A simmering controversy that has been brewing statewide regarding the benefits paid out to top public school administrators boiled over last week when state education officials released salary details for the highest-ranking staff of all of New Jersey’s 608 school districts.
The move generated headlines and sparked heated discussion from Mahwah to Cape May as taxpayers and education groups debated the merits of the pay packages the state’s local municipal school boards agree to provide their local school superintendents and top administrators.
While local school superintendents were paid an average of $147,491 in 2007, more than half of them earned larger salaries than the state’s top education official. State Department of Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy is paid $140,730.
A total of 41 superintendents were paid more than $200,000 in 2007 according to the DOE’s salary survey that was published online on the department’s Web site.
Among them is Montclair Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez, who heads the district’s magnet school system. Alvarez is listed with a $205,793 annual salary.
Other top salaries for the Montclair District’s senior administrative staff posted on the DOE Web site include School Business Administrator Dana Sullivan, $148,393; Asst. Superintendent Curriculum/Assessment Terry Trigg-Scales, $146,558; Personnel Administrator James Patterson, $144,180, and Director of Pupil Services James Scagliotti, $136,659.
The DOE salary guide also lists: Director of Pupil Services James Scagliotti, $136,659; Supervisor–Technology Maria Narciso,, $115,750; Assistant to the Superintendent Bruce Dabney, $115,380; Supervisor – Math/Science Curriculum Joan Moriarty, $113,025; Supervisor–LA/SS Curriculum Jean Wuensch,, $109,684; Supervisor–SPED Rebecca Ross, $109,184; Supervisor–SPED Keith Breiman, $109,184; Supervisor–SPED Nicole Fried, $83,200; Transportation Manager Lenny Romano, $80,714; Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds Frank Belluscio, $78,314, and Assistant Business Administrator Andrea DelGuercio, $73,053.
Disclosures made by Davy and the DOE Web site showed that more than $36 million in retirement payouts is scheduled to be paid to school superintendents and administrators throughout New Jersey, with an additional more than $17 million in bonuses and travel stipends.
When coupled with $5 million in annual buybacks of unused sick and vacation days, state education officials said that about 3,400 school administrators will share nearly $59 million in annual perks and future retirement payments.
Public attention was drawn to the issue of school administrators’ pay after state legislators who were grappling with huge budget deficits earlier this year decried what they said was profligate spending by local boards of education. They cited a $740,000 retirement deal that was to be paid out to outgoing Keansburg Schools Superintendent Barbara Trzeszkowski as an example of the excesses.
Angry taxpayer reaction led Davy to enact restrictions capping accumulated sick time pay at $15,000 and limiting other provisions that can inflate pay by tens of thousands of dollars.
DOE officials were also given the power to reject provisions in new contracts that call for "excessive" pay and retirement benefits, such as those approved for Trzeszkowski.
However, existing contracts would not fall under the new rules.
Davy’s action came on the heals of the enactment last year of the state’s School Accountability Act, which requires districts to post the salaries and benefits information and budget summaries on their own Web sites or provide other means of making the information available to the public.
The law mandates that salary and benefit information be provided for all superintendents, assistant superintendents, district business administrators and all employees whose salaries exceed $75,000 and who are not members of a collective bargaining unit.
"We’ve issued regulations already that speak to some of the benefits and other perks that you see in these reports," Davy stated. "The regulations are already having an impact on these contracts and how they’re being negotiated now and how they’re being approved."
However, a group representing New Jersey’s superintendents is attempting to block enforcement of the new regulations. It has filed a federal lawsuit against the state and Davy, claiming new limits on administrators’ pay are arbitrary and unconstitutional.
The suit contends the new rules violate the administrators’ rights to due process and single them out over other public employees.
"The government can’t create arbitrary classes, and to regulate the salaries of 1,400 administrators and not 200,000 other school employees doesn’t make a lot of sense," stated Stephen Edelstein, lawyer for the New Jersey Association of School Administrators and four individuals named as plaintiffs.
"She (Davy) is trying to treat school district employees as state employees, and they are not. There is a strong home rule tradition in this state," Edelstein stated.
Meanwhile, the information pulled together by State Department of Education has been posted on its DOE website in "user-friendly" plain language summaries. It remains available to all members of the public and officials intend on updating the summaries every year.
To access the salary and benefit information and the plain language budget summaries, log onto http://www.nj.gov/education/finance/fp/ufb/.
