School board election, budget vote is today

Voters in the Fredon Township School District will go to the polls Tuesday, April 25 to elect school board members and cast ballots on the proposed 2023-24 budget.

The budget would raise the tax levy by 2 percent, or $51.10 for a home assessed at $100,000.

The polls will be open from 2 to 8 p.m. at Fredon School, 459 Route 94. The district serves grades preK-6.

The school board vice president, Arne Olsen Jr., is running unopposed for a third three-year term.

“Fredon School has had constant controversy from CSA (chief school administrator)/BA (business administrator) turnover, budgets, election dates, mask mandates and curriculum for so long,” he said. “I want to be a part of a board that concentrates on the best education for our kids.”

Board member Anthony Corcella also is unopposed in a race to fill a one-year unexpired term.

Board member Catherine Higgins did not seek re-election, so a three-year term could go to a write-in candidate.

Corcella and Higgins did not reply to email and phone messages.

The proposed 2023-24 district budget of about $5.5 million would maintain programs without cutting staff. The tax levy would be about $4.2 million, up $82,205 from a year earlier.

The district plans to replace the school roof this summer and to convert to natural gas from oil in order to reduce heating costs, starting in the winter of 2023-24.

The district is expected to receive nearly $50,000 in state equalization aid for the next school year, down from about $78,000 last year and about $127,000 two years ago.

Fredon and Montague are the only school districts in Sussex County that hold elections in the spring.

Before 2012, school board elections were held on the third Tuesday of April and voters voted on school budgets. In 2012, then-Gov. Chris Christie signed a law allowing the boards to move their elections to November and not to present their budget to the voters if it does not increase by more than 2 percent from the previous year.

About 530 school boards throughout the state moved their elections to the fall.

Fredon residents voted in 2020 to return to the April election and resume voting on the budget.