METUCHEN — Borough voters overwhelmingly gave their seal of approval to the Board of Education’s $33.4 million school budget and elected three board members in the unofficial results of the April 16 school election.
A total of 735 residents voted to approve the tab, and 351 cast their ballots against it, according to district Business Administrator Michael Harvier.
The budget is slated to bring a $141 tax increase to the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $186,000.
Board of Education President Jonathan Lifton proved most popular among voters, with 738 votes.
Rose de Vries, the other incumbent board member on the four-person ballot, garnered 643 votes.
“I am honored that the people of Metuchen have given me a third term to serve on the Metuchen Board of Education,” de Vries told the Sentinel in an email. “During my third term, I plan on continuing to advocate for a guidance curriculum, with an emphasis on grades 6-12, focusing on college and career readiness, grade articulation, uniformed grading and increased rigor for all levels of instruction.
“For the high school, some of the items I will continue to advocate for are to increase half-year elective and AP course offerings, making zero period first period in order to eliminate scheduling problems, and to decrease the weighting of midterm and final examinations in order to place Metuchen on par with the most competitive school districts.
“At the middle and high school, I plan on continuing to advocate for all students to be prescreened in the ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) evaluation system. I will also advocate for the Character Counts sensitivity training program for all coaches in both middle and high school, to promote ethical coaching practices.”
The third open seat on the board went to newcomer Michael Stern, who received 546 votes.
Stern thanked voters for giving him the opportunity to serve, and outlined some of his goals.
“I would like to see Mandarin Chinese introduced properly into the curriculum,” Stern said, pointing out that it is now only offered as a virtual course. “I feel very strongly about Mandarin — not so much as the language of the future, but as the language of now.”
He went on to say that he would also like to see an expansion of information technology offerings in the district.
“It’s kind of like math. A lot of people are intimidated by math … but everyone uses at least a little bit of math in their dayto day life,” Stern said. “This is very much the case with information technology now. I think it’s incredibly important for kids to understand some of that. I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job at Metuchen, but I think we need to expand that.”
Stern also said safety measures must be taken in the district.
“Security is going to be a big part of my focus during my time on the board,” he said.
Despite having withdrawn from the race last month, Erica Doyle remained on the ballot because she had pulled out of the race after the deadline. She received 388 votes.
Lifton could not be reached for comment.