ENGLISHTOWN — Members of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education did not wait long after Gov. Chris Christie signed a law giving school officials the option to move the annual school election to November and to do away with a public vote on the annual school budget.
Christie signed the law on Jan. 17 and during a meeting that evening at the district’s headquarters in Englishtown, the board voted to move the election date from April to November, effective this year.
The three members of the board who would have been up for election in April — Joseph DePasquale and Annamarie Galante of Manalapan, and Lori Semel of Englishtown — will have their current term extended through Dec. 31, according to school district Business Administrator Veronica Wolf.
There will not be an election inApril for the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District.
The installation of board members who are elected in November and a reorganization of the board will now take place at the first meeting in January 2013.
The resolution that was passed by the board to move the date of the election states that a local school district may adopt a resolution to eliminate the vote on its annual school budget if that budget is within the statutory cap imposed by the state; that the board has determined the statutory restrictions on the local tax levy increase for annual school appropriations is appropriate and sufficient to control and maintain a thorough and efficient education for the children of Manalapan and Englishtown; that the board, consistent with the budgetary restrictions expressed above, believes that dispensing with annual school budget votes will save taxpayer dollars; that the board believes school board member elections in November will attract a far greater number of voters than typically vote in the April election; and that the board believes the elimination of the vote on the school budget and the move of the board member election to November is in the best interest of both communities.
DePasquale made the motion to pass the resolution and Semel seconded the motion. DePasquale, Semel, Diane Bindler, Ralph Cafaro, Brian Graime, Dotty Porcaro and Michele Stipelman voted in favor of the motion.
Galante and James Mumolie were absent from the meeting.
According to the new state law, the board cannot vote to move the school election back to April for a minimum of four years.