Politics & Government

School Board Keeps Election, Budget Vote in April

At their meeting earlier this week, members of the Lawrence Township Board of Education decided not to move the annual school election to November to take place alongside the general election.

Members of the Lawrence Township Board of Education, at their meeting Monday evening (Feb. 13), debated the pros and cons of the matter for more than 45 minutes before voting 5-4 in favor of keeping the and school budget vote in April.

Legislation signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie last month allows local school boards to move elections from April to November to coincide with the state’s general election. Any district that makes such a move is no longer required to submit its budgets for voter approval provided that the budget does not exceed the state’s 2 percent tax increase cap. A budget in excess of the cap would still require the approval of voters.

While such a change can be approved at any time via a resolution passed by either the local school board or municipal governing body, this Friday (Feb. 17) is the deadline for such a change to take effect this year. Any district that moves elections to November is locked into the change for a minimum of four years.

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Voting, in the majority, against moving the election to November were board members Murali Aiyar, Jo Ann Groeger, Leon Kaplan (board vice president), Bill Michaelson and Thomas Patrick, while those who voted unsuccessfully in favor of making the move were Michael Brindle, Deborah Cherry, Kevin Van Hise and Laura Waters (board president).

Brindle, who with 21 years on the board is the longest-serving school board member, opened the discussion Monday by making the formal motion that the board move elections to November.

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During the discussion, Waters urged board members to “stay focused on the befits to the district” and to think about what impact the decision to move or not move to November would have “on the kids and the staff and the district.”

The board members’ debate primarily focused on two alternate concerns – the first being that the school board election would become “politicized” if it is moved to November to take place in conjunction with the general election, and the second being that if the election remained in April this year’s school budget would be automatically rejected by voters displeased with the proposed municipal tax rate hike.

The Lawrence Township administration has . Lawrence Township Council is considering that recommendation. If council decides to move forward with the recommendation, a referendum would be held alongside the April 17 school election asking voters to approve 9 cents of that municipal tax rate increase since that portion exceeds the state’s 2 percent tax cap.

While the school district’s budget for the 2012-2013 school year is still being finalized, district officials have said – not as a result of increased spending but to make up for the $38.3 million loss the township experienced to its tax base last year due to successful tax appeals by property owners.            

“There’s a belief that this year’s budget will fail, and it will fail because it is likely the township will ask the voters to approve a municipal tax increase that is above cap. The theory is that voters of Lawrence Township will reject it and our school budget will sort of be collateral damage,” Kaplan said as part of a lengthy, multi-reason explanation of why he was against moving the election to November.

“I’ve got to tell you that’s pure speculation. Nobody knows. I think it would be unwise to assume the budget will automatically be voted down. You need to have faith in the electorate in Lawrence. And if our budget is voted down, then it goes to town council. They’ll get a chance to review it. However, when they reflect on it and, in all likelihood, their referendum was the reason it was voted down, they may show us come compassion,” Kaplan said.

Brindle, saying he was in favor of making the move, said he viewed the possibility of a municipal tax referendum as a “major problem” for the school district.

“Because of the township’s budgeting problems, I do not want to jeopardize our budget. It’s a 2 percent cap. We are under 2 percent. I don’t know where else we’re going to go back and cut,” Brindle said. “I am afraid. You don’t want to politicize it. Well, it is political, because they’re going to vote on the same day we do. They’re not waiting till November to vote. They are going to be voting exactly the same day we are, on the same voting machines, in the same places, at the same times. I am terrified of our budget going down.

“I we stay in April and we lose, it has an effect on the kids, a very definite effect,” Brindle added. “There’s only one way to cut this budget and that’s to snip. If the voters say no on our budget, town council will feel compelled to say, ‘The voters said no. We must cut this budget.’ I’d like us to be in control of our budget. You want to talk about politics in the school board? Town council setting your budget – what more political can there be than that?”

Brindle noted that, as of the close of business on Monday, 54 percent or 295 out of the 538 school districts in New Jersey that vote on budgets – including Hamilton and Ewing – had approved making the move to November. 

“This is the opportunity to do this neat, easily,” Brindle said.

