HAMILTON TOWNSHIP - Residents in this community don’t have to worry about making two trips to the voting booth to decide school budgets or chose the members of their school boards.

That’s because the Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District Board of Education has joined nearly every other school board in the state by unanimously approving a resolution to move its school board elections from April to November.

The decision came during the board’s regular meeting held Monday, Feb. 13 at Oakcrest High School here.

According to a new state law, the regional board had until Friday, Feb. 17 to decide to move its elections date to November or keep it on the traditional third Tuesday in April.

If the board had decided to keep its elections in April, Hamilton Township residents would have faced different election dates to decide local and regional school issues.

The regional board oversees Absegami, Oakcrest and Cedar Creek high schools but its sending districts – the city of Port Republic and Hamilton, Galloway, Mullica and Washington townships – maintain their own local school districts for grades k-8.

On Feb. 6, the Hamilton Township Committee voted 5-0 to move the election dates for the Hamilton Township School District to November. According to the new law, a move by either the local governing body or the municipal school board to move the election date was binding over the wishes of the other.

But the regional board could have kept its elections in April unless all of its sending districts voted to move their elections to November as well.

Only the members of the Hammonton Board of Education have decided to keep its elections in April and not hold them on the same day as the national, state and local elections in the fall.

According to the new legislation, the Greater Egg Harbor Regional board can’t go back to an April date until 2016.

Also as part of the new law, residents won’t have an opportunity to vote on a school budget if school officials hold the budget to an increase of less than 2 percent.

However, there is a hidden benefit for school districts that moved their elections to November.

Because there is no rush to meet an April public budget vote, districts have more time to finalize their spending plan, according to regional Business Administrator Charles Muller.

“We don’t have an exact timetable from the state yet,” he said during Monday’s meeting.

The board plans to introduce its budget to the public during its next meeting 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 27 at Oakcrest High School, Muller said.

The board had decided to move the dates of its February meetings from the first and third Mondays to the second and fourth Mondays to give district officials time to receive and incorporate this year’s state aid figures into their budget proposal.

Districts must introduce and forward a preliminary budget plan to the county during the first week in March, Muller said.

“We can still fine tune it after that point,” he said.