NJ School Board Elections: These Holdouts Are Sticking With Spring

NJ Spotlight: Roughly 10 percent of school districts across the state have not moved elections into November.

They have become the holdouts, the handful of New Jersey school districts that have gone against the grain and decided to keep their school elections in April, at least for now, according to a report in NJ Spotlight. Under a law passed this winter, districts were allowed to move their elections to November as a way to boost voter interest. What started as a trickle quickly became a torrent: 468 districts -- nearly nine in 10 -- have made the move. The big lure was that those making the switch would not be required to put their annual budgets to the voters, as long as they stayed below the state’s 2 percent property tax cap. But for a scant handful of districts, just 71 in all, that apparently wasn't enough. [In Essex County, those holdouts…

•  8 Comments
• Photos (1)

Anonymous

8:42 am on Tuesday, March 6, 2012

That's quite a stretch. Don't think the governor was ever going to be on-board about giving local taxpayers the right to turn down a Charter School, and he doesn't need this law to justify his position.   more ›

Deadline to File for School Board Election Is Feb. 27

Gleason will not run again; Payne-Parrish and Eastman will, joined by two newcomers — so far.

If you want to throw your hat in the ring to run for school board, you'd better hurry. The School District of South Orange and Maplewood nominating process for school board elections ends at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27. Currently, the Board of Education election is scheduled for April 17, 2012. “There are three seats open for candidates to fill,” announced Business Administrator and Board Secretary Cheryl Schneider. “A full term on the school board runs for three years.” Those three seats are currently occupied by Jennifer Payne-Parrish, Wayne Eastman and former Board of Education President Mark Gleason. Payne-Parrish and Eastman have both filed to run again. Gleason — a former Board President — said he had enjoyed his time on the board but …

• Photos (1)

South Orange Declines Moving Board of Education Elections in 2012

The BOT says its unfair to move it during an election cycle, plus Board of School Estimates still needs to be worked out.

On Wednesday, the South Orange Board of Trustees (BOT) declined the opportunity to join their Maplewood counterparts in moving the Board of Education elections to November for 2012.  The BOT decided that it wasn’t a good time to move the elections with the current election cycle already started.  In addition, the BOT’s preference was for the BOE to move the elections by their own resolution, not forced by the municipalities. According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, since Gov. Chris Christie signed Assembly Bill No. 4394, allowing municipalities to move their Board of Education elections from May to November, into law on Jan. 17, more than 40 percent of New Jersey school boards with April budget and board-member elections have…

• Photos (3)

Public Comments from March 5 Board of Education Meeting

A transcript, by Patch staff, of public comments made by a South Orange resident at a South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting.

  Transcribed on 4/18 March 5 SOMSD Board of Education meeting, two-minute public comment: Rusty Reeves, South Orange I have spent my career to date as a psychiatrist caring for poor people, mostly poor black people, including prisoners and troubled adolescents.  What we have in this deleveling drama is displacement. We don’t want to acknowledge the reason for black kids’ underachievement, which is broadly culture and single-parent families. And so we find something more acceptable to blame. In this case, it’s the old trope of white racism whether inadvertent or purposeful. Although a school district has to strive to help all its students, and I would love to see black kids perform better for both altruistic and, frankly, selfish reasons, …