BOE Votes to eliminate voter approval of the district budget

BOE Votes to eliminate voter approval of the district budget
November 19,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood BOE voted  on Monday night to move school elections from April to November, therefor eliminating annual voter approval of the district budget.

The resolution, passed by a 4-1 vote margin with Board member Christina Krauss, who previously expressed misgivings with the prospect of taking away the public’s vote on the budget, casting the lone dissenting vote.

The Vote followed several months of discussion and solicitations of public opinion from district officials.

“The Board approved a Resolution establishing the election of members of the Ridgewood Board of Education as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Moving the annual school election means the November general election ballot will only include school board candidates running for open seats. The school budget will not be voted on unless it exceeded the budgetary state
-mandated cap.

Since the passage of the law (P.L. 2011, c. 202) in January 2012, the majority of the state’s 540 public school districts have made the switch to the November general election date. Statistics on the state’s website show that 39 districts, 15 of them located in Bergen County still hold their annual school elections in April.”