I n a move that will save money and potentially garner a greater turnout, the Upper Freehold Regional School District’s (UFRSD’s) school board elections will be moved to coincide with the November general election. Members of the UFRSD Board of Education voted unanimously to make the change at their Feb. 1 meeting.

“There are a lot of reasons that it has been recommended that we adopt it,” board President Lisa Herzer said, adding that 137 — or 25 percent — of districts had already made the move since Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation Jan. 17 to allow for it.

While concurrent with the general election, school board elections will be placed on a separate section of the general election ballot, and will remain nonpartisan.

In addition, the law dictates that if the school’s annual budget falls within the 2 percent tax levy increase, it can be passed without voter approval. If the budget has a tax increase of more than 2 percent, the portion of the budget that exceeds the cap would be voted on at the November election. UFRSD Superintendent Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick said prior to the meeting that this provision will be helpful to the district, which has faced a lack of community support for budgets in the past.

“We spend a tremendous amount of time trying to reach that 2 percent level,” he said, lauding board members for donating their time to the district.

At the meeting, among the reasons Herzer cited for supporting the change was not only the savings created for the district by moving the elections — about $6,000, according to school business administrator/ board secretary Diana Schiraldi — but also the avoidance of additional expenses that would be incurred by leaving the voting in April.

Because the expenses associated with county employees for elections would be borne by fewer municipalities throughout the state, costs would increase for districts that declined to move their election dates, she said.

Board member Patrick Nolan questioned what the increased costs would look like. Herzer told him she couldn’t quantify it, but an increase would be inevitable.

“We either move it and save money, or leave it and it costs more,” Nolan said, summing it up.

The issue of voter turnout, which is notoriously low for school board elections, also helped to sway the board’s decision. Last year’s school elections drew a little over 13 percent of voters throughout the state, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association.

“There’s a small group of people making all the decisions about the education of the community,” Fitzpatrick told the Examiner. “I think now this places [the board candidates] in prime time and focus. What’s really important is to know who is going to decide what the budget is, and find out what the candidates value.”

Board member Gregg Barkley agreed.

“The more people we get to turn out, the better it is for everybody,” he said at the meeting.

In addition to voting for school board members and any spending above the 2 percent budget cap, November voters in school elections would also have the opportunity to cast ballots to decide any capital spending proposal.

The deadline for candidates to file their candidacy for school board seats will be the date of the June primary elections. The school boardwill reorganize in January, which for the UFRSD means that Herzer, Rick Smith, Howard Krieger and Eileen Heddy will remain on the board until the end of 2012.

School districts that move their elections to the fall must stick with the new date for four years.