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Salaries Of School Officials Now Easier For Public To Access
By Bill McLaughlin
The state Department of Education has turned over a new leaf when it comes to the way it deals with the salaries of public secondary school education administrators.
Not long ago, any inquiry as to a public school official's salary through the state offices required figurative jumping through hoops. Such information, though it was always public, was hard to come by.
Now, if you punch up the DOE official web site - http://www.nj.gov/njded/data/ salary - you will find the latest salary information for those entrusted to run your school system.
Manchester's superintendent of schools, for instance, earns $176,179, while Lakehurst's nets $110,000.
Superintendents in other Ocean County towns range in salary from $216,341 in Toms River to $100,000 in Ocean Gate.
In Brick, the superintendent of schools earns $156,697 and the business administrator $146,769 as of October 2005, the latest figures available. An assistant superintendent earns $128,501.
In other towns, the figures are $129,480 for superintendent and the business administrator $97,000 in Berkeley; $131,000 for superintendent at Central, $120,405 for business administrator and $120,000 for assistant superintendent, and in Jackson, the superintendent gets $145,785, and the business administrator and assistant superintendents earn $128,750.
Likewise, business administrators held a wide range of salary structures, largely depending on the size of the school district. Ocean Gate pays $65,000, Lakehurst $96,370, Berkeley $97,000, and Manchester $126,000 for its business administrators. Toms River pays the highest in Ocean County, $160,000.
Assistants with many years' experience in the district can earn close to the same salary as the head honcho. The difference at Central is only $11,000 per year and $17,000 per year at Jackson.
Berkeley, Manchester, and Ocean Gate school districts don't have assistant superintendents.
When she spoke before members of the Central Regional school district last summer at Manchester High School, acting New Jersey Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy promised that future education decisions would not be made in the dark.
A hearing regarding the dissolution question was one example of what she promised would be increased openness.
Releasing the salary structures of local administrators was a solid first step for the DOE, in Davy's words, "an effort to increase the transparency of compensation packages."
This comes on the heels of a long drawnout study by the state Investigations Commission into hidden forms of compensation to school administrators.
Legislation to require greater disclosure of all remuneration was co-sponsored by Senator Leonard T. Connors and Assemblymen Christopher J. Connors and Brian E. Rumpf. Senate Bill S1876 requires 30 days' public notice to review any school administrator's contract before approval to extend or renegotiate may be given.
Senator Connors has spoken publicly about the need for taxpayers to know where and how their tax dollars were being spent.
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