By John Burton
RED BANK – Marjorie Lowe wants to make it clear: she is running for the Red Bank Borough Board of Education.
Despite the information the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office was making available, Lowe had planned all along to run for re-election for another three-year term for the local nine-member board for the district’s primary and middle schools. She has served on the board since 2007.
Somehow, however, Lowe’s candidate petition was listed for a run for the Red Bank Regional High School board, a completely separate entity.
Red Bank, along with Shrewsbury and Little Silver is a sending district to the regional high school, 101 Ridge Road, Little Silver, whose board has representatives from the three districts.
Lowe said she became aware of the error recently after people began to notice the listing of board of education candidates for the Nov. 8 election in The Two River Times and elsewhere and told Lowe about it.
“How did this come to pass?” she asked.
“It is all quite puzzling,” observed Red Bank Board of Education President Fred Stone. “I haven’t come across anything like this before,” during his time on the board, he added.
“It was an inadvertent paperwork error,” Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon acknowledged last week.
According to Hanlon, a staff member had incorrectly listed Lowe for the regional board race. The error has been corrected, Hanlon said, and thankfully discovered before ballots were printed.
Ballots have been printed and Lowe is included for the borough race, Hanlon added.
Lowe had been ill and hospitalized and really just hadn’t been up to dealing with the bureaucratic snafu, which prolonged the situation, she acknowledged. “I was thinking, Is this a sign from On High?” she joked. “Wait a minute, Is someone trying to tell me something?”
Lowe, who is 87 and retired, had worked as an educator, as a high school teacher in Arizona, and had been in instructor at the University of the Virgin Islands. She also worked for about 10 years for the Port Authority of NY/NJ, designing its customer service training program.
She and fellow incumbents Ben Forest and Suzanne Viscomi are running unopposed for the three seats.
