Candidates get another day to file

A day after a snowstorm shuttered school districts statewide and caused some school board candidates to miss the filing deadline, Gov. Jon Corzine stepped in to end the budding problem.

Corzine signed an executive order yesterday that gives school board candidates until 4 p.m. today to hand in their nominating petitions to appear on the ballot next month.

"We need to make sure we have the ability to have people fully have a chance to participate in the electoral process," Corzine said at an economic relief fair at Middlesex County College.

The deadline for filing an election petition with district school board secretaries was 4 p.m. Monday. But after more than a foot of snow blanketed parts of the state, shuttering most schools, it was feared that many candidates may not have been able to submit their paperwork.

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy sent a memo to districts on Monday saying that state election law does not allow an extension of the filing deadline. But she advised that districts could seek a court order to exceed the deadline.

Corzine's executive order negated the need for that.

"That's good," said Parsippany superintendent LeRoy Seitz when he learned of the order. "It makes it nice and clean and clear."

Although some districts had grappled with the issue during past storms, this was the first time so many districts statewide were closed on the filing deadline, said Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association.

On April 21, residents will elect school board members, who will help determine the annual school budget, funded by the largest portion of a property tax bill.

Some candidates wait until the last minute to file their petitions, hoping to size up the competition and see if incumbents are running for re-election.

While Parsippany schools were closed Monday the district office was open to accept the election paperwork, but that might not have been clear to candidates, Seitz said.

"I'm sure it was very confusing for everybody," Seitz said, adding that no one had contacted the district to say they were unable to file.

When Joseph DePinto showed up at Kingwood Township schools in Hunterdon County on Monday to file his petition he found a driveway filled with snow.

"He got there in the morning and the school wasn't even plowed out," said his wife, Judy, who had picked up his nominating paperwork the week before.

DePinto, 48, a director at Johnson & Johnson, stopped at the board office twice on Monday, only to find both the school and administrative offices closed. He tried again yesterday morning, only to be told that since the deadline had passed, the petition could not be accepted.

"I tried. I would have been disappointed ... but it would have been a 12-month disappointment," said DePinto, who said he was planning to run next year if he was closed out. Instead, the father of three said he plans to file his paperwork today -- when he will become the fourth candidate in the race for three board seats.

Incumbent board president Mary Ellen Pilch, and candidates Anthony Planer and Eric Scher, had filed earlier.

In many districts, school board administrators didn't take any chances that they would miss late-comers.

Kinnelon school business administrator Alice Robinson knew ahead of the storm that all of the election petitions that residents had picked up had been returned, but she still made it into the office Monday. She had a note posted on the office door with her cell phone number in case she was delayed.

"I sat here for the rest of the day, just in case," Robinson said.

In Pequannock, candidate Megan Hollberg had heard last week of the impending storm and handed in her paperwork ahead of time.

"They had been predicting snow for the weekend," said Hollberg, who is seeking her second term. "I made sure I turned it in on Friday in case that happened."