Board of Education Declines to Vote on Controversial Election Date Move

The Madison tabled an agenda item at their meeting Tuesday evening at the that would have moved school board elections from April to November and eliminated the requirement that the school budget go before voters.

The prospective move comes as a result a state law enacted earlier this month that gives school districts the option of changing election dates. The school budget vote, traditionally on the April ballot with Board of Education races, would be eliminated only if the school district did not increase the budget amount beyond the state-mandated cap of 2 percent.

After an extended discussion of the move, which seemed to unearth more questions than answers, Board of Education President Lisa Ellis polled board members about their readiness to vote. When most board members indicated they weren't, the motion was tabled until the next meeting, which will be held on Feb. 14.

"I had a strong feeling that we wouldn't vote," said Ellis, who felt the need to put the issue on the agenda in an effort to settle the matter quickly. "We need to know as far as our planning goes sooner rather than later."

One issue that sparked a long discussion was whether the amount of the state mandated spending cap could change. School districts who move their election to November must keep it there for four election cycles. It was unclear to the members of the Board whether the state had any limit on when and how it could change the cap.

"What if two years down the line we hear that the state is in trouble and there is no state aid?" said Madison resident Steve Wells, who chimed in when public comment on the issue was invited. "The state has you locked in, but the state is not locking itself in."

A positive result of the move would be that the more than $10,000 cost currently paid by the Board of Education for an April election would be reduced to whatever amount the borough collected for the BOE's share of the November election. Whether there would be any cost at all was debated at the meeting as board members read from the new law and guessed how the cost would play out.

Depending on how the move was interpreted, the effect would be less or more partisan in the school district's affairs. Superintendent Michael Rossi said that the elimination of a budget vote was intended to make the budget less political. But Ellis and others admitted that though the Board of Education candidates would not be placed "on the line" with their party affiliations — as other candidates for office from town council on up to president are — the timing of the election could lead to political affiliations and campaigns that linked Board candidates to a particular political party.

Some other items discussed at the meeting included the news that this marking period is the last in which paper report cards will be sent home. Moving forward, parents will be able to access their child's academic progress through an online service called the Parent Portal. Rossi is also doing an investigational study with the 8th grade teachers to reduce homework in certain subjects for a limited time to see how this affects student performance. Also discussed were nascent plans to outsource custodial work in the district, a decision that won't be made until April.

The Madison Board of Education meetings are open to the public. They are next scheduled to meet on February 14 with the regular open session beginning at 7:30. Meetings are held at the Alice Perlaw Library Media Center of the Madison High School, 170 Ridgedale Ave in Madison.