Will November Elections Make School Board Seats More Competitive?

Not so much, according to today’s NJ Spotlight. In fact, fewer candidates are filing for spots on boards that chose to move elections to November. (Currently, there are 70 hold-outs for April out of 541 districts that hold elections.) This belies a fear among some school boards that November elections might provoke more intense rivalry and partisanship than April ones.

Frank Beluscio of NJ School Boards Association says that a proposed change in the filing date — which would move it to early September — could encourage more aspiring board members to participate in elections.