State Commission of Investigation demands information on pay and benefits of superintendents and assistant superintendents.
By: Jeff Milgram
The president of the Princeton Regional Board of Education believes the State Commission of Investigation will find nothing improper about the district’s administrative costs and said letters sent to the superintendents of 50 districts across the state, including Princeton Regional, Montgomery and South Brunswick, are politically motivated.
The letters, dated Jan. 9, demanded information on how much the districts pay their superintendents and assistant superintendents, their benefits and other expenses such as life insurance, credit cards and cell phones for the past five years.
Montgomery Township Superintendent Stuart Schnur called the letter "heavy handed" and said he was shocked when he received it last Tuesday.
He later found out that other districts received the letters.
"We don’t get it," said Dr. Schnur. "We don’t have special perks.
"Everything they asked for is public information," Dr. Schnur said Monday.
Signed by SCI chief counsel Robert Clark, the letters say the information is required "in connection with an inquiry related to public school administrative costs." An SCI spokesman confirmed the letters were sent but would not elaborate.
Dr. Schnur said the SCI gave the Montgomery school board’s lawyer no reason why his district received the letter.
The letters give the districts two weeks to comply, Dr. Schnur said.
"The state would love to blame taxes on teachers and administrators," Charlotte Bialek, president of the Princeton school board, said Monday.
She said the letter, which she has heard about but not seen, poses no threat to the district.
Ms. Bialek called the two-page letter a diversion. "They are having their own budget problem in the state and across the nation, and the kids in schools are easy diversions," Ms. Bialek said.
Ms. Bialek said the district’s administrative costs have gone up as the state required more paperwork.
"I really do think that the big problem is the state imposing more and more (reporting requirements)," she said. As an example, Ms. Bialek said district officials had to assemble a 6-foot tower of paperwork when the state monitored the district a year ago.
"If you fail monitoring, the state takes over," she said.
"I think we’re a very efficiently run district," Ms. Bialek added.
Dr. Schnur said the Newark School District, which is operated by the state, also received a letter.
In his State of the State address last Tuesday, Gov. James E. McGreevey said 23 school districts that operate no schools should be dissolved and said the state should limit how much districts can spend on administrative costs.
In New Jersey, schools spend an average of $1,142 per pupil on administrative costs, according to the 2002-2003 N.J. School Report Card. Montgomery Township spends considerably less at $990 per pupil, while Princeton spends slightly more at $1,159.
According to a published report, Princeton Regional Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn likened the state tactics to "McCarthyism."
Dr. Kohn pointed out that her $169,000 a year salary is public information.
Dr. Schnur, who earns $168,000, said the letters threaten subpoenas. He said the district will comply. "We’re law-abiding people," he said.
Assemblyman Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) sent a letter to Gov. McGreevey demanding to know why South Brunswick was singled out. The freshman legislator represents South Brunswick in the General Assembly.
"If the McGreevey administration is looking for a way to cut costs," Assemblyman Baroni said, "they won’t find their answer in South Brunswick."
He said the South Brunswick Board of Education "is hyper-focused on keeping costs down."
Assemblyman Baroni said the people of South Brunswick deserve to know why the district was singled out. "It just doesn’t make sense to launch random investigations like this," he wrote the governor.