Last night, the BOE passed a resolution opposing Governor Christie's proposed cap on superintendent's salaries. As I commented last night, I'm not sure such a resolution will do much good. It's largely symbolic. But I suppose it doesn't hurt anything either. Charlie Reilly discussed his view that Ridgewood is a leader among districts and that we should speak out about issues that we feel are unacceptable attacks on our district's ability to make decisions and represent our community's wishes. I see his point. I see Sheila Brogan's point that unlike the 2% budget cap, which is a done deal, there is still time to influence the Governor and/or legislature on the salary cap issue. I also see Michele Lenhard's point, that a resolution such as this should be part of a larger strategy, perhaps more coordinated with other districts or groups such as Garden State Coalition of Schools. In the end, I voted "yes," and will be interested to see if any other districts pass similar resolutions.
Here is the text of the resolution:
RESOLUTION OF THE RIDGEWOOD BOARD OF EDUCATION
RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
Superintendent Salary Cap
WHEREAS, on July 15, 2010, Governor Christopher Christie announced a reform proposal to cap school superintendents’ base pay; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie proposed that the capped salary be based on a sliding scale determined by the state; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal based the maximum amount of the capped salary for a superintendent on the number of students enrolled in the district; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal allows for an increment of $5,000 for each additional district the superintendent oversees and an additional $2,500 if the district includes at least one high school; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal restricts a duly elected Board of Education from increasing a superintendent’s base pay above the mandated cap; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would disallow renewal of a contract for an existing superintendent with a compensation package above the mandated cap and requires that the compensation in the new contract conform to the mandated salary cap; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would allow the duly elected Board of Education to provide a non-pensionable, individual year merit stipend awarded on the basis of the school district’s year-to-year progress relative to specific performance metrics of student learning defined by the state; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would require the New Jersey Department of Education to provide the duly elected Board of Education with a list of state-approved quantitative and qualitative merit criteria; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would permit the duly elected Board of Education to add one district-requested merit criterion to the NJDOE list and have the district-requested merit criterion approved by the Executive County Superintendent; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would allow the duly elected Board of Education to choose 3 quantitative and 2 qualitative merit criteria from the state approved list; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would require the Executive County Superintendent to assemble the quantitative and qualitative performance data that forms the basis of a superintendent’s performance evaluation relative to the state approved merit criteria; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal prescribes the amount of the non-pensionable merit stipend to be 3.33% of base salary for each quantitative performance criterion achieved and 2.5% of base salary for each qualitative performance criterion achieved in a given year; and
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal arbitrarily compared and set the compensation of career educators to that of his statutory elected official’s salary;
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal has no provision for higher cost of living expenses in different areas of the state;
WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would impact 70% of New Jersey superintendents whose current salaries are above the proposed salary caps; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education opposes Governor Christie’s proposal to cap superintendent salaries; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education objects to the state’s interference in contract negotiations between the duly elected Board of Education and the superintendent; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education objects to the state defining the quantitative and qualitative merit criteria to be used to evaluate the superintendent’s performance; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education believes that the superintendent’s compensation and merit increase should be based on achievement of district and superintendent goals defined by the Board of Education; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the administrative and supervisory tasks required of a superintendent to run an effective and efficient school district are not to be undervalued by the state; and be it further
RESOLVED, that with dwindling resources, reduced state aid, and restrictive tax and expenditure limits, the job of the superintendent to manage the budget, supervise staff, oversee the instructional program, ensure compliance with state and federal mandates, and focus efforts on continued improvement and high student achievement requires a skilled administrator whose salary is appropriately determined based on his/her education, experience, skill, and goal attainment, not on the number of students in the district or a state approved list of performance criteria; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education duly elected by the voters in Ridgewood has the duty and responsibility to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract and set the compensation for our Superintendent of Schools; and be it further
RESOLVED, that this resolution be sent to Governor Christopher Christie, Commissioner of Education Bret Schundler Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, State Senator Kevin O’Toole, Assemblyman David Russo, and Assemblyman Scott Rumana; and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Garden State Coalition of Schools, Dollar$ and Sense, the Bergen County Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials, and the New Jersey School Boards Association.
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7 comments:
Why would we care if there's a salary cap? Do you think Dan would quit and move to another state?
We care because it is the Board of Ed's responsibility to hire and supervise a superintendent based on the goals set within the community, and to enter into a financial agreements that are agreeable to the community. It is just too arbitrary to have "the state" set the criteria by which superintendents are to be judged.
The Board's objection was to the entire concept...not just for us but for all New Jersey school districts.
I have no idea what Dr. Fishbein would do, but I have to think that a man with 5 children would have to think long and hard about accepting a $40,000+ pay cut, in exchange for doing the same job supervising 600+ employees and educating 5,700 students.
If he were only worth the money we pay him. But alas, he is not.
Just read this post thanks to another person talking about it on the Ridgewood Views blog. I agree that the governor should not be telling school districts what they can pay their employees, be they the superintendent or anyone else. That is for the local community to decide through their Board of Education.
I applaud Gov. christie for trying to fix many things, but this solution is not a good one. It takes away our local control. And not for nothing...but, running a 600-employee corporation in Bergen County is definitely worth $200K+. Even if you are going to have a cap, shouldn't it be higher in Bergen than in lower cost of living places like South Jersey? Doesn't seem fair in my opinion.
1:14 this is not some multi-million dollar public company. Its a school district. With that logic, why not pay him like A-Rod. If he can make that salary from the DL...
Wait...huh? The school district is absolutely a multi-million dollar company that is funded by the public. I don't know anything about what A-Rod is paid, but I'm guessing it's a lot. I assume the owners of the Yankees feel they get their money's worth. I suppose it's there prerogative though, right? No governor or anyone else puts a cap on player salaries do they?
Maybe I just don't understand your analogy.
3:06, my point is that companies pay salaries in direct relation to what their net profits are. When times are bad, even the most highly paid executives of the largest companies take less in order to let the company survive and run successfully. Our schools are forced to survive on the tax dollars of a public that has been suffering through difficult and uncertain financial times. This is not the time for our BOE to be championing the very generous salary of any employee.
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