April 27 Is Coming: Your Guide to Morris Plains School Elections

THE BUDGET

The Big Numbers: The Morris Plains school board is proposing a 2011-2012 budget of 15,072,510, with a local tax levy of 14,221,603 in that fiscal year. The tax rate would be .9699 per $100 of assessed valuation for calendar year 2011, up from .927 in 2010. 

What It Means for Your Tax Bill: If your home is assessed at the municipal average of 439,483, that tax rate of .969 translates to a yearly bill of about $2,360 (not counting municipal and county taxes, which are set separately). That would be up $188 from 2010-2011.

What It Means For School Programs: Superintendent of Schools Dennis Mack has stated that, as long as the school budget is passed this year, no positions would be cut in the school district, all educational programs would be maintained, athletics would be untouched, courtesy busing prices would stay the same and, if all goes well, new technology will be purchased.

Impact of the Tax Cap: For the first time, tax levies for school budgets are only typically allowed to grow up to 2 percent year-over-year, though the law putting that cap into place makes exceptions for certain costs, including healthcare and pensions. The Morris Plains budget is right at that cap.

What Happens if Voters Shoot Down the Budget: It would next go to the Morris Plains Borough council for review. The council would then make cuts, which it would send back to the school board to implement. The council gets to decide how much money comes out of the plan; the school board gets to decide where that money comes from. 

How To Learn More: See the PDF included with this article for a budget breakdown. The district's "user-friendly" budget is here, and its slideshow presentation on the budget is here.

THE SCHOOL BOARD RACE

In the Running: Four people are running for four open school board seats.  is an incumbent finishing a 3-year term on the board. She is running again, but not for another 3-year term. Instead, she will run for the shorter 2-year term that resulted from the resignation of Mary Beth Stolworthy from the board last year.  is the incumbent who was appointed to fill the seat of Mary Beth Stolworthy after her resignation last year. He is now running for a full 3-year term.  is a new candidate running for a 3-year term.Douglas McCabe is a write-in candidate who joined the race after the official deadline. Since his name will not appear on the ballot, the only way to vote for him is to enter his exact name, "Douglas McCabe." If there is even a one-letter misspelling, or if you write "Doug McCabe or "D. McCabe," the vote will not be counted.

The Big Issues: School board candidates have spoken about long-range planning needs, improved efficiencies, and dealing with the difficult economy. Click through the links on their names to read about their positions.

WHERE AND WHEN TO VOTE

Polls will be open from 2 to 9 p.m. on April 27. All Morris Plains residents vote at the , 51 Jim Fear Drive.