SCHOOLS SUPE SALARY CAP TAKES A HIT

The superintendent salary cap that drove former SOMA Schools Supe Brian Osborne away and is likely making it tougher to find a good replacement has come under fire this week from many protesters.

The Star-Ledger reported Sunday:

Fire chiefs don’t have state-imposed salary caps, and neither do police chiefs or directors of public works, education officials told a Senate committee last month. So why should there be salary caps just for superintendents, they asked?
As a parade of teachers, superintendents, members of local boards of education and representatives of education organizations criticized at a hearing in Trenton a policy that caps superintendent salaries at $175,000, they described an unfair system fraught with inconsistencies.

While critics complained that only school chiefs were being targeted, several also noted that the salary cap doesn’t apply to all superintendents, including the County Executive Superintendents, or CESs. These "super supers" — who are Department of Education employees — oversee the budgets, contracts and operations of the local school districts. Currently, the state employs 14 CESs, including 10 who are temporary and are limited to part-time hours, and four who are full time. Their salaries range from $71,000 to $190,000.

Read the rest HERE.