ASSEMBLY, No. 985

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

 

 

By Assemblyman GEIST

 

 

An Act authorizing school boards to conduct nonbinding referendums and supplementing chapter 11 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. a. When the school board of a Type I school district desires to ascertain the sentiment of the legal voters of the municipality upon any question or policy directly pertaining to the school district, the school board may adopt at any regular meeting a resolution, by a recorded majority vote of its full membership, requesting the clerk of the county to print upon the official ballots to be used at the next general election a public question to be formulated and expressed in the resolution in concise form. The request shall be filed with the clerk of the county not later than 60 days prior to the election, and the clerk shall cause the public question to be printed on each sample ballot and official ballot to be used in the municipality at the next general election.

    b. The ballots so cast for or against the public question shall be counted, and a canvass of the election conducted and announced in the manner now provided by Title 19 of the Revised Statutes.

    c. The result of the referendum shall not bind the school board from which the resolution emanated, nor be taken or construed as other than an expression of sentiment by the voters, to be followed or disregarded by the school board in its discretion.

 

    2. a. When the school board of a Type II school district desires to ascertain the sentiment of the legal voters of the school district upon any question or policy directly pertaining to the school district, the school board may adopt at any regular meeting a resolution, by a recorded majority vote of its full membership, to print upon the official ballots to be used at the next annual school election or special school election a public question to be formulated and expressed in the resolution in concise form. The resolution shall be adopted not later than 60 days prior to the election.

    b. The ballots containing the public question shall be prepared, and the referendum conducted, pursuant to the provisions of chapter 14 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

    c. The result of the referendum shall not bind the school board from which the resolution emanated, nor be taken or construed as other than an expression of sentiment by the voters, to be followed or disregarded by the school board in its discretion.

 

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill permits the board of education of a school district to conduct a nonbinding referendum on a public question which directly pertains to the district. In a Type I district, the referendum would be held at the general election and would be conducted under the provisions of the election statutes found in Title 19, and in a Type II district, the referendum would be held at the annual school election or at a special school election and would be conducted under the school election statutes found in chapter 14 of Title 18A.

    There is currently a provision in Title 19 for municipalities and counties to hold nonbinding referendums.

 

 

 

Permits school boards to conduct nonbinding referendums.