Superintendent Contracts: NJSBA and NJASA Issue Statement

Governor Calls for Review of Superintendent Contracts

Senate Committee May Hear November Election Bill

NJQSAC Finds Half of Districts Are 'High Performing'

Education by the Numbers

NJSBA Looks for New Ways to Go Green

More Reasons to Attend Workshop 2008

School Board Member of the Year Nominations Now Being Accepted

Scenes from the Annual Special Education Week Celebration

Summary of May 17 Semiannual Delegate Assembly

NJSBA Executive Committee to Meet

Calendar

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2008 Annual Communications Competion entry form
Senate Committee May Hear November
Election Bill

A bill that would move the school board member elections to November is expected to come before a key Senate committee on June 5.

The proposal, S-1861, is sponsored by Sen. Shirley K. Turner. She also chairs the Senate Education Committee and decides what bills the committee will discuss.

S-1861 is the Senate version of Assembly Bill 15. That bill was released by the Assembly Education Committee on May 12, and a week later the full Assembly passed A-15 by a 43-31 vote, with five abstentions. The bill aims to increase voter participation in school elections; the Annual School Election each April typically attracts only 15 percent of voters.

NJSBA supports one aspect of the bills, which would eliminate the vote on budget proposals that are under the state’s caps. However, NJSBA opposes A-15 and S-1861 because moving the board member election date would have the unintended impact of entangling school board races with partisan politics.

NJSBA has noted that 87 non-partisan municipal elections are held in the spring for the purpose of keeping party politics out of those races, and the same protections should be afforded school board elections.

As an alternative to November board-member elections, NJSBA has called for designating a single day in the springtime for all non-partisan elections—including school board members, fire district commissioners, and nonpartisan municipal elections.

NJSBA urges local board members to contact their state Senator to make them aware of their concerns about S-1861.

“The intention of current state law is clear: Educational issues at the local level should be debated strictly on their merits, without political party influence,” said Marie S. Bilik, NJSBA executive director. “That’s why local school board candidates appear on the ballot without party affiliation and why they stand for election in the spring. Moving board member elections to November would subject the selection of local board members and local educational issues to divisive partisan politics.”