School boards in New Jersey only have a few weeks to decide whether to move their elections from April to November.

The state Education Department says local resolutions to make the change must be approved by February 17th.
New Jersey School Boards Association spokesman Frank Belluscio says the interest is greater than originally anticipated.

“With just over a week of the law being into effect we’ve already seen over ten percent of the state’s school districts move their elections to November, and I think there are probably more out there that have not yet notified us of the change.”

Belluscio says a big reason for making the switch is financial certainty. Voter approval of school budgets that stay below the two percent cap on property tax increases is not needed if the elections are in November.

“The school boards would no longer have to go through the often frustrating experience of having voters reject a fiscally prudent budget and then turning it over to a municipal governing body that often can not find anywhere to cut.”

Ballucscio says some school boards are reluctant to make the change and have their members run for office in November.

“School board membership is nonpartisan in nature, and they are concerned that running at the same time as partisan elections are conducted might really intensify the political party involvement in school board races.”