Upper Freehold, Millstone, Plumsted may soon follow suit
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE The Board of Education has voted to move the April school election to November in a switch that will save taxpayers about $20,000 a year in election-related costs, but change the usual way school budgets are adopted.
Under a new state law, school districts that move their elections to November can skip the step of obtaining voter approval for their budgets as long as the tax levy increase is held to 2 percent or less. Districts must decide by Feb. 17 what they are going to do, however, those that keep a separate April election must continue to put their proposed tax levy on the ballot even when it is within the 2 percent cap.
The Robbinsville school board voted unanimously last week to move the April 17 election to Nov. 6, and other local school districts appear ready to follow suit. An identical resolution was expected to be considered by the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education on Feb. 1 (after The Messenger-Press went to print), by the Plumsted school board Feb. 8 and by the Millstone school board Feb. 13.
”It’s a good move for the district in that it allows us to consolidate elections and save some money,” Robbinsville Board of Education President Mike Reca said Jan. 24 prior to the resolution’s unanimous adoption.
Robbinsville Business Administrator Bob DeVita said the school board typically spends about $20,000 a year to hold the annual April election because school board candidates and the school budget are the only items on the ballot. In a November general election, the costs associated with renting polling places, paying election personnel and transporting voting machines already are paid for.
While the savings in election-related expenses is a clear incentive, the larger proverbial carrot the law offers districts is the ability to adopt budgets within cap without the uncertainty over what voters will do at the polls. In both Plumsted and Upper Freehold Regional last year, school budgets that were within the state-mandated 2 percent levy cap still went down in defeat. The Robbinsville school budget squeaked by last April by 12 votes, even though it, too, was within cap.
Some school board members said the change provides more predictability in the budget process and allows both the board and school officials to focus on their responsibilities instead of the need to drum up voter support at coffee klatches and various community social events outside of the regular public budget meetings.
”Our administration, staff members and board members spent a tremendous amount of time between February and April trying to get into the homes, to encourage people to come out to vote,” board member Sharon DeVito said. “Our administrators and staff members need to be doing what they have to do in classrooms and in the district.”
When voters defeat a school budget in an April election, the spending plans are sent to the municipal governing body for review and possibly further spending cuts. This process prolongs the fiscal uncertainty and in the end rarely results in reductions of major significance especially if the voter-defeated budget was relatively lean and within the 2 percent levy cap to begin with.
Even though Robbinsville residents will not be voting directly on the school budget this year (provided it remains within cap), the budget-building process still will be done in public as it always has, Mr. Reca said. There will be a public budget presentation, public meetings and a special community review committee that still will be asked to assess the spending plan.
”It doesn’t change the fact that this district will remain diligent in its budget process, stay transparent in its budget process (and) committed to having community members involved,” Mr. Reca said.
Changing the election date means the terms of the incumbent school board members who would have otherwise had to run April 17 Flo Gange, Faith Silvestrov, Vince Costanza and Keith Kochberg automatically are extended until Dec. 31. The board’s annual reorganization will be held the first week in January, instead of in May, as was required when elections were held in April.
School board candidates will continue to be nominated to run for office by citizen petition, not political parties. The names of school board candidates must appear on a separate part of the general election ballot, not under the Democratic or Republican Party columns where the names of other political office-seekers are.
The deadline for filing nominating petitions to run for a seat on the Robbinsville Board of Education this fall is June 5. There will be three seats for full three-year terms ending Dec. 31, 2015, on the general election ballot and one seat for an unexpired two-year term that ends Dec. 31, 2014.
The law authorizing the switch to November elections says districts opting for the change cannot switch back to April elections for at least four years.
Additionally, any construction bond referendums to build new schools or make other improvements still must be approved directly by voters in special elections. These special school elections can only be held in January, March, September and December as is the current practice.
Robbinsville is contemplating a December 2012 special election to either expand the elementary and middle schools or build a new grade 3-5 school because of overcrowding at Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School.

