HOWELL – The Howell K-8 School District Board of Education has approved a new five-year contract for Superintendent of Schools Joseph Isola and one-year pacts for three top administrators.
Isola’s new contract will run from the start of the 2017-18 school year through the end of the 2021-22 school year. Isola’s initial annual salary under the new agreement will be $191,584, according to an agenda item at the board’s June 28 meeting.
Isola has been Howell’s superintendent since July 1, 2014.
Board President Timothy O’Brien expressed his support of Isola and the superintendent’s new contract.
“I am very pleased to report we were successful with negotiating a new five-year contract with our superintendent. It is a commitment by him and by this board to the continued pursuit of excellence in our district,” O’Brien said.
“We have recently been given the opportunity to address a situation that has long been a problem for many districts across this state. A few years ago during the financial crisis … (state officials) put a cap, an artificial constraint, on the compensation for our educational leadership,” O’Brien said.
“We are very pleased to see the cap lifted to a new level which we thought was commensurate with the responsibilities and the achievements of our superintendent,” he added.
O’Brien said Isola’s new contract “addresses an inequity in terms of compensation for our leadership and keeps us in parity with the rest of the districts in our region.”
O’Brien, Jeanne DePompo, Denise Lowe, MaryRose Malley, Cristy Mangano, Albert Miller and James Moretti voted to approve Isola’s contract.
Board Vice President Mark Bonjavanni and Laurence Gurman abstained.
Isola thanked the board members for their support of himself and his colleagues.
“I am humbled and proud to remain a serving leader and I believe the future is as bright as it ever will possibly be when we keep working collaboratively for our students, so thank you sincerely. I am truly humbled and offer great gratitude,” Isola said.
At the same meeting, board members approved contracts for the 2017-18 school year for Patricia Callander, the assistant superintendent for pupil services; Bruce Preston, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and personnel; and Ronald Sanasac, the assistant superintendent for business administration/board secretary.
Callander will be paid $174,600, Preston will be paid $165,133 and Sanasac will be paid $169,942 during the 2017-18 school year. The votes on those contracts were the same as the vote to approve Isola’s agreement – 7-0, with abstentions by Bonjavanni and Gurman.