Back in 2010 N.J. Governor Chris Christie "pretty much unilaterally,"reports today's N.J. Spotlight, imposed a salary cap on school superintendents: up $175K per year for the state's largest districts the same as his own salary, and as low as $125K for the state's smallest districts. (Districts over 10,000 students are exempt; superintendents, at the discretion of the board and the executive county superintendent, are eligible for merit bonuses.) This cap has become the bane of superintendents, school boards (see this report from NJSBA for details), and the state association that represents school CEO's.
Lawsuits have been filed. School boards have tried to evade the cap, especially as over the last five years salaries for principals and business administrator creep up to and over the cap. As a result, some superintendents flee to New York and Pennsylvania, where salaries are capless. For example,
Brian Osborne, the highly-regarded superintendent of South Orange-Maplewood Public Schools " couldn't resist a job in New Rochelle, N.Y., with a base pay of $265,000 a year—or $87,500 more than he could earn in New Jersey under a salary cap that would hit him as soon as his contract expired June 30."
From the
Wall Street Journal: "With Dr. Osborne's decision, 10 of the 43 districts in New York's Westchester County are now run by former New Jersey superintendents who left after Gov. Chris Christie imposed the salary cap in February 2011, saying it would help limit sky-high property taxes."
And some N.J. superintendents, having reached the cap, retire early and then "double-dip," collecting pensions as well as per diem payments from school districts that need interim superintendents.
New Jersey Watchdog reported in 2013 that 45 retired superintendents "have worked as interim superintendents during the current school year in New Jersey. The retirees collectively received more than $4 million annually from the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund, the investigation found through public records searches."
Karen Lake was another schools leader highlighted in the report. The retired former superintendent of Hillsborough Township schools in Somerset County collects $131,964 in annual pension – but also makes $108,230 for working three days a week currently as interim superintendent at Mahwah schools, in Bergen County, the report states.
“It’s the way the system is set up,” said Lake. “I took advantage of it.”
Schools boards, superintendents, and their representing associations have been waiting anxiously for the salary cap to expire in November. But Spotlight reports that last week at a press conference in Trenton, "the governor used the opportunity to take another poke at the New Jersey Education Association, the teachers union, which he said had been seeking the caps, something its leadership denies."
“Why don’t you ask the teachers union, they’re the ones who asked me to put the caps on?” he said.
When pressed for his own intentions, Christie said he had not yet begun considering the prospect that lay more than six months away.
“I don’t have an intention,” he said. “It doesn’t sunset until November, and it’s June. I have a lot of decisions to make between now and November, and that one is not at the top of my list at the moment. Come October, I’ll start thinking about it
Maybe he should ask N.J. school boards about how the cap has interfered with their ability to retain great school leaders. We've been thinking about it for a long time.
Labels: NJASA, NJSBA, school boards, school funding