BY JESSICA SMITH
Staff Writer

Amy Speizer MONROE - Voters approved the school budget by a narrow margin Tuesday and chose two incumbents and one newcomer to sit on the Board of Education.

Amy Speizer, a 15-year board veteran, captured the largest number of votes, with Ira Tessler and Lew Kaufman coming in at a close second and third in the race.

"I was confident that the people in Monroe wanted to continue to have the great programs and great schools that we have," Speizer said. "I think my record speaks for itself. I think we're going to work fantastic as a team with the rest of the board."

Tessler, a trustee of the Monroe Education Foundation, echoed Speizer's sentiment, saying he looks forward to working with the other board members during what will be his first term.

"I'm very happy with the results of the election," Tessler said. "I think the voters of Monroe made a very good choice with their candidates. Good, old-fashioned hard work just paid off."

Though Speizer was happy with the results of the election, she expressed displeasure with one aspect of the race.

Ira Tessler "I was really disappointed in the behavior of a small group of people in the town that felt that a smear campaign was the only way to get elected," Speizer said. "I've never seen anything like that. It was awful. Negativity didn't win, not in Monroe."

Moving forward, Tessler said he would like to work on projects such as the proposed new high school in ways that will prove satisfactory to the residents of Monroe. He also said he is happy that the budget was approved.

Kaufman could not be reached for comment.

Results were as follows: Speizer, 1,898; Tessler, 1,825; Kaufman, 1,806; Ken Chiarella, 1,730; Russell Boyd, 1,581; Carol Bjornsen, 1,374; and incumbent Carol Haring, 1,337.

The vote tally for the budget was 2,266 yes and 2,198 no.

The budget carries a tax rate increase of 9 cents, or $133 for the owner of property assessed at $150,000.

Though Monroe has a long tradition of seeing school budgets pass, this year it happened only by 68 votes. Board President Kathy Kolupanowich said she is pleased with the passing of the budget, and appreciates voter turnout, no matter which way they cast their ballots.

Lew Kaufman "We want to thank the community for coming out and supporting education for all of our students," Kolupanowich said. "We have a lot of work to do. A lot of communities didn't pass the budgets by a lot, so I think it's a wake-up call to Trenton, to come up with a fair funding formula for all of the communities in New Jersey."

According to Kolupanowich, it is getting much tougher to pass school budgets, partly because of a growing number of planned retirement communities in the town.

"Although we do get support from them, they are not passing the budgets," Kolupanowich said.