Your guide to North Jersey spring school board elections

Of New Jersey's almost 600 school districts, only 12 have elections in April, the rest have opted to hold theirs in November.

This year, spring school elections will be held on April 25. The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is April 18 and sample ballots will be mailed out on April 19.

Until April 2012, when a state law was passed that allowed districts to switch to the November general election, all school elections were held in the spring and voters had a say on school spending plans. Now only voters whose districts hold elections in April get to vote yes or no on school budgets.

Schools that have kept elections in the spring, or switched back after moving them to November, are: Cliffside Park, Fairview, Passaic, Totowa, Fredon, Montague, Irvington, Newark, North Bergen, Weehawken, West New York and New Brunswick.

Here are North Jersey's school elections:

Bergen County

CLIFFSIDE PARK — The district has three three-year open school board seats this spring. Running for the seats are incumbents Judith Abreu and Teddy Tarabokija along with Carl Raincourt.

Voters will be asked to vote on a $37.7 million tax levy, which reflects a 2% increase from the current year's spending plan. If voters approve the budget, it will mean a $95 annual increase on an average home assessed at $373,110.

FAIRVIEW — The district has three three-year terms up for election this spring. Running are incumbents Tonin Berisha, Hossam Elsamra and Kenneth Schmitt.

Fairview voters will also be asked to vote on the K-8 district's spending plan. The board approved the total budget for 2023-2024 at $55.6 million. The tax levy, the portion to be raised by taxes and up for a vote, will remain the same as last year's at $16.2 million.

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Morris County

EAST HANOVER — The only spring school board election in Morris County is in East Hanover, where four candidates filed to run for five seats. Catherine Pfund-Olsen and Joseph Troise are the only incumbents who filed for reelection along with Michael Foti and Mattia Philomeno.

Passaic County

TOTOWA — The total 2023-24 school budget is $24.6 million. Taxpayers will be asked to vote on the tax levy portion of the budget, which is $17.2 million, which is up about $390,000 from the current levy. If voters approve the plan, school taxes will increase by about $42 a year for the average assessed home of $396,000.

The Totowa school board also has three full-term seats up for election. Running for those seats are: Nicholas Vancheri, incumbent Heather Antonucci and Kristen Coiro.

CITY OF PASSAIC — The Board of Education approved its proposed $392.7 million budget for the 2023-24 school year this week. Despite a $6 million reduction in total appropriations, the budget will increase taxes by about $35 per year on the average assessed home of $350,000. The last time taxpayers saw an increase in the school tax portion of their bills was in 2014.

The city's school district will also have three open school board seats to fill. Candidates running for reelection for the open seats are incumbents Christina Schratz, Arthur Soto and Leslie Zuniga.

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Sussex County

FREDON — Three Fredon board seats are on the ballot for this election, belonging to Anthony Corcella, Catherine Higgins and Vice President Arne Olsen. Olsen was the only candidate to file for a three-year term, while Corcella filed for the lone one-year term, according to the Sussex County Clerk's office.

The $5.5 million budget proposed by Fredon includes a tax levy of $4.2 million, an increase of just under 2% from $4.1 million in last year's budget. Taxpayers will see a yearly increase of $51.10 for a property assessed at $100,000, according to the Fredon website.

MONTAGUE — The Montague board has four open seats in this year's election. Incumbents Paul Brislin and Andree Campbell, along with challenger Jaime Johnson, are running for a trio of three-year terms, and incumbent Christopher Bell is the lone candidate for a one-year term.

The school's total proposed 2023-24 budget is $13.4 million, with an operating budget of $9.6 million that is a 4.5% increase over the previous budget of $9.2 million. The tax levy of $6.5 million is unchanged from the current budget.

The following staff writers contributed to this report: Marsha Stoltz, William Westhoven, Matt Fagan and Kyle Morel.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ BOE: Guide to spring 2023 elections in North Jersey