Superintendents from southern counties will not face pay cuts, except Ocean County, data shows
Gov. Chris Christie and Education Commissioner Bret Schundler meet with kindergarten students at the E. Raymond Appleby Elementary School before they announce their plan to cut the pay of school superintendents during a press conference in July 2010. (Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)TRENTON — When Gov. Chris Christie unveiled a set of strict salary caps on public school superintendents, he predicted it would make New Jersey “the leader” in a national tide of reform. But within the state, impact on districts will vary widely depending on location, a Star-Ledger analysis shows.
Superintendents in northern and central New Jersey are far more likely to face pay cuts than those in the southern counties, according to data provided by the Department of Education. For example, 17 of the 20 Essex County school districts covered by the new rules pay their superintendents more than Christie will permit, and 62 of the 66 Bergen County school chiefs are considered “overpaid,” the analysis shows.
Farther south, salaries have room to grow: Eighteen of the 21 superintendents in Gloucester County, and 17 of the 23 in Atlantic County, make less than the new limits.
Education advocates say that could translate to a disadvantage for North Jersey districts, which have a higher cost of living and must compete against New York-region schools that pay top dollar for superintendents.
“Why would somebody stay in Bergen County to be a superintendent?” asked Barbara Garand, the school board president in the Northern Highlands Regional School District, who worries superintendent John Keenan will retire rather than take the 25 percent pay cut under Christie’s rubric.
“We will see an exodus of superintendents from New Jersey. I am really, really concerned about what this will do for education.”
Christie’s new upper-pay limit for superintendents is $175,000 — the same as the governor’s salary. In New York, the school chiefs in Westchester County will earn $248,087 on average this fall, and the average in Nassau County will be $243,754 according to the state’s School Boards Association.
The Star-Ledger analysis found that in the state’s populous northern half — from Monmouth and Mercer on up — the majority of superintendents face pay cuts in every county but Warren. The opposite is true in every southern county except Ocean County, where the 22 districts’ superintendents are split, and Cape May.
Superintendents in the 16 districts that have more than 10,000 students are exempt from the caps, which will take effect elsewhere once those superintendents’ current contracts expire.
Christie says the plan imposes a “rational sliding scale” on an “out-of-control” system that had no correlation between the number of students in a district and a superintendent’s paycheck.
The governor’s office says nearly two-thirds of the $9.8 million that school districts stand to save under the plan will come from six counties: Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris and Passaic.
Christie said geographic cost-of-living differences were not large enough to build them into the guidelines. “You’re assuming that the people who work in that district live in that district,” he said.
However, regional cost differences are acknowledged in some state laws affecting school spending, and there are wide disparities in the cost of living within New Jersey. For example, the median home price in the first half of 2009 was $413,750 in Bergen County and $400,000 in Morris, compared with $153,950 in Cumberland and $164,950 in Salem.
“The cost of living in Salem County’s very different than Bergen County. ... It would certainly make it a less desirable position based on the pay scale where the cost of living is higher,” said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators.
Some school officials say the limits will at least tamp down competition between districts within the state.
“It makes it so districts who historically couldn’t afford as much as other districts have an equal opportunity,” said Allison Lih-Thiessen, school board president in South Bound Brook, which has one K-8 school serving about 430 students. The district saved about $180,000 this year by consolidating the jobs of principal and superintendent and hiring someone for $50,000 less than the previous superintendent’s salary.
Pete Lawton, school board president in Somerville, agreed change is needed: “Even before being on the board, I would sit and say, ‘This salary structure is just bizarre.’”
He said districts know better than Christie what qualities they need in a superintendent and what salary their taxpayers can stomach. Somerville broke off talks with a candidate this year because the board would not go higher than $192,000. With a new limit of $165,000, the 2,300-student district has more incentive to share a superintendent with nearby Branchburg, Lawton said.
No other state has tried to rein in school administrator pay in exactly this fashion. But in the early 1990s, New York placed pay limits on superintendents of Boards of Cooperative Educational Services — umbrella organizations offering programs to groups of school districts.
The limit — now at $166,000 — was not raised for 10 years, and it hampered BOCES’ recruitment efforts, said Robert Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. He said of the 37 BOCES, more than 10 have had vacancies at the same time, and the Western Suffolk County BOCES has had no superintendent for several years. “They basically gave up on trying to find someone,” Lowry said.
Christie said opportunities for merit pay — achievement bonuses up to 15 percent of the superintendent’s base salary — will give school boards the ability to attract and reward strong leaders. The nonrecurring bonuses would not act as raises and would not count toward pensions.
One district that could feel the crunch is 7,200-student Parsippany, where the school board is eyeing a multiyear contract extension for superintendent LeRoy Seitz. He is earning $212,000 through next summer, making him one of 32 superintendents in Morris County with higher pay than Christie’s limits.
Seitz said the limits could lead superintendents to seek jobs outside New Jersey. “I think it will do significant damage,” he said.
Officials in nearby states — wrestling with shortages of qualified candidates — are already salivating at the potential of poaching.
“It’s going to help in Connecticut. We’re going to get some good people applying for jobs,” said Joseph Cirasuolo, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. “But that doesn’t help New Jersey any.”
Previous Coverage:
• Jersey City schools chief exempt from Christie's proposed salary caps
• Gov. Christie proposes superintendent salary cuts, merit-based bonuses
By Claire Heininger and Lisa Fleisher/Staethouse Bureau Staff
Staff writers Sean Sposito and Chris Megerian, and Eugene Paik of New Jersey Local News Service contributed to this report.