School Boards Face a Disinterested Public at Election Time

When Red Bank’s board of education unveiled its proposed budget earlier this year, it did so along with news of potential job cuts, program eliminations, and a tax increase for the borough’s residents.

As for who was there to hear it, hear about the more than $19 million budget along with its $12 million tax levy – two figures that are as close as you’ll get to those thrown together by the borough’s council for its own budget – that number would be a big, fat zero.

Though statewide figures show that the public’s interest in their respective board of education budgets and elections has increased in the past year, smaller school districts like Red Bank continue to struggle when it comes to generating significant interest from the community.

In 2010, a total of 855 residents cast their vote for the school budget by a narrow margin. The borough has nearly 6,500 registered voters. Though the turnout was higher than in years past, it was still poor, according to date from the New Jersey School Boards Association, when set against statewide numbers.

Mike Yaple, spokesman for the school boards association, said nearly 27 percent of the state’s registered voters turned out for last year’s election, which was also a huge leap from prior years. With Gov. Chris Christie targeting rising taxes and the state’s education institutions, more residents found it important to get to the polls than in the past 25 years.

Clearly, Red Bank residents weren’t as interested.

“Hot local issues really bring people out,” Yaple said. “And, they bring out the voters. If you see issues like a tax spike, maybe changing grades in the district’s different schools, things like that will start to generate a lot of interest. Those are the times you see people get more involved in participating and voting.”

If that’s the case, than certainly borough residents should have had more interest in how Red Bank’s education works. Not only did the district introduce a budget with a tax increase, but Red Bank, though officials have worked hard to turn it around, has been identified by the state as a struggling school district.

It’s not just voter participation that struggles in Red Bank, but finding candidates to run for election. Throughout the state historically, Yaple said, three candidates run for every two seats. Red Bank lucked out this year, finding itself with five candidates seeking four seats.

Contested races in Red Bank haven’t been the norm for some time, current board President Ann Roseman said. On several occasions in the five years she’s been on the board, Red Bank has had to fill seats with write-in candidates because it didn’t have enough candidates during the election. 

“I’m actually happy about it this year now that we have a full slate of candidates,” she said. “For a number of years we haven’t even had that. Most of the time I’ve been on the board we haven’t been able to get that full slate and that’s a little more than depressing.”

Red Bank’s not alone in struggling to find candidates to fill seats on its board of education. Many small towns in the area have done their best just to find just enough candidates who want to sit on their boards.

In Shrewsbury the board of education race is uncontested. Four incumbents are seeking their four seats. In Little Silver, it’s uncontested, too. Three candidates are seeking three seats there.

All three districts are kindergarten through eighth grade. They each feed into Red Bank Regional High School, which does have a contested board race.

Yaple believes that’s not really a surprise, especially in those districts where public meetings are poorly attended. If residents aren’t coming out to board of education meetings, they might not be interested in elections, either.

“Generally, school board budgets and elections don’t bring out a lot of voters,” he said. “If people are satisfied with the board, generally satisfied with the candidates, and are satisfied that the board has done what it can to reasonably keep the budget under control, they might not come out.”

Roseman said there have been some discussions of organizing candidate nights for future elections. Parent-Teacher Organizations from other districts have gotten candidates together to hear those vying for seats discuss the issues facing the district in a public forum.

An alternative, moving elections to November during the general elections gets tossed around from time to time, Roseman said, though she doesn’t feel that likely increase in votes would benefit the district.

“I wish more people voted, but they don’t,” she said. “I know there’s a push to make the vote in November, but a lot of people, including myself, are against it. The school board elections are non-partisan. I don’t know the political parties of the people on the board and I don’t want to know. Even if the candidates are listed (on the ballot) in a nonpartisan way, there’s still a concern.”

The district has done what it can to get people to participate. Not only did board representatives led by Superintendent Laura Morana present the budget at a board meeting, but they took the show on the road, hitting several local spots to talk spending, including borough council. The Red Bank Borough Education Association also sent out a mailer asking residents to vote “yes” Wednesday on the budget.

Red Bank Charter School Principal Meredith Pennotti said it’s critical that residents and especially parents with kids in the district come out and vote in support of the budget. With the charter school getting more than $1.6 million of the district’s budget, the votes are needed to show that the initiatives being undertaken by the district are supported.

“My comment is pretty concise,” Pennotti said. “It’s vote ‘Yes.’ Our role is to make it clear that (residents) need to vote, and because of this convoluted system, it’s very important for us to make a loud and clear statement.”