School Board Votes to Move Election to November

Springfield's School Board elections will now take place in November, following a vote by the board at their meeting on Monday, Feb. 6. 

Under the terms of a state law passed in January, New Jersey towns can change the date of their school board elections. State school board elections usually occur in April. The new law allows school boards to move elections to November to coincide with the general election.

As Springfield Schools Superintendent Michael Davino and several board members noted during the School Board meeting, the law provides strong incentives for boards to move the date. In his remarks, Davino said that keeping the election in April would entail doubling the cost of the election. 

Davino, who strongly criticized the budgetary process, also noted that members of the public seemed in favor of moving the election date believe that the schools budget would automatically get a two percent budget increase. He said that was a slight, but critical misapprehension; moving the date guarantees the school district can raise the budget by the amount set by the cap, but the state government can change that amount. 

"They can reduce that cap to one or zero," Davino said.