New legislation signed by Governor Christie in mid-January gives New Jersey school boards the option of foregoing a public vote on the district’s annual budget, provided that their figure falls under the 2 percent cap.
Whether or not WW-P chooses to eliminate the public vote and move its school board elections from April to November will be decided within the next two weeks as the state department of education set a deadline of February 17. The district will consider the item on Tuesday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Grover Middle School, 505 Village Road West, and the board is encouraging residents to show up to share their thoughts.
In a telephone interview Board President Hemant Marathe explained that “a number of people in the community asked us why we are not moving on this yet. We put it on the agenda so people will have a chance to comment on it and board members could also speak about it. In talking to board members, everybody has a different opinion on it,” Marathe said.
The board president says he is anxious to hear what residents have to say about the issue. Following public comments and board member discussion Marathe says the board will decide whether to vote on moving the election at that meeting. Time is critical if the change is to be made.
The election for the budget and three seats on the school board — two from Plainsboro and one from West Windsor — is currently scheduled for Tuesday, April 17. Candidate applications are due on Monday, February 27. If WW-P decides to make the change, school board elections will be held in November and current board members whose terms would have expired in April would, by state regulation, have their terms extended until the end of the year. Members who are elected in November would then begin their terms in January.
“As usual the state has put a gun to our heads and said ‘do it in the next two weeks or don’t do it’ without giving us enough time to debate and get community input,” Marathe said.
Marathe said he and other board members will try to keep track of the public’s questions and address them at the February 7 meeting once the public comment period finishes. However he recommends that, if possible, members of the community direct their questions to the board ahead of the meeting, preferably via E-mail. The district linked the E-mail addresses of board members in its media release this week, but Marathe says people can call him at 609-468-5011 or E-mail him directly: hmarathe@verizon.net.
If the board does decide to move the election the stipulation is that the district would be locked into November elections for the next four years. Marathe noted that the timing could be a potential negative. “People point out that especially with this being a presidential election year, the school board may be lost. One option may be just to wait and see how other districts fare and then make the shift next year,” he said.
In Marathe’s own opinion the biggest positive of the change would be not having the budget voted on.
“One of the most frustrating things is that we do such a good job and people don’t realize it. Our budget has been very well-crafted and the tax impact has been low, but it’s a very complicated process of how our budget gets translated into individual taxes. Since the school board’s budget is the only budget that is voted on people just assume that any tax increase is because of the board,” he says.
Marathe referenced a Trenton Times article from January 7 to illustrate his point that school taxes have gone up the least in the past decade when compared to West Windsor and Plainsboro townships. “I’m willing to bet that not too many people in either township would know that,” he said.
He knows that on February 7 the board will hear at least a few strong opinions against the district making this big change. He offered a precursor to the discussion.
“There may be board members who feel this would be taking away from the rights of community members to vote on our budget. My answer to them would be asking the question ‘what is so different about the school district’s budget that is not different about the township or county budgets, even the state budget?” Marathe said.
Marathe says late last week the office of acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf sent the school district a memo outlining what needs to be done before the February 17 deadline. “It was so new that nobody had talked about it or done it. Now Hamilton and Robbinsville have already done it and Princeton has it on the agenda for the 7th for a vote. It will be interesting to see how many of the 600 plus districts in New Jersey decide to move it,” he says.
