By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
After much consideration and discussion, the Board of Education unanimously voted to keep the school election in April at a Feb. 7 special meeting in the John Witherspoon Middle School cafeteria.
The board members intensely examined the pros and cons of moving the election, ultimately deciding the citizens’ right to vote on the school budget should not be taken away, which would occur if the election moved to November.
Board members thought the public’s right to vote on the budget takes precedence over the possible savings and other advantages that might come out of moving the election.
Board member Andrea Spalla emphasized the importance of democracy and that protecting local control is important for Princeton students and children.
”School boards and budgets are always democratically approved and mandated,” she said. “Democracy is not easy, it’s not cheap and it’s not cost-effective sometimes, but it’s important and we’re seeing it being eroded.”
Board vice president Tim Quinn also worried about the erosion of local control and the potential to marginalize the board’s operation of the schools.
As the voice of Princeton’s students, student representative Arpi Youssoufian added students preferred to keep the election in April. She asked the board to take into consideration that more students are eligible to vote in April than in November.
”Students of the community would love to participate and there’s a big effort for students to take part in the election process,” Ms. Youssoufian added.
In addition to keeping local control, many board members were concerned about the potential partisanship of moving the election. Although the printed ballot names would not appear in any column or associate with any party, some worried it would make education more politicized.
”Moving a school board to November is the first step in eroding the non-political nature of the work we do,” said board member Mia Cahill. “I do fear this is the first step of a downhill spiral to make education more political than it is.”
Board president Rebecca Cox said that so far 288 school districts have voted to move elections.
The Board of Education plans on revisiting the decision next year after seeing the impacts on districts that have moved their elections to November. Upon the board’s decision, the election and Board of Education reorganization meeting will be held in April. This will be the last year board member candidates are elected by their residency since the two Princetons will be consolidated by the 2013 election.

