School Board Elections

(Tuesday's Hometown View is below Wednesday's)

Some post-election thoughts a day after the annual School Election, which in the past has been of little interest to most:

*24% of registered voters in Ocean County cast ballots Tuesday, the biggest turnout on record and quite a bit more than the 13.5% who voted last year.

*Only 11 of the 28 school districts passed their budget compared to last year when 23 spending plans were approved. Most of the 11 that did pass were smaller districts with the exceptions being Toms River Regional, Southern Regional and Stafford Township who managed to buck the trend. What really stood out was how many districts had their budgets rejected overwhelmingly which would account for the bigger turnout….those who usually don’t vote in the school election but did were voting “no.”

*As far as races for the Board of Education the one that garnered the most interest was in Brick Township where coaching legend Warren Wolf and John Talty scored convincing victories. Wolf collected 7,094 votes and Talty 6,776 to take the two spots up for election…the next closest candidate had just over 2,900 votes. Of course what’s fascinating about this election is it came on the heels of Wolf’s bitter feelings about the school board’s handling of the situation when he retired as football coach at Brick Township High School after 51 years. He wanted the job to go someone with a connection to the Green Dragons program but the Board brought in an outside, Patrick Dowling after several heated public meetings. The 82-year old Wolf subsequently ended his retirement and will be coaching at Lakewood High School this fall. However many are wondering about the fall out now that he and Talty have replaced incumbents Daniel Woska and Virginia Reinhold.

*I wonder if Governor Chris Christie is a happy man this morning considering he encouraged voters to reject budgets in most cases. I assume he’ll take the results as an endorsement of his policy but only time will tell if he’s a hero or villain.

*My 18-year old daughter voted for the first time yesterday and was really excited about taking part in the process. Voting is something we should never overlook and take for granted.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

New Jersey’s Annual School Election is today with districts voting on budgets and school board positions. Normally a small percentage of voters take part in this election…over the last 25 years the average state-wide turnout was just over 14%. There seems to be more interest than usual this time around for two main reasons….the dreary financial state of affairs in New Jersey and Governor Christie’s on-going battle with the New Jersey Education Association. The Governor in my opinion is seeking to make the teachers union and school districts themselves the fall guys for everything that’s wrong instead of pointing the finger where it should be…Trenton and years of fiscal mismanagement. As one who supported Christie and some of his tough decisions aimed at reversing horrific budget problems I am extremely disappointed at his tactics in regards to education. At the head of the list are statements encouraging voters to turn down budgets in districts where teachers have not accepted wage freezes.

I am no fan of the NJEA but the Governor is way off base when it comes to this and it’s unfair to put all these districts into one category which he has.
Many have already made significant cuts in the spending plans up for election today, including administrative wage freezes, teacher and staff layoffs, dramatic cuts to established programs (including athletics) and much more. To penalize a district because their teachers union has not agreed to a wage freeze is completely unfair to everyone involved, especially students and their parents. Regardless of what Governor Christie says today is not the day to punish and take out your frustrations but rather hopefully make a well-informed decision when you cast your ballot.

The bottom line is the overwhelming majority of us believe the use of property taxes to fund education is archaic and in need of an overhaul. However school districts should not be blamed but rather our elected representatives who talk of change but fail to deliver. I feat that most budgets will be rejected today simply because of the times we live in and the fall out might be great. The only hope is parents of school-age children will flock to the polls and support their budgets because if not then they can blame themselves next year when their kids have to walk further to and from school and they’re home early because their sports program was eliminated.