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Schools

Butler BOE Weighing Possible Election Change

Legislation allowing school board elections to be moved to coincide with November election was passed on Jan. 17.

Like the vast majority of school districts across the state, the is now discussing legislation approved by Gov. Chris Christie that gives individual municipalities the right to move their April elections in line with the November general election.

The move, if it were to happen, would also eliminate a public vote on the school district budget each year, as long as that budget fell within the state-mandated 2 percent tax levy cap.

“We did mention this in our regular monthly meeting with the borough that this was a possibility,” Superintendent Mario D. Cardinale said.

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The change to a November election within each respective municipality can occur in one of three ways: approval by the municipality’s board of education, approval by the municipality’s governing body or a petition signed by 15 percent of a municipality’s registered voters who voted in the 2008 presidential election.

Debra Naley-Minenna, the school district’s business administrator, suggested that the state government may prefer school districts to make this change.

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“The fact that there are so many ways, to me, kind of implies that they really want you to avoid the expense of the election,” Naley-Minenna said.

Some board of education members did have some questions about the end result of possibly moving the school board election to November. Although it is a move designed to encourage a higher voter turnout, some members of the board questioned whether or not voters would be motivated politically if the two elections occurred at the same time.

“I was concerned that if the school budget came up at the same time the budget came up, the budget would be used as a political football where anyone in support of the school budget becomes a bad politician,” the board’s representative Sheldon Bross said.

“Candidates who are standing for the school board are examined by voters in terms of their qualifications to be members of the school board. The attention of voters who do turn out is on that choice,” Board Member Cindy Sokoloff added. “Is the question of who you’re going to elect to the school board going to be lost in the shuffle? How much attention are you going to pay to electing school board candidates?”

No date has been set as a deadline for the eligible entities to make a decision on whether or not to move the school board election, but Cardinale said he hopes that more information on that matter will become clear in the coming weeks. In the interim, the superintendent urged his board to carefully weight all options.

“I think [the legislation] is really very appropriate and a very good thing,” Cardinale said. “We have a 2 percent tax levy cap that we must adhere to. Certainly, we do, and I would recommend that the board take due deliberation and time, but certainly not miss an opportunity to move forward.”

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