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Back to School: Salary caps chasing North Jersey superintendents out of state
Back to School: Salary caps chasing North Jersey superintendents out of state
Monday August 27, 2012, 12:01 AM
BY LESLIE BRODY AND DAVE SHEINGOLD
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
In the two years since Governor Christie dictated caps on salaries for school superintendents, almost half of the 97 North Jersey districts cut the job’s pay — in one case by $76,000, a Record analysis shows.
Only a few superintendents swallowed pay cuts themselves. Most often, experienced superintendents quit when their contracts expired and they were replaced by younger, cheaper recruits, or by “interim” leaders paid per diem. There has been substantial turnover at the top, with at least 46 districts in Bergen and Passaic counties announcing departures since the steamy July day the governor declared that with rare exceptions, superintendents should not make more than his $175,000 salary.
With all the leadership changes, taxpayers in these two counties spent roughly $900,000 less on superintendents’ pay last year than two years earlier. Some critics of the salary limits say that’s a minute sliver of the billions of public dollars spent annually on schools in North Jersey, and not worth the pain that ensued. The New Jersey School Boards Association has long criticized the cap, saying it was arbitrary and impinged on boards’ autonomy.
Some taxpayers, however, applauded these curbs on six-figure salaries as they strained to deal with high property taxes and recession. Christie insisted it was imperative to stop an upward spiral of superintendents’ pay as they bounced around the state like “free agents” in baseball, looking for lucrative deals.
