Salary adjustments for the school’s top officials, which were approved three weeks ago, drew fire from Town Hall last week and a flurry of protest, even as school board members said the raises were justified and not extravagant.
Mayor Dennis Elwell, who had supported the school district’s recent $6.5 million expansion bond and had helped provide space for parking near one of the schools by purchasing land and building a parking lot, said he felt betrayed by the raises. Elwell said that while some of the package may have been justified, the timing was particularly bad, and that his office had received numerous calls from irate citizens claiming the school district was “giving away the store.” The three-year contract is retroactive to July 1, 2000 and ends on June 3, 2003.
“I’m not blaming the school board,” Elwell said. “I’m blaming the committee that negotiated the contract.”
Under the negotiated contract, the superintendent of schools, the board of education administrator, three school principals and the assistant principal at the high school all saw significant increases in their salaries.
The contracts were approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Education on Dec. 14. Huber Street School elementary school principal Pat Cocucci and Ralph Merlo, the principal of the Clarendon School elementary school, both saw a rise in salary from their current salary of $102,000 to $123,000 by the third year of their contract. Pat Impreveduto, principal of the high school, was elevated from his current salary of $107,000 to $129,859 by the third year.
Elwell said the board of education seemed to be out of step with the town, where contract negotiations have focused on reducing yearly increases.
“We have dealt with the PBA (the police union), the Teamsters (the Department of Public Works union) and supervisors union and we have kept them to increase of 3 percent or below. Our department heads received flat increases that averaged fewer than 2 percent. Now to hear the schools are giving raises as high as 30 percent ….”
Taken out of context, board says
According to board president William Millevoi, none of the actual raises exceeded 10 percent per year for the three years of each contract.
“I feel very comfortable with this,” he said. “After being in education for over 30 years, I understand that the salaries we’ve given to the administrators and supervisors are in line with what professionals are receiving throughout our area and the whole board agreed. The negotiating committee did a fine job.”
The one glaring exception to under-10 percent increase claim was Middle School Principal Fred Ponti, whose $90,000 a year salary will jump to $123,000 by the third year, an average yearly increase of 12 percent.
“One thing you have to remember,” said Board of Education member Doug MacCormack, who as head of the finance committee, negotiated these contracts. “Fred Ponti started out as a eighth grade teacher. He was promoted. This increase was to bring him up to par with the other principals, since his duties are the same as theirs.”
Superintendent of Schools Constantino Scerbo also saw a significant raise, his salary rising from its current $125,000 a year to $164,000 by the end of the three year contract. Frank Costello, vice principal at the high school, received a boost from $85,272 to $108,273. Edward Walkiewicz, the board business administrator, saw a jump from $95,000 to $123,000.
MacCormack said the increases came as a result of a negotiated contract with the schools supervisors earlier this year. A restructuring of the departments and addition of responsibilities brought salaries dangerously close to those of the principals.
Millevoi also said the small gap between supervisors and principals was a concern, noting that principals oversee the duties of supervisors and should make more. He also noted that Impreveduto, the high school principal, is supposed to make more than the other principals because of the additional responsibilities the high school imposed such as extracurricular activities. Since being appointed principal in 1997, Impreveduto actually earned less than he should have, Superintendent Scerbo said.
“What we didn’t want to do is have someone working eight and a half months a year making the same money that a principal would be earning for working 12 months a year,” MacCormack said. “None of these salaries are out of line with what other people in other districts are making in similar positions.”
The salary adjustments were made, he said, based on the job performance and level of expertise.
“These are not outrageous amounts to pay a principal, for this time and this area of the state,” MacCormack said. “One of the things that people don’t seem to realize is that in our district, none of the principals have the administrative support that other school districts supply their principals. With the exception of the vice-principal at the high school, none of the principals have assistants. Neither does the superintendent of schools. In fact, Secaucus has the smallest administrative staff I can remember.”
Board did away with consultants
MacCormack said the district did away with two paid consultants that it had previously had, releasing Peter McCann and former principal William Koenig. Their combined salaries of $150,000 a year went towards these raises.
“We also did not hire a curriculum specialist, even though we had money for one in the budget,” MacCormack said.
Both MacCormack and Millevoi said salaries for principals were in the middle range of what principals earn elsewhere in the state, reflecting the district’s need to attract and keep qualified people in those positions.
The state average for principals last year – according to the state Department of Education – is $92,227, and for superintendents, $111,431.
While these raises bring Secaucus officials significantly above the state average, MacCormack said the Secaucus salaries do not have any hidden perks offered by many other school districts.
“What you see is what you get,” MacCormack said. “We don’t have longevity. The principals and supervisors don’t get payment for extra work. In fact, our principals do many things as part of their salary that are done by assistants in other districts. This is also not an 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. job. Our principals and administrators are expected to show up for bake sales, PTA meetings and school fun days. They are totally involved and get no extra pay for it.”
While Mayor Elwell has the right to ask questions and to develop an opinion, MacCormack said the mayor should get all the facts before criticizing the board’s actions.
“All negotiated salaries start with the teachers, once you settle their contracts, everything else falls in line,” he said. “You can’t have employees earning nearly as much as the people you put in charge.”
Walkiewicz, the district’s business administrator, is another matter, MacCormack said.
“When we hired him, we agreed that after three years he would get the same salary as a principal,” he said. “That’s what this contract does.”
Schools Superintendent Scerbo defended his own raise and the raises given to the principals, claiming the district is getting its money’s worth in expertise and experience.
“I’ve been superintendent here since 1984 and before that I was assistant superintendent,” he said, noting that under his administration Secaucus has maintained one of the smallest administrative staffs among comparable school districts and that this staff does the same amount of work of districts with larger staffing.
“You have to understand, too, that the student population of this district has been growing and continues to grow, creating even more responsibilities for our administrators,” Scerbo said. “We now have a student population of 1,700 plus. We expect that to go even higher.”