Schools

Four Compete for Three Point Boro Board of Ed. Seats

Rick Ruiz is only incumbent running

Rick Ruiz is the only incumbent running in the Point Borough Board of Education election.

Longtime board member Joan Speroni and board member Louis Cuevas are not running for reelection.

Brian Bartlett, Northwest Drive; Peter Hetzel, River Road and Nancy S. Pazienza, Pulaski Drive, are running, according to the Ocean County Clerk's Office.

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The three-year seats now held by Ruiz, Speroni and Cuevas are up for grabs in the Nov. 6 general election. The Board of Education in voted to move the school elections to November.

Ruiz, who lives on Riviera Parkway, is running for his second board term.

Find out what's happening in Point Pleasantwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Cuevas, a retired Neptune police officer who lives with his family on Short Place, said in an email, "I decided not to run because I wanted to spend more time with my family and pursuing other ventures."

Speroni could not immediately be reached for comment.

The move from an April school board election to a November one means candidates had until 4 p.m. today to file petitions with the Ocean County Clerk's office.

Feb. 27 was the deadline to file for an April election for those districts in the state that kept their elections in April.

The move to a November election was allowed under a newly passed , giving districts the choice to keep an April election or move it to the general election in November.

Candidates will be listed in a separate section of the November ballot, as school board elections are nonpartisan.

The move to November also means the Point Borough school tax levy is no longer before voters and was instead decided by the school board. The new state law says that the budgets do not need to be up for a public vote unless the tax levies increase more than 2 percent from last year's levels.


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