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RED BANK: PETER NOBLE DIES

red bank peter nobleFormer Red Bank Board of Education President Peter Noble died Tuesday night. He was 68 years old, said Mayor Pasquale Menna.

“We lost one of the best last night,” Menna said at the council’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday evening.

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RUMSON: WRITE-IN CAPTURES R-FH SEAT

rfh vote 020416According to results posted on the Monmouth County Clerk’s website, write-in candidate John M. Caruso was the top vote-getter in a runoff election for a seat on the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional Board of Ed held Monday. On the ballot were Valerie Ferrante and Jada L. Kavanagh, who finished in a tie in voting on November 3. Just 3.4 percent of registered voters came out for the runoff, according to site. (Click to enlarge)

MORANA: SCHOOL TAX COULD’VE BEEN WORSE

By WIL FULTON

Red Bank’s school board unanimously approved the borough’s 2013-2014 school budget at the Thursday night before a small group of residents and school officials at the primary school.

The spending plan weighed in at $13.2 million, up $522,503, or 4.1 percent, from last year. The increase might have topped 8 percent, had the district chosen to employ “banked cap,” a method that allows districts to exceed the state-mandated limits on budget growth, said Superintendent Laura Morana.

But “when we thought about the impact [the tax levy] would have on households, and families for community members in Red Bank, we decided it was too high,” Morana said. “We wanted to be responsive to the needs of our children – meeting their educational needs, having the appropriate personnel, supplies and technology – but at the same time, we needed to think about the members of our community, and really think about the impact on the community.”

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LONE CANDIDATE FACES THE VOTERS

naacp-041310Ben Forest, below, met with residents Tuesday night in a forum sponsored by the Red Bank NAACP. (Photos by Anthony Trufolo; click to enlarge.)

ben-forest

It was board of ed candidate’s night last night at Red Bank’s Calvary Baptist Church.

That’s right: ‘candidate,’ singular. The Red Bank school board, though it has three open seats in next week’s election, has only one declared candidate: incumbent finance committee chairman Ben Forest.

He fielded questions at a sit-down hosted by the local chapter of the NAACP.

“There was a lot of concern about budget cuts, particularly cuts to the athletic program,” Forest tells redbankgreen.

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