Results mixed in school elections
S.B. budget passes, incumbents sweep school board seats
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

South Brunswick voters approved a $94.6 million school tax levy by a vote of 1,840 to 1,568 in Tuesday's election.

Meanwhile, the Board of Education's three incumbent candidates, Harry Delgado, Anna Tupe and Deborah Taylor, were all retained, beating out newcomers Mahesh "Mac" Shah, Susan Santowasso, Arif Patel and Surabhi Agarwal.

The passage of the budget means that South Brunswick homeowners will see an 11.8-cent increase per $100 assessed value. The election received its highest turnout in at least six years, with 17.04 percent of the township's 20,843 registered voters participating.

Schools Superintendent Gary McCartney expressed happiness that the budget had passed, but also said that real change won't come until districts are able to financially support themselves through means other than property taxes.

"While we hate to ever see the taxes go up, it is a reality of life that when they only have property tax to support our schools, the taxes will go up, but I am very appreciative of the passage of this budget and we will do everything in our power to use our resources in very, very reasonable ways, and we'll make differences for kids," said McCartney.

Delgado, a captain in the South Brunswick Police Department who resides in Dayton, received the most votes with 1,995, beating out even the budget in sheer support. In addition to being pleased the budget passed, he said the fact that each incumbents won could be seen as a vote of confidence in the current board's activities.

"I can only suggest to you that I think the public sees the board is working very well together. It's very hard to get a board to work in such sync and I think this board is doing that, and when it's moving the business of the district forward, I think people notice that," said Delgado.

The second runner-up was Anna Tupe, a school nurse from Monmouth Junction, with 1,687 votes. She said that with the budget finally passing, the district could now move on to addressing other economic issues.

"I'm really very pleased to see the voters come out and support the budget. It was a challenging budget, a challenging situation, but I'm glad they supported the budget and supported us, and we're going to work hard to move forward with Trenton and all the economic issues," said Tupe.

Deborah Taylor, an IT worker, won her first full board term this year with 1,500 votes. Last year, she beat out her challengers to complete the remainder of a departing board member's term.

"Most important, I'm really, really glad the budget passed. That makes it a lot easier to accomplish what we've been meaning to accomplish," Taylor said.

Of those who did not win seats, Santowasso, a retired South Brunswick schoolteacher from Deans, garnered 1,467 votes; Shah, a research scientist from Monmouth Junction, received 967 votes; and Agarwal, an IT worker from Kendall Park, received 803 votes.