SUPER-SIZED
SALARIES
Sunday, February 19, 2006 • BY
MIKE FRASSINELLI AND JIM LOCKWOOD • Star-Ledger
Staff
Franklin Township School Superintendent
Roger Jinks could work just about anywhere he
wants.
A 35-year educator who has been
Franklin's chief for seven years, Jinks is Warren County's
fourth lowest-paid school superintendent ($106,577), yet a
dozen times a year he gets a call from a headhunter telling
him he's "on the short list" if he wants to be
superintendent at a different school.
Jinks has always politely declined,
calling his rural district "a very magical place ... like
Mayberry RFD."
"It's not just me, it's everybody," Jinks
said of the recruiting. "You could name your salary, within
reason, because they need us. To jump out of bed and be
happy to go to work -- to me, it's worth twice my
salary."
Where superintendents once made only 10
percent to 15 percent more than their next-highest employee,
the elimination of tenure and increased licensing
requirements have thinned the potential superintendent pool,
several officials said.
A shortage of applicants has led to more
superintendents switching jobs and much better salaries
awaiting them.
Average pay for superintendents statewide
increased 23 percent in the last five years to $137,037 in
2004-05, the last year for which the Education Department
has complete data. In comparison, the increase was nearly 26
percent in Sussex County and 23 percent in Warren
County.
In the 2005-06 school year, the average
superintendent salary in Sussex jumped to $135,240, and rose
to $121,269 in Warren, according to a Star-Ledger analysis
of hundreds of pages of superintendent contracts. The
2005-06 statewide figure has not yet been
released.
During that same time frame, teachers in
the state saw an average salary increase of less than 6
percent, from $51,671 to $55,087, and the average New Jersey
worker was paid only 4.9 percent more, from $41,038 to
$43,040.
Gregg Edwards, president of the Center
for Policy Research of New Jersey, a free-market think tank
in Hunterdon County, has no problem with superintendents
making generous salaries -- particularly since they have
lost their tenure and much of their job security.
It is the extras -- such as additional
life insurance policies and payment for unused vacation days
-- he has the problem with.
"My concern has been the creeping
incidence of compensation outside the salary," he said. "I
think you need to be transparent. And the way to be
transparent is to put it in the salary, where taxpayers can
see it up front."
TRANSIENT POPULATION
Edwards, who was a school board member in
Mercer County during the 1980s, also thinks the salaries
should be tied to the attainment of school district
goals.
"If they are going to argue that they are
CEOs -- and I think they are -- they ought to be judged by
their performance," he said. "I think the school boards tend
to think it's not their money, so they spend it more freely
than they should."
Tenure protection for superintendents was
eliminated in 1991. The change has led to a more transient
superintendent population in Sussex and Warren counties. For
the 2005-06 school year, seven superintendents in each
county were new.
School superintendents liken themselves
to executives of multimillion dollar corporations, except
that many of these CEOs are often out the door before they
can make a difference.
"Change in public education is something
that takes time to manage," said longtime Superintendent
Kevin Brennan of the fast-growing Greenwich Township
district in Warren County. "If your average stay for a
superintendent is less than two years, basically you are
having a person come in as an interim."
Longevity fosters continuity, several
longtime superintendents said.
"Turnover lends itself to a lack of
continuity. I don't think it's good for the district," said
Joseph DiPasquale, superintendent of Wallkill Valley
Regional High School in Sussex County for the past 18 years.
"I think removal of tenure has been a detriment. Sooner or
later, you're going to alienate someone" and not be rehired.
"We're dinosaurs, the people who have tenure."
Not surprisingly, some superintendents
with the highest salaries in Sussex have the most
experience, and they cite longevity, dedication and
effectiveness as main reasons for their pay
levels.
"The key factor is you've got some guys
who have been around an awfully long time," said Kittatinny
Regional High School Superintendent Robert Walker, who has
39 years of experience and has been chief of the
grades-7-to-12 district for the past 22 years.
"Longevity has been much recognized by
our communities, and they (districts) sought to recognize
it," said Walker, whose $166,752 salary ranks third in
Sussex.
Hopatcong Superintendent Wayne Threlkeld,
who ranks second in salary in Sussex with $187,889, was
hired in Hopatcong in 1970 and has been superintendent of
his K-to-12 district for 26 years. Various factors go into
salary negotiations, and there is a premium on experience,
he said.
"It's really the marketplace,
supply-and-demand and geographic location," Threlkeld
said.
Walker, Threlkeld and DiPasquale also say
they have saved their districts millions of
dollars.
For example, Walker has fought for and
helped secure extra federal impact aid annually for land in
his school district within the Delaware Water Gap National
Recreation Area that had been pulled off school tax rolls.
By getting that aid increased from $100,000 a year to
$500,000, Walker estimates the district has received over
the years some $4 million in impact aid that has offset
taxes.
