Ridgewood March 6, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 5 Board of education election will be uncontested this year by John Koster Incumbent Ridgewood Board of Education trustees Michele Lenhard and Jim Morgan will run uncontested in this year’s school board election. Two three-year terms are available this year. Voters will be asked to endorse the incumbents in the April 16 election. Ridgewood’s school election is one of the few in the area that was not switched to coincide with the November general election. Last year, boards of education had the opportunity to move their school trustee and budget elections from April to November. Districts that moved their elections to November are no longer required to submit their school budgets to the voters for approval as long as those budgets remain within the state-mandated cap, which is currently two percent. Lenhard is now seeking her third term on the board, which she previously served as president. Lenhard has advocated a continued partnership among the board, the school staff, and the citizens of Ridgewood. In addition to her service to the school board, she has also been a member of the Environmental Study Committee. Her family operates a local business. Morgan is now seeking election to a full three-year term after defeating Robert Hutton for a one-year term in last year’s election. Morgan has an MBA and a CPA and extensive corporate financial experience. A former head of the Ridgewood Education Foundation, which raises money for school enhancement by voluntary contributions, and of the Ridgewood High School Neighborhood Association, an advocacy group critical of the board, Morgan has argued that better communication between the board and the residents would reduce opposition to board policies. He also urged a zero-increase budget. ‘Firearm’ found Ridgewood Police Department Patrol Officer Kevin McKeon was dispatched to a preschool located on Prospect Street in response to a 911 telephone report of a firearm found on the property. A male employee of the school had found a rifle in a wooded area adjacent to the school earlier in the morning, taken it in to the school building for safe keeping, and then called the police. Officer McKeon conducted a search of the area for any other weapons or ammunition, then secured the rifle in the trunk of his patrol car. The weapon was taken to Ridgewood Police Department headquarters for further analysis and investigation. Police later reported that the item found was a BB gun. (Photo courtesy of Boyd A. Loving.)