with the school board, the district’s teachers or the administration.
Also in the April 20 school election, Plumsted voters rejected the board’s request to approve a $9.5 million general fund tax levy to support a total budget of $22 million for the 2010-11 school year.
The tax levy failed with an unofficial count of 1,222 no votes to 564 yes votes.
School district administrators will now meet with representatives of the Plumsted Township Committee to discuss the budget.
The municipality’s governing body is charged with certifying a tax levy for the school district. The committee may certify a tax levy lower than $9.5 million, it may suggest specific items to be cut from the budget or it may certify the tax levy at the amount that was proposed by the board and defeated by the voters.
The school board can accept the dollar amount of the tax levy that is ultimately certified by the committee, but it does not have to agree with specific line-item cuts. Should the board disagree with the certified tax levy, it may appeal to the state commissioner of education.
The committee must certify a tax levy for the school district by May 19.
Contact Mark Rosman at [email protected].