Governor Proposes Capping School Chiefs' Salaries, Superintendents Respond

Earlier this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he will propose a bill to place a cap on the salaries of school superintendents across New York State.

Under the proposal, most Nassau County superintendents would only be able to earn a maximum of $175,000 per year in the largest districts and $125,000 in the smallest ones. (See chart below.)

School superintendents in the Malverne, West Hempstead and Valley Stream Central High School Districts currently earn over $175,000, according to the latest figures from the New York State Education Department.

According to the NYSED Administrative Compensation Information for 2010-2011,  Malverne Superintendent Dr. James Hunderfund earns an annual salary of $234,090 and West Hempstead Superintendent John Hogan makes $218,400. (In an interview with Patch, however, Hogan said his actual salary is slightly lower, $210,000, and it has remained at this amount for the past three years as he opted not to take an annual increase twice.)

Valley Stream School District 13 is currently in the search for a new superintendent and therefore, no salary was listed, but records show the superintendent for the Central High School District, which includes Valley Stream North H.S., earns $198,000.

"We must wake up to the new economic reality that government must be more efficient and cut the cost of the bureaucracy," Governor Cuomo said. "We must streamline government because raising taxes is not an option. Reducing back-office overhead, administration, consultants and encouraging consolidations are the best targets to find savings."

The cap would only affect school superintendents and could only be applied after existing contracts expire. However, each individual district would have the voting power to overturn the salary cap and could do so during school budget votes.

Currently, more that 33 percent of school superintendents in New York State earn more than $175,000. According to Cuomo's office, this bill has the potential of $15 million in savings.

Still, some critics ask, 'What price will be pay for these cost cuts?'

"We're not going to have as good of a leadership core if this goes through," said Dr. Hunderfund. "That's being swept aside with all this talk about money, money, money."

Hunderfund, who considers himself toward the end of his career, said he is less worried about his own salary and more about the effects the cap would have on education as a whole. He thinks the proposal would limit the ability of local school boards to use district resources as they see fit, inhibiting them from attracting and retaining top leaders.

"The people making the most have spent entire careers in education. They didn't arrive there overnight," he said. "Sometimes a board of education decides to pay more to keep good people in these top positions."

Pointing to Rockville Centre Superintendent Dr. William Johnson and Oceanside Superintendent Herb Brown, he said both men provide exceptional leadership, because they bring a wealth of experience with them and their track records speak for themselves. Johnson reportedly earns a salary of $309,338, and Brown, makes $275,992.

"Dr. Johnson has made huge strides," Hunderfund said. "His is one of the highest performing school districts. That's because of his leadership."

He added that Dr. Brown has made similar gains.

"Look at districts that don't do well and they usually don't have long-term quality leadership," said Hunderfund, a problem that he sees becoming more widespread if the cap goes through and these positions become less enticing. He predicts that districts may then turn to non-educators to fill the positions at a lower cost.

"It'd be like me going to my local mechanic asking him to take out my appendix, because he's cheaper," he said. "I'm not sure you're going to like the results."

In some cases, the assistant superintendents would stand to earn more than their superiors if the cap was adopted.

This would be the case in Malverne, where Assistant Superintendent Richard Banyon reportedly earns $189,352, over $14,000 above the proposed cap.

"That's ludicrous," Hunderfund, said, adding that at the end of the day, the savings would be minimal when you look at the big picture.

"The cost of running a central office is about 2 to 3 percent of the total budget in most cases," he said. (In Malverne, they have actually reduced administrative costs in recent years by $100,000, and since some administrators, like himself, are considered retired, they are costing the district less because they do not receive health benefits.)

Hunderfund accused Cuomo of taking a simplistic approach to a complex problem, using superintendents as scapegoats since they are not protected by tenure.

"He is glossing over the real problem, which is that the state has gone into economic ruin."

"We do need to economize and conserve," he said, but does not think this is the answer. "This is a purely political attack on superintendents, who are not able to fight back against a governor who is trying to look heroic..and show how tough he is."

Superintendent Hogan was less vocal on the issue, but did point out that he has frozen his own salary for the past two years.

"We have a $2.4 million budget cap to close this year," Hogan said. "That's where my focus is around now."

The cap would impose salary limits as follows:

* Salary data is from the NYS Education Department's Administrative Compensation Information for 2010-2011