Threlkeld said that for nearly two
decades he was both superintendent and business
administrator in his district, thus saving hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
"For 19 years, I did both of those jobs.
That kind of is factored in" to salary negotiations,
Threlkeld said.
AROUND THE CLOCK
DiPasquale, who ranks fifth in pay in
Sussex with an annual salary of $153,895, also estimates he
has saved his district more than $1 million by also doing
the job of principal at his school over the past 18
years.
"I do two jobs. They've saved over a
million dollars over the years," DiPasquale said. "In this
type of operation, I can handle both. It's a grades 9-to-12
school, not K to 12, so I can just concentrate on the high
school."
The top job also has more
responsibilities, prompting some administrators to remain as
principals or other administrators and not bother with
becoming a superintendent. Teacher pay also has improved in
recent years, leading some of them to remain as
teachers.
"Superintendents are on duty 24-7. I
enjoy it immensely, even with all of the challenges," said
Vernon's Anthony Macerino, who oversees Sussex County's
largest district with six schools and 5,300 students. He
ranks fourth in Sussex with a $162,420 salary.
Sparta Superintendent J. Thomas Morton,
whose $195,415 annual salary makes him the highest-paid
superintendent in Sussex, Warren or Morris counties, cited
his experience as the main reason that Sparta, which has
been grappling with expansion and referendums, locked him in
for a long term. Morton was hired as superintendent in 2002
for three years, and then had his contract extended for
another five years.
"I've been a superintendent since 1984,"
said Morton, noting that he has been an educator since 1971.
"They wanted someone who knew what was going on."
PERKS BOOST PAY
Some longtime superintendents could seek
work elsewhere at higher pay, but choose to stay in their
existing districts. And sometimes it takes a few perks or a
little creativity to lure or keep a top candidate for a
superintendent job.
Warren Hills Superintendent Peter
Merluzzi's $162,000 salary is tops in Warren County, though
only on par with average pay in Morris and Middlesex. His
contract calls for a leased automobile.
New Hackettstown Superintendent Robert
Gratz, who earns $153,000 annually, gets an automobile
allowance of up to $4,200 a year.
The $141,440-a-year contract for
Phillipsburg Superintendent H. Gordon Pethick includes a
provision for a cell phone and up to $800 a year for a
"wellness program." Washington Township Superintendent Janet
C. Stickle Razze's $125,493-a-year contract calls for 30
vacation days.
Such add-ons show how superintendents can
command extras from school boards in a tight labor
market.
A few Sussex County districts give their
chiefs travel expenses. Sparta's Morton receives $3,600 a
year for in-district travel expenses. Hopatcong leases a car
for Threlkeld, and that lease is worth around $4,900 a year,
he said.
A few superintendents receive
tax-deferred annuities as incentives. The largest of those
in Sussex is an annuity of $6,620 for Vernon's
Macerino.
On the flip side, two Warren
superintendents, Alpha's Mary Kildow ($97,375) and White
Township's Linda M. Heilman ($97,500) make less than six
figures.
Not only is Warren County below the state
average for superintendent salaries, it is below its
neighbor to the north. On average, Warren County
superintendents make around $14,000 less per year than their
peers in Sussex -- a trend that is mirrored by higher
teaching salaries in Sussex.
STAYING PUT
While their salaries alone will not make
superintendents sympathetic figures in a county where the
median household income was $58,939 in 2003, Merluzzi of
Warren Hills worries about a lack of connectivity in a
county that is becoming a temporary stop-off point for
superintendents working their way up the ladder.
"You are going to get more new
superintendents in this area than elsewhere," he said.
"Then, when they get a little bit of experience under their
belt, you are going to have transient districts. You're
seeing a lot of that lately. There's no continuity. But then
again, when you look at what is happening, there is not a
lot of continuity with these jobs anywhere."
Statewide, the shortage has eased
somewhat. In 2004-05, 14 percent of the state's districts
started the school year with new superintendents, down from
21 percent in 2001-02, according to the New Jersey School
Boards Association. Right now there are 31 vacancies in the
state's 611 school districts.
But Merluzzi said anecdotal evidence
suggests the shortage has not ended.
"Two weekends ago, I looked in The
Star-Ledger and there were 10 or 11 superintendent jobs
advertised -- and this is January," he said.
Brennan, a Newark native who has been
Greenwich's superintendent for nearly a decade, says the
potential of moving to another district for more money
wasn't worth leaving a place he enjoys to work.
"It's an exciting place to be," said
Brennan, who earns $130,050 annually. "I've enjoyed every
day I've been in education."
Staff writer Al Frank contributed to this report. Mike
Frassinelli may be reached at mfrassinelli@starledger.com or
(908) 475-1218. Jim Lockwood may be reached at
jlockwood@starledger.com or (973) 383-0516.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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