New Milford School Budget Passes

Voters approved this year's proposed school budget, a significant victory for district administrators and the Board of Education, who's members worked hard to earn public support after last year's defeat.

Last year's budget was voted down by only 27 votes, which forced cuts of more than $125,000 from the district's spending for the 2010-11 school year. That led to programs being axed and layoffs of faculty and staff.

This year, voters approved the budget 635 to 512, according to unofficial results released by the borough clerk's office Wednesday night. The borough had not yet received the tally of absentee ballots from Bergen County as of late Wednesday, according to Borough Administrator Christine Demiris.

The New Milford School budget for 2011-12 is $29,163,755 with $27,423,555 being raised through the tax levy. The rest of the funding for borough schools will come from state aid, extraordinary aid and interest earned, according to Business Administrator Michael Sawicz. New Milford homeowners with an average home valued at $414,000 will see taxes rise by $241.

Out of 9,378 registered voters, 1,147 turned out to make their voices heard on Wednesday. That number did not include absentee ballots submitted by the deadline, and the results will become official once those numbers are received.

All candidates running for election to the New Milford Board of Education were running unopposed.

Dan Conner was re-elected to the BOE for a three-year term, receiving 707 total votes. The next highest vote-getter was Peggy Saslow with 676, earning her another three-year term. John Bigger was the winner of the two-year term with 661 votes.

Demiris said there were a "significant" amount of votes for write-in candidate Paige Ryan, who was seeking the open three-year term on the board. The borough is waiting for the county to verify that election result since there were discrepancies in how voters spelled her name and which term she was written in for--some voters wrote her name in for the two year term, while others wrote her name in for the three year term.

Demiris said it would likely be a couple of days before Ryan's election results are validated by the county.

Polls were open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the borough and around the state.