Ocean City Voters Approve School Budget and Re-Elect Incumbents

Voters approved the 2011-12 school budget in the annual school election Wednesday night and returned three incumbents to office for three-year terms.

The school budget passed in an unofficial tally of 577-351.

The owner of an average $679,500 home in Ocean City will pay an extra $20.68 in school taxes next year under the new budget.

The three incumbents (click on names for candidate profiles) ran unopposed and received the following number of votes:

• Joseph Clark: 698
• Gregory Donahue: 717
• Antwan McClellan: 688

The $41,065,800 budget includes a $37,942,194 operating budget and raises $21,640,721 from Ocean City taxpayers. The tax levy represents a 1.65 percent increase from the last fiscal year—well under the new 2 percent cap mandated by Gov. Chris Christie. See more .

As they delivered results to the City Clerk's Office, election workers reported the same thing: an "extremely quiet" day at the polls.

Voter turnout figures were not yet available on Wednesday night, but the voting tallies seemed to mirror the 2009 school election—when only 1,052 ballots were cast, 626 in favor of the school budget and 426 against.

The 2010 election saw a 21.45 percent turnout with the budget passing 1,169-720. A ballot question related to Intermediate School improvements helped draw more voters.

Ocean City School District Superintendent Kathleen Taylor, School Business Administrator Tom Grossi and Board of Education President Peter Madden were on hand at the Clerk's Office for the vote tally and were happy to see their work in delivering a lean budget rewarded at the polls.

Tallies from the individual wards are as follows: