Two on board oppose administrators’ raises

Increases approved; pay for unused vacation days eliminated

BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer

S ome school officials believe that recent pay increases approved by the Sayreville Board of Education are too high in light of budget constraints.

The board approved contracts last week for top administrators and other district employees for the 2008-09 school year. Board members Phyllis Batko and Thomas Biesiada voted against the 3.5-percent annual salary increases for Superintendent of Schools Frank Alfano, Assistant Superintendent Carla Sutherland and Board Business Administrator Emidio D’Andrea.

Alfano’s salary was approved at $178,250, Sutherland’s at $160,895, and D’Andrea’s at $134,389.

Batko said her reasons for voting against the superintendent’s contract were not personal but are based on her opinion that the district is not heading in the right direction. While she supports a new contract clause that eliminates pay for unused vacation days, she said she does not support the increase in vacation days that is included in Alfano’s contract.

“We gave him an extra four days’ vacation,” Batko said. “I didn’t like that in the contract. I don’t think this district is very proactive and progressive. I feel like we are just on automatic pilot.

“I’m not happy with the direction the district is going,” Batko added. “That is why I voted against the contract as well.”

Batko said the board is facing a revenue shortfall of $600,000. She said she supported the decision to eliminate a secretarial position through attrition, but she also wanted the board to do away with a new supervisor of technology position and the purchase of a $30,000 software system for the transportation department, both to help address the shortfall.

Board President Michael Macagnone said the majority of the board supported the rehiring of the district’s three key administrators – Alfano, Sutherland and D’Andrea. He said the three do the same amount of work that five to six professionals are expected to do in similarly sized districts.

“Sayreville has an ongoing history of overworking our employees and underpaying them,” Macagnone said.

“I’m not insensitive to the budget crisis we have,” Macagnone added. “… I respect the opinion of Mr. Beisiada and Mrs. Batko. We are a nine-member board, and the majority voted to approve the contracts.”

Alfano drafted a memo for officials and members of the public to understand his new three-year contract at last week’s board meeting. In the memo, Alfano states that the contract, approved by the board’s personnel committee, would expire in 2011 and includes an increase of $6,250 per year. That amounts to roughly 3.5 percent per year, or 10.5 percent over the three-year period of the contract.

Alfano also wrote that while he would get four additional vacation days, he would no longer be reimbursed for unused vacation days. The board expressed an interest in addressing the issue of pay for unused vacation days after compensation payments for 17 administrative personnel totaled more than $30,000 last year.

In addition, Alfano said he forfeited bank days, saving the district over $3,714 per year over the three years of the contract. His $6,250 raise is therefore reduced to $2,536 in 2008-09 due to the elimination of bank days, Alfano noted.

Macagnone said the process of negotiations was conducted professionally, and a resolution was reached quickly. He noted that the contracts of all superintendents are under increased scrutiny, since Gov. Jon Corzine recently called for a review of every superintendent’s contract in the state. The attention comes after a superintendent in Keansburg, Monmouth County, was scheduled to collect a severance package in the amount of $740,000.

Board member Curtis Clark said all members are required to go through training for internal monitoring in light of the situation in Keansburg. He added that the New Jersey School Boards Association’s ethics commission is cracking down on this and calling for board members to complete the mandatory training by July 21 or face dismissal or censure.

Board member Kevin Ciak said school principals are now the only employees in the borough school system who still get paid for unused vacation days. The board approved the salaries of principals and other administrative personnel at the 2007-08 rates during the meeting, and their contracts are currently being negotiated for the 2008-09 school year.

The board voted 6-3 to approve the salaries and stipends of secretaries to the district’s three central administrators. Board member Maria Stratton voted against that item, along with Biesiada and Batko. The stipends total $11,000.

Batko and Biesiada also voted against the salaries of off-guide personnel with salaries ranging from $15,374 for a truancy officer to $99,551 for a director of technology.

Biesiada said one of the reasons he voted against the salary increases is the fact that 75 percent of the budget goes towards salaries and benefits. If these costs continue to rise, he said, they could consume the entire budget.

“It’s just going to keep on skyrocketing and eventually there will be no monies left for programs for the education of students,” Biesiada said.

He added that he wants to expand the district’s existing foreign language curriculum and see if other languages can be brought in, as well as additional AP courses in such subjects as science.

Resident Barbara Kilcomons said she was happy to see the board eliminate the clauses that included pay for unused vacation days in the administrators’ contracts. However, she voiced concerns about the stipends the board approved for four off-guide personnel. She said the stipends are “nothing but a bonus,” and all district employees are expected to go above and beyond.

Alfano noted that the stipends are included in those employees’ contracts.

“Every year it’s in their contract,” Alfano said. “They receive the same percentage as the SEA [Sayreville Education Association] secretaries – not above and beyond what they’re getting.”

Sutherland said the four off-guide personnel who have stipends are secretaries for herself and the district’s other two key administrators, and that all four have a significant workload.

“The level of responsibility is much greater than the other secretaries in the district,” Sutherland said.

Batko said she voted against the salaries of off-guide personnel because she felt the percentage increases in pay, ranging from 3.6 to 4 percent, were too high. In regard to the stipends for some of the secretaries, Batko said she opposed a stipend the board agreed to in a district employee’s contract last year.

“These stipends, they have been in existence since before my time,” Batko said. “There has only been one since I was on the board and I didn’t vote for it.”

Batko said she has felt that raises were excessive in the past as well, noting that a systems manager received a 19.6-percent raise last year. With the board cutting field trips and courtesy busing in recent years, and the high school track being in need of repairs, Batko said it is time to reconsider some of the raises.

She noted that the board is also facing $30,000 in fees to remove trailers.

“We have a financial problem,” Batko said.

Macagnone said the salaries for offguide personnel were on the low end of the pay scale, and that experienced people need to be paid accordingly so that the district can retain them. He explained his position on the stipends approved for off-guide personnel.

“I’m not a fan of stipends,” Macagnone said. “I think salaries are paid for the work you perform, but it’s in the contracts.”

Macagnone said the board has been taking a hard look at contracts, and took out pay for unused vacation in order to realize significant savings for the district. He said district employees should be paid adequately for the work they perform, and the board should not take its budget problems out on a handful of employees.

The turnover rate in the district is a concern for the board, he said, and Alfano is one of the lowest-paid superintendents in New Jersey for a district of Sayreville’s size.

“We continually do not want to pay people the industry standard, then people leave and people say the district is not performing.” Macagnone said. “… It’s unfair.”