Public education in New Jersey is big business. State data from 2018 showed the state has 2,516 schools with a public-school enrollment of almost 1.4 million students.
There are 116,351 full-time teachers and 590 separate school districts. Even though school districts are largely funded through local property tax revenue, state aid to education amounts to over $8 billion.
A state figure developed in 2010-11 as a comprehensive representation of total spending per student placed the median spending at over $21,000 per enrollment. Census Bureau data for 2016 used a different formula and stated that the spending per pupil was $18,402. That list ranks New Jersey as the third highest in spending per pupil in the country.
Sitting atop this large and complex structure are the state’s district superintendents. The superintendent oversees the administrative personnel who manage daily operations, engages in long-range planning, is the face of the district on all matters, acts as the liaison for the district with the board of education and manages the district’s financial operations. For more information, see the accompanying chart on the salary cap structure.
Superintendent Compensation
In 2011, reacting to some embarrassing and public excesses in specific superintendent compensation, Gov. Christie, in his first term, established a cap on superintendent salaries. The cap contained tiers which were triggered by school enrollment.
In May 2017, the cap structure was revisited and the base salary maximums were raised. Seven categories of base salaries tied to enrollment tiers were also reduced to four.
Base salaries for state school districts range from $147,794 for the smallest districts to $191,584 for the largest districts. When a district hits 10,000 students, the cap may be waived by the secretary of education.
As with most state regulations, exceptions exist, as do workarounds that can increase salaries well above the base. Charter schools are exempt from the cap, as are county vocational and special services districts.
Bonuses, allowances, stipends and other fringe benefits such as public paid additional insurance coverage are all allowed subject to various constraints. One example is that merit bonuses can be part of a superintendent’s contract so long as they do not total more than 15% of the base salary.
In school year 2017-18, the average base salary for New Jersey superintendents was $155,631. In that year over 40 superintendents made over $200,000 with the highest compensation, $277,122, in the Middlesex Regional Education Services Commission.
In addition to the base pay, state budgets show that superintendent is eligible for $41,450 in annual merit bonuses, has an allowance of $15,686, and receives $4,578 in paid insurance benefits above those set in the teacher contract.
In Cape May County, superintendent base salaries listed in state records for the 2018-19 budget year range from $80,418 in Dennis Township to $183,183 in Ocean City. State records show that all of the county superintendents receive some form of an allowance to cover specific job-related expenses. The allowance varies widely across districts from a low of $2,600 in Dennis Township to a high of $24,000 in Wildwood.
The state Department of Education (DOE) data shows two superintendents in the county with merit bonus opportunities in their compensation package, Wildwood and Upper Township. The bonus listed for Upper Township is $8,000, just under 6% of base salary. For Wildwood, the bonus figure is $20,664 or 11.8% of base salary.
Of the 14 Cape May County superintendents listed in the state’s records for 2018-19, half receive some amount to cover “district contributions above teacher contracts for health insurance (health, dental, life and other).” See the accompanying chart for the specific districts.
The amounts vary widely, ranging from a low of $317 in the shared districts of Avalon and Stone Harbor to $6,041 at Lower Cape May Regional.
It should be noted the data provided to the DOE certified staff database comes from the school districts and sometimes does not include all the elements of total compensation. It is, however, the most accurate and broad-based data released by the state.
Efforts to Remove the Cap
In June 2019, the Assembly Education Committee unanimously approved A3775, a bill that would “prohibit the Department of Education from regulating the maximum salary amount a board of education could provide to a superintendent of schools pursuant to the employment contract.”
An identical bill to that which passed the Assembly Education Committee was approved in the Senate.
The bill, if enacted, would eliminate the Christie-era salary cap put in place in 2011.
Those in favor of eliminating the cap argue it has had no beneficial impact on total spending since it focuses on one position within large and complex school district budgets driven by issues like teacher contracts, special education needs, infrastructure, and building maintenance and construction and similar measures.
Proponents of removing the cap also argue that the cap makes it difficult to hold the most talented educators. With a market in other states that routinely pays more than the top-cap base salary, the state is not competitive, they argue, especially with neighboring districts in Pennsylvania and New York.
In the Feb. 28 edition, the Herald published the median teacher salaries for each active county school district. These ranged from a low of $50,093 in Dennis Township to a high of $89,898 in Ocean City.
The nature of the state’s organization of public school education across almost 600 districts means these wide swings in compensation are not only possible but likely.
While the effort moves forward on the superintendent salary cap, the debate continues on the school district consolidation recommendations from Council President Steven Sweeney’s Economic and Fiscal Police Workgroup. Bills in Trenton would require county superintendents to develop consolidation plans eliminating K-4, K-6, and K-8 districts in favor of K-12 regional districts. One avowed aim of the effort is the removal of superintendents in the smaller districts.
Bills also address potential changes to the School Employees Health Benefits Plan and the teacher pension plans.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
Wildwood – Stop complaining about Trump. America wanted him as president, he won in a fair election. I think he is an embarrassment and he behaves like a spoiled bully but this is what the country wants now….
