Voters Reject School Budgets

In a year when there was no competition for seats on either the township K-8 or regional high-school districts' boards, township voters nonetheless went to polls Wednesday to send a message.

Their message: We can't take any higher taxes.

Voters narrowly rejected both the Gloucester Township Public Schools' and Black Horse Pike Regional School District's proposed 2011-12 budgets.

"I think they're too top-heavy on administration," Sicklerville resident William Pelaschier said while explaining his two "no" votes as he left Ann A. Mullen Middle School Wednesday afternoon. "Personally, I think they should do a countywide superintendent, and I don't think there needs to be a vice principal for each class."

Unofficial results show the K-8 budget was rejected by a margin of less than 60 votes, with 1,481 "no" votes and 1,422 "yes" votes. Provisional ballots must still be counted before the vote is certified.

The Black Horse Pike Regional School District (BHPRSD) budget was rejected by a vote of 2,305 opposed and 2,089 in support.

"I'm slightly disappointed. Slightly," BHPRSD President Kevin Bucceroni said late Wednesday. "But this budget has only passed three times in 40, 50 years. It's just not something that happens every year."

In the township, 1,420 residents cast ballots in support of the budget, while 1,499 opposed it.

"I'm trying to keep my taxes down," said Erial resident Don Choyce as he left Mullen Middle.

Like Pelaschier, Choyce noted he feels the school budgets are too top-heavy on administration.

"It's not just this district," Pelaschier said. "It's the whole state."

Sandra Rambo, who lives in Erial and teaches in Clementon, and Robert Howard, a former industrial arts teacher who lives in Sicklerville, voted in support of both budgets.

"You need to support education to support your town," Rambo said.

Howard left the teaching profession several years ago after budget cuts had forced him to move one too many times. He worked at schools in Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey over his teaching career.

"I believe in public education," Howard said. "If I don't support it, who will?"

Runnemede voters narrowly approved the BHPRSD budget, 336-323. It was defeated in Bellmawr by the largest margin of the three towns in the regional district, with 333 people in favor and 483 opposed.

The K-8 district's rejected $100,912,254 budget called for a 1.4 percent increase to the tax levy. The increase would have resulted in owners of the average-priced township home ($199,000) paying a total of $1,898.18 in taxes to the district, or $57.10 more than they did for the current academic year.

BHPRSD's rejected $67,417,382 budget called for a 1.5 percent increase to the tax levy. The increase would have resulted in owners of the average-priced township home paying $1,023.96 in taxes, or $30.95 more than they did this year.

Township voters were being asked to shoulder 77.14 percent of the regional high-school district's $30,447,597.34 tax levy, or $23,487,276.59.

Both districts will now send their budgets to municipal governing bodies for analysis and recommended cuts—BHPRSD to elected officials in Gloucester Township, Bellmawr and Runnemede, and the K-8 district to just the Gloucester Township Council.

Ray Polidoro, chairman of the Gloucester Township Republican Municipal Committee, hopes the elected officials will recommend cuts that allow schools to keep extracurricular programs intact.

He reported encountering students outside of his polling place at Timber Creek Regional High School who indicated otherwise.

"These children were told that their extracurricular activities were going to be cut if the budget didn't pass," Polidoro said. "That's very concerning."

Bucceroni, Joyce Ellis and Ben Zanghi won re-election to the BHPRSD board for three years in one uncontested race, while incumbent Andrew Lalli was joined by Marianne Coyle and Joseph Gunn in winning three-year terms on the K-8 board in the other.

Bucceroni received 1,774 votes, Ellis 1,754 and Zanghi 1,699.

Lalli received 1,725 votes, Coyle 1,734 and Gunn 1,678.

All vote totals are unofficial until all provisional ballots are counted by the Camden County Board of Elections.

It appears unlikely, however, that the provisional counts will change any results.