Groeger, noting that the board can revisit the issue at any time, said, “The one thing that just keeps reverberating in my head is could we sit back and see how it plays out with the districts that say yes [to moving] and vote next year.”

“We can wait a year and observe what is happening with the districts that have made the change,” Kaplan agreed, pointing out that the Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro school districts have opted to keep their elections in April this year

“Lawrence has one of the worst average voter turnouts in the state for school board elections. We are typically about a third below the state average,” Kaplan said. “However, the notion that more people turning out is good, I think, disregards the notion that they’re not necessarily apt to be more informed. Although we have fewer voters for our school board elections there is an assumption that they’re better informed and they care more about education. In that context, I wonder whether having a larger turnout of less-informed voters is really something that is in the best interests of education.”

Addressing the threat of partisan politics playing a role in school board elections, Kaplan said:

“My concern is if we move to November, the candidates, what they stand for, what they’re against, their policies, their beliefs, will be overwhelmed by the noise and the advertising associated with the local partisan elections, unless, of course, board members – who are not paid – start to run their own expensive campaigns to be elected. And we end up with enough signs on lawns here. I don’t know if anyone wants to see us doing that….

“I believe April elections are less likely to be political and partisan than November elections. I don’t know the party affiliations of almost everyone on this board. I’m not even sure of my own party affiliation. Someone whose name I forgot astutely said ‘Education is about children. Politics is about grownups.’ Once upon a time somebody decided that it would be a good idea to not have school board, fire district and other sundry elections the same time we have political elections. I would imagine that was done in an effort to keep politics out of school boards, etc. If you take a look at Washington and Trenton, I think you’re hard-pressed to conclude that things have improved and now we’re in better shape if we mix politics and education. I firmly believe that November elections will be political elections regardless of how the ballot’s laid out. Do you want a political party controlling the school board, like political parties do a lot of other institutions in the county? If you’re curious to see what happens when you mix politics and education look at at least one of the other school districts in Mercer County and you can see that it’s a recipe for disaster.”   

“I do have concerns about there being a perception that the school board is in any way politically inclined,” Cherry said during the debate.

Kaplan said one argument he has heard in favor of moving the election to November is that, provided the budget remains below the 2 percent cap and does not require voter approval, it would save district officials a lot of time and effort they now spend making pre-vote presentations explaining the budget to taxpayers. But he discounted that argument.

“There are some people who think that it really is not such a bad idea if the voters have a say in the budgets that they’re ultimately going to pay for. It forces a district to be restrained and disciplined in budget development. And I’m not talking about us here and now. I’m talking about other places or what we might look like in 20 or 30 years,” Kaplan said. “I think the voters of Lawrence have an incredibly impressive record in terms of supporting school budgets. In each of the past five years, through some of the worst economic conditions any of us have ever experienced, we got all our budgets and all our referendums passed. Very few other districts can say that. When it comes to school board elections and Lawrence budgets, our voters deserve a lot more credit than we sometimes give them.”

Michaelson agreed, saying, “I’ve been going back and forth on this. Leon kind of summed up all the arguments really very well. The one thing that’s really compelling, I think, to most of us is the notion that we could pretty much nail down the budget early and make it so much easier for the administration and all of us to plan the coming year with that much less uncertainty. All we have to do is stay under cap, and we seem to manage to do that, don’t we. But by the same token because we manage to do that and because we have so much district-wide support, perhaps it’s not a bad thing that we’re compelled to do this show every year and present to the citizens of Lawrence what the budget is all about. It’s extra work but it’s part of what we need to do to be transparent. We’ve been doing it well enough… I think the clincher for me, though, is really a matter of prudence. We don’t have to do this this year. It’s an option that’s open to us again next year. And for that reason, probably more than anything, it makes the decision easy – I say we’re not ready to do this.”

Van Hise, meanwhile, voiced his support for moving the election to November. “Leon makes a compelling case. Except that for the very reasons he’s advocating that we can afford to wait – that we have a very educated, very supported electorate – would be the very reasons that I see no detriment in moving. I trust our electorate, to the extent that those of us who would have to run against a presidential election, against a governor’s election…well then we need to do a better job in selling ourselves and getting our individual messages out. I trust the voters of this township to be able to differentiate that.”


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