By ROBERT LINNEHAN
While it’s good new for the incumbents that there will be no opposition for their seats, Board of Education President Steve Weinstein said that with an uncontested election the turnout will likely be low.
Low turnouts can be tricky when a school district is trying to pass its budget, he said.
“Take note of this. We need to give special effort to let people know of the elections and the details of our budget,” Weinstein said, addressing the board at last weeks BOE meeting.
The Haddonfield ballot for the April 27 school board elections has been set. Four seats on the BOE are expiring at the end of this school year and all four incumbents have filed again to run in the election.
No challengers filed for the seats. Barring any write-in miracles on April 27 the four incumbents will retain their positions on the board.
Drew Hansen, Heather Paoli, and Glenn Moramarco filed to run for the three, three-year seats on the board. Dennis Kelleher decided to run for the one, one-year seat for 2011–2012.
The board approved the preliminary $30.02 million 2011–2012 school district budget, which includes a 1.73 percent increase to the local school tax levy. Effectively the tax increase is about 2 percent because Haddonfield’s ratables dropped by more than $7 million this year.
For a taxpayer with an averaged assessed home of a little more than $491,000 it will mean an increase of $139 in next year’s tax bill if the budget is approved at its public hearing on March 24 and at the district elections on April 27.
