Bloomingdale Superintendent: Move School Election

The followed in the footsteps Monday night of many local school districts—including and —by voting to eliminate the district's annual budget vote and move the school board election to November.

Board Member Cathy Gurbisz was the only board member who opposed.

New Jersey school districts were given the option by the state to eliminate their school budget votes for four years if they keep their budgets within the 2 percent state-mandated tax levy cap and move their school board member elections to November. All school districts have until Feb. 17 to decide whether to move this year's election.

Prior to voting Monday, Gurbisz voiced her concern that with issues the school district is facing, such as negotiating teacher contracts and possible referendums for construction projects on district buildings, taking the right to vote on the school budget away from the public at this time may cause Bloomingdale taxpayers to feel "alienated."

Board Member Sheldon Bross said he also originally had concerns about putting referendums on the November ballot for fear that they would become political issues, but that he found that the district would be able to use referendums at other points in the year instead.

Bross said his research about moving the election led him to believe that it was a good decision for the Bloomingdale school district. He believed that moving the election to November would actually increase voter turnout. Interim Superintendent Dr. Terrance Brennan agreed that moving the election to November was what the Bloomingdale district should do and recommended the board move forward with the change.

"You haven't passed a budget in two years, you've gone backwards financially," he said.

Brennan called the four-year period that the district would be locked in to the November board member elections an "experiment" and said that if the district decided after the four years that the move was not working to their advantage, they could go back. But Gurbisz questioned the timing of the move, considering the initiatives the district is undertaking.

"Is it the right time to take that right away from the public?" she asked.

Board Member Rich Dellaripa said his concern is that the current process is not interactive and that the rejection of the budget does not necessarily translate to the voters telling the district what they would have liked to see in the budget.

"We just get, basically, at the end of the day, a 'no' and we don't know why," he said.

Board Member Maryann Rickelman said she thinks many senior citizens reject the budget because they cannot afford for their taxes to increase.

"They're on a fixed income, they can't afford anymore," she said. "If you don't have the money, how can you pay your taxes?"

The majority of board members felt that moving the election was the right choice for the district.

"It's not perfect, but I do think it's overall a better choice," Dellaripa said.