The 13 school district superintendents in Cape May County combined to earn $2 million in base salaries in the 2024-2025 school year, according to their district’s budgets.
The median base salary of the superintendents was $155,000, but the positions can carry other forms of added compensation, including special additions to retirement plans, stipends and bonuses based on contract agreements.
The base salaries ranged from $208,350 for David Salvo in Middle Township’s School District to $130,000 for Carleena Supp in Woodbine’s district. A list of the 13 superintendent salaries is here.
The county median base salary of $155,000 is below the state median of $193,800.
The base salaries for the 13 superintendents add up to $1,968,494. The figure from Ocean City, one of the larger school districts in the county, was for an interim superintendent. The district’s new superintendent, Christian Angelillo, is scheduled to earn a $210,000 base salary in 2025-2026.
According to a 2024 report by the School Superintendents Association, New Jersey is among the states with the highest compensation for school superintendents. In the current year 31 superintendents in the state earn more than $250,000 in base salary. The maximum salary allowed by law for the governor is $175,000.
New Jersey had a superintendent salary cap in place from 2011 to 2019. Implemented by Gov. Chris Christie, the cap was removed by Gov. Phil Murphy in response to complaints that it was too difficult to get and retain education leaders without higher salaries.
The initial cap set an upper limit of $175,000 but the state’s dozen largest districts were always exempt from the limit, as were charter schools and vocational and special education schools. Under pressure, the cap was raised to $191,584 in 2017, with incentives to earn more if a superintendent remained. The cap was finally removed in 2019.
Cape May County has 13 superintendent positions. Three superintendents are shared by two districts. The Stone Harbor and Avalon districts share one, as do Cape May and West Cape May. The third shared superintendent works for the two county school districts, the special services district and the technical school district.
Of the county’s 16 municipalities, three have no operating school district: Sea Isle City, West Wildwood and Cape May Point. Those municipalities pay other districts to educate their students. There are 13 municipal-based school districts, along with one regional district, Lower Cape May Regional, for middle and high school grades for Cape May City, Lower Township and West Cape May students.
There are five high schools in the county mix. One serves the county technical school district, while the others are in Middle Township, Ocean City, Wildwood and the regional LCMR district.
The county currently has 31 separate schools within the 16 operating school districts.
Using on-roll total enrollments in the 2024-2025 budget documents for each district, total enrollment in the county public school systems this year is approximately 12,000 students. Using the state enrollment reports, which emphasize fall enrollment as of an October date, the total enrollment in the county would be lower, about 11,400.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
