My post today at WHYY’s Newsworks looks at a draft Resolution that will be considered today at New Jersey School Boards Delegate Assembly. The Resolution, proposed by Ridgewood Board of Education, is intended to direct NJSBA lobbyists to work at overturning NJ’s superintendent salary. It also directs data specialists at NJSBA to continue to examine the impact of the cap on superintendent turnover.
From the Resolution (linked to at WHYY): “Superintendent turnover rates have increased significantly since the superintendent salary cap went into effect. For 2010-2011 – the first full school year following the imposition of the cap – nearly 29 percent of New Jersey school districts and educational services commissions changed superintendents. This was the highest turnover rate in the ten years since the NJSBA began monitoring superintendent employment. The rapid pace in turnover continued in the 2011-2012 school year, with 31.4 percent of the districts in this State losing their superintendent. While it may not be the only reason, the relatively new cap on CSA salaries has likely been a predominant factor in the spike in superintendent turnover in New Jersey.”
Anyway, here’s how my post starts:
Today at its annual Delegate Assembly, New Jersey School Boards Association will most likely adopt a resolution that attacks Gov. Christie’s mandated state superintendent salary caps as intrusive and untenable.
According to the draft resolution, proposed by the Ridgewood Board of Education (Bergen), local boards of education should have “the flexibility to adjust the CSA’s [Chief School Administrator or Superintendent’s] compensation commensurate with his or her experience knowing the current employment market conditions and other factors that may influence the ability to recruit, hire, and retain a competent and highly qualified CSA.”
Local control, right? Very Jersey. School board members resent state intrusion into the local business of setting superintendent salaries, especially in North Jersey, a stone’s throw away from New York State’s greener, uncapped pastures. And NJSBA data shows that superintendent turnover has spiked sharply since the salary cap was enacted: in 2011-2012, 31.4% of N.J. school districts lost their superintendents (a boon for the burgeoning interim superintendent industry).
Read the rest here.
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The issue is less about local control than it is about continuity of executive management for individual districts. The average duration in a position for NJ supers is now less than 3 years (the shortest contract permitted by law).
The Governor's "analysis" of this issue failed to recognize the disruptive (and hence, costly) effect of accelerated turnover on district operations.
He should be compelled to justify his actions in light of the data cited here.