By VASHTI HARRIS
Staff Writer
JAMESBURG- Jamesburg voters believe that less is more, having approved the borough proposal to reduce the size of the Board of Education from nine members to seven.
On Election Day on Nov. 8, in five districts throughout the state, voters acted on questions related to school board composition and apportionment of regional district costs. This year, Jamesburg was one of the five districts, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association.
On the ballot, Jamesburg had a proposal to reduce the size of the Board of Education from nine members to seven.
“We currently have nine seats open and only seven of them are filled. The problem is we can’t seem to find enough people to volunteer to run for the board so we thought it would be a good idea to reduce the size of the board because we are a small town and reducing the size would better the chances of fulling all the seats,” Jamesburg Superintendent Brian Betze said.
The proposal was approved where 71 percent of the voters voted yes and 29 percent of the voters voted no, according to results posted on Middlesex County’s website.
“It will happen during a two-year period, so next November instead of [nine seats] there will only be eight seats available; then, the following year instead of eight seats available there will only be seven. It will be a two-year process to get down to seven seats and nobody will be kicked off the board,” Betze said.
“We believe it will actually improve [the overall quality of education] because we spend so much time worrying about who’s going to run and if the seats will be filled. By reducing the size of the board it will be one less thing for us to worry about and it’s the best decision for the children,” Betze said.
For more information, visit njsba.org and click on News and Information.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].