Montclair again casts its ballot against school board elections

For the fifth time in 46 years, Montclair voters said "no" to a movement to elect school board members instead of having them appointed by the mayor.

In this township of about 37,000 residents, neighbors have been debating the question in grocery stores, on playgrounds, at libraries and while picking up their children from school. Yesterday, close to 58 percent of more than 9,000 voters rejected the idea of changing the system, which would've required voter approval of school budgets each spring and expanding the board from seven to nine members.

Montclair remains one of 20 school districts in the state with a mayor-appointed board of education, according to the New Jersey School Board Association. Appointed board supporters say it preserves the diversity of board members and precludes special-interest candidates from getting elected. Proponents of an elected board say it would have ensured that board members are responsive to the concerns of residents and parents and made budgets more transparent.

The debate has mostly been civil, but in recent weeks tempers have flared.

"It's a divisive issue, it's confusing, and it's very personal," said Peg Seip, 50, a Montclair mother of two 11-year-old boys.

Seip thinks some of the anger toward the school board would dissipate if its members kept parents better informed and became more "user-friendly," she said.

In many cases, friends are on opposite sides of the issue. Seip's eyes widened yesterday when she learned her best friend, 42-year-old Anne Marie Hantho, was leaning toward voting for an elected board. The two were watching their boys run around a playground next to Hillside Elementary School, where Seip had just voted.

She asked Hantho, "Why?"

"Why does democracy have to stop there?" Hantho said about not electing the school board.

Seip's main concern is that an elected board -- in its zeal to cut the school budget to lower property taxes -- might erode the township's magnet school system, which ensures racial and economic diversity through busing.

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