Ridgewood school board trustees question adding administrators
MAY 16, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
Administrative work is rising, but so are district costs and taxes.
Because of this Catch-22, some Board of Education (BOE) members are at odds over a proposal, made by Superintendent Daniel Fishbein at last Monday’s BOE meeting, to hire two new administrators to supervise science and special education.
Ultimately, Fishbein wants to reinstate all seven administrative positions lost during budget cuts several years ago. This would include the two positions proposed for next year, two that would be proposed for 2015-2016 and the three administrators hired last year: Ryan Kenny, the new technology manager; Dara Gronau, supervisor of English for grades 6-12; and Jean-Anne O’Neill, supervisor of elementary education. All three receive a salary of $130,000.
BOE trustee Jim Morgan said he believes that the district is operating successfully without the additional administrators, who would add fixed costs to the already-tight budget. Morgan noted that in recent years, when the superintendent has presented the district’s proposed budgets, he has highlighted Ridgewood’s relatively high number of students per administrator while emphasizing Ridgewood’s relatively low costs per student, in comparison to other similar districts’ costs.
“I have serious reservations about the proposal,” Morgan said. “First is the funding. These two positions, which were envisioned last year, were not included in the budget. We’ve spent no time explaining to the community why we want to expand the administrative ranks by two people, which will cost us in excess of $300,000 a year.
“I don’t really fully understand the need,” he said. “We’re continuing to highly perform.”
Fishbein, who proposed to pay for the positions with “breakage” (the differential between the costs of a more highly paid retiring employee and a new hire), justified the positions by pointing to rising administrative work.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/trustees-questionadding-supervisors-1.1017421
