Oceanport Eliminates School Budget Vote, Moves Board Elections

School board candidates will be on Oceanport ballots in November, the K-8 board of education decided by a 6-1 vote (with one abstaining) at a workshop meeting held at Thursday evening.

There will no longer be school elections in April, and the public will not vote on the school budget when it increases less than 2 percent. The change will be in effect for the next four years.

Voting for the change were board members William McVitty, Christopher McCrae, Joan Osgoodby, Spencer Carpenter, Board President Kelly McGowan, and Vice President Colin Soyer. Mark O'Neill voted no, and Madeline Badalaty abstained.

Before the vote, Board Attorney R. Armen McOmber said if the district decided against the move this year, they would lose their chance to move the elections until next year.

McOmber said not moving the elections could prove pricey as well, as there would be fewer municipalities to help absorb the cost of running April elections with many of them moving their elections to November.

Board member Mark O'Neill attempted to get the board to table the matter to look into the potential cons of the changes in light of , but was defeated.

O'Neill said at the last board meeting he made a recommendation that a town hall-style meeting be held regarding the change, which did not happen.

"It seems like it wasn't as straightforward as it could be and there are some partisan issues that we have to consider. [Superintendent Andrew Orefice] sent out a synopsis of what [he] thought the perspective was. I thought it was all pros, no cons," said O'Neill.

In the resolution passed, the board states "dispensing with the annual school budget votes will save taxpayer dollars," and "the school board elections in November will attract a far greater number of voters than typically vote in April elections" to explain why they were choosing to make the change.

McOmber said he believed Mayor Mahon's fears of an upcoming cap expiration date were unfounded. McOmber said he checked on the law with the Chief Counsel to the New Jersey School Boards earlier Thursday afternoon.

"He advised me at first there was a 3 year sunset on the 4 percent cap, but that is not true with this cap. That was eliminated," McOmber said.

McOmber's opinion is that if the cap law were to change, the school budget law would have to change as well.

"No one here can predict what this legislation's going to do or what another governor might want, but what I would say is that this particular provision is tied in with the existence of a cap.

If a governor is going to change that, they're going to have to change this legislation as well. I can't predict for 100 percent certainty what it's going to do, but what I can say is the way this reads now dovetails with the other legislation that's out there and there's no expiration date to my knowledge," said McOmber.

The move will become effective for 2012-2013 budget, and current board members will hold their seats until the November election.