PRINCETON: School board election to be in November

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Princeton school board elections will move from April to November starting next year, a move that extends the terms of the nine elected members and takes the annual school budget off the ballot.
   The Board of Education voted, 6-1, on Tuesday to make the change, one that reverses a decision the board made earlier this year keeping elections in April as they have been historically.
   In the time since that initial decision, officials said they had looked to the experience of other districts that had made the switch. More than 460 school districts went from April to November elections this year, thanks to a change in state law that gave school boards, local governing bodies or citizens through a referendum the ability to move board elections to the general Election Day.
   Voter turnout was higher, albeit helped by the presidential race. Another factor influencing officials was the costs, said school board president Timothy Quinn on Wednesday. Officials were hearing anecdotally that other Mercer County districts that had not made the change were planning to do so, which would have left the district having to spend as much as $40,000 to have an election in the spring.
   The change must remain in effect for four years before it can be revisited.
   As a result of Tuesday’s decision, the nine elected school board members had their three-year terms extended. Based on the old arrangement, the three sitting incumbents — board vice president Andrea Spalla, Dorothy Bedford and Molly Chrein — were scheduled to leave office after the school board reorganized after the April election. Instead, they will serve through the rest of next year.
   ”In November election districts, board member terms end on the date of the annual organization meeting which takes place between January 1 and 7,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association.
   Ms. Spalla said Wednesday the “almost certainty” of higher voter turnout was a “very compelling part” of why she supported the change. She said she has not decided whether to run for re-election next year.
   The November election also takes the budget off the ballot, so long as it stays at or under the tax levy cap, said Michael Yaple, also from the New Jersey School Boards Association. He said 468 school districts had November elections this year.
   Mr. Quinn responded to online comments posted on various Internet sites saying the board had declined to make the November change this year to suppress voter turnout on the school budget.
   ”Nothing could be further from the truth,” Mr. Quinn said. “I reject that notion.”