Schools

Ridgewood BOE to Decide on Election Change This Month

Board decided not to proceed with a poll of residents before coming to a decision.

The Ridgewood Board of Education on Monday night came to a consensus on moving forward with a decision this month on changing school elections from April to November, dropping a prior proposal to first conduct a poll of residents.

District officials said that effectively gauging public opinion on the issue would have required an expensive phone poll, and according to Board President Sheila Brogan, board members have received more correspondence in support of the change than from those opposed.

“There’s not much conversation going on about this,” she said.

During prior discussions on the possible change, board members and Superintendent Dan Fishbein emphasized the attention paid to public opinion in the decision process, as the switch from April to November school board elections would eliminate the public referendum on the district budget, except for cases in which the budget increase exceeded the state’s 2 percent cap.

On Tuesday, only three districts in the state held budget votes, according to a report by NJspotlight.com. Ridgewood was among only 39 districts of the more than 500  in the state to hold an election in April.

Brogan said that a phone poll would have cost the district at least $6,000, with the total expense difficult to control, as the board could not determine in advance how many calls would be needed to reach the required sample size. A roughly $3,000 additional expenditure would be needed for materials to inform the public of the coming poll, she said.

Board member Vincent Loncto said Monday night that even if the district contracted a phone poll, it would likely remain “inadequate” to gauge an informed public opinion.

In addition to informing respondents that the budget vote would be eliminated, he said, the poll would need to convey the “staggering” increase in turnout some districts have seen in moving the vote to the November general election, the 2 percent cap that controls budget growth and the “rigorous budget process” that would continue even without a referendum, including a new board goal that requires the administration to explore budget options below the cap.

“That information needs to be conveyed to the community in some detail if they are to make an informed decision on this,” Loncto said.

The move to November could save as much as $43,000, Fishbein has said, allowing the district to share the costs with the other elections being held.

Board member Jim Morgan, who previously expressed some hesitation about eliminating the budget vote before hearing from residents, added that several discussions have already been held between the board and the public on the issue.

“I’m not sure we’re going to gain much more with a telephone poll,” he said.

Should the board move forward with the election change, public approval would still be required of new spending that exceeds the state’s cap, which Brogan said would not be a common occurrence.

The board will vote on the policy change at its next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 18.


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