To the Piscataway Township Board of Education, and to the Mayor and Township Council of Piscataway:

We, the undersigned residents and voters of Piscataway Township, ask you to move the annual Board of Education election back to the third Tuesday in April, and to live stream every Board of Education meeting so residents can watch in real time.

You can do this with one vote. Under N.J.S.A. 19:60-1.1(b), the Board can move the election back to April by resolution — no referendum, no court, no permission from Trenton. The same law gives the Township Council that power if the Board will not use it. Live streaming is the Board's own policy call, and can be adopted at any meeting.

November buries our school election. School board races are supposed to be local and nonpartisan. In November they sit at the bottom of a ballot full of partisan state and national contests, drowned out by campaigns that have nothing to do with our schools. In April, the school election stands on its own — the candidates get attention and the issues actually get discussed.

It is 52% of your tax bill. The school district is the single largest line on a Piscataway property tax bill. The Board controls that spending — the budget, staffing, programs, buildings, and contracts. Decisions that size should not be made by people elected on a ballot where almost nobody was looking at their race.

The budget vote should happen while it still matters. With an April election, state law requires the Board to hold its public budget hearing in late March and adopt the budget no later than 18 days before residents vote. The tax levy is on the table first, then we vote. In November, the budget was adopted back in May, the school year has already started, and the tax bills are already out. By the time we vote, it is history.
 
 If we pay for it, we should be able to watch it. If you cannot get to a meeting — work, young kids, an elderly parent, no ride — you cannot see it at all. Live streaming costs very little, and plenty of neighboring districts already do it.

We respectfully request that you:
1.     Adopt a resolution returning the annual Board of Education election to the third Tuesday in April, beginning April 2027, and give the Middlesex County Clerk the notice New Jersey law requires;

2.     Adopt a policy requiring every public Board meeting to be live streamed by video — free, no sign-up — with the full recording left posted on the district website; and

3.     Vote on both requests in public, so residents can see where each member stands.

Our children deserve our full attention. Our taxpayers deserve accountability. Our community deserves a school board election that is about our schools.