New math for school chiefs
In last 6 years the average salary and benefits package for superintendents on LI has risen 38% in value
This story was reported by John Hildebrand, Erin Texeira, Nedra Rhone and Stacey Altherr. It was written by Hildebrand.

October 3, 2004

In the tiny East End resort of Amagansett, school Superintendent Judith Wooster makes $135,000 a year overseeing 119 students. Like her predecessor, she also gets rent-free use of a district-owned house that's within walking distance of the ocean.

In middle-class Levittown, Superintendent Herman Sirois, who makes $238,883, has landed an unusual "evergreen" job-protection contract that virtually guarantees his employment through 2011. Either that, or the district must buy out his contract at a cost to taxpayers now exceeding $800,000.

And in upscale Syosset, schools chief Carole Hankin makes $290,736, the highest superintendent's salary in the state. With 6,600 students, Hankin is paid more than the top school administrator in Chicago, Los Angeles and other districts that have hundreds of thousands of students. New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, for instance, makes $250,000 in salary in a district that serves 1.1 million students.

This year, Syosset taxpayers also will pay $40,000 for Hankin's tax-deferred annuity, $12,000 to her retirement plan, up to $65,000 for unused vacation and sick days, and they'll provide her with a district-leased car. Total compensation could top $400,000.

"I am responsible every day for 6,600 children's lives, and I take that very personally," said Hankin, in explaining why she believes it's important for Syosset to employ the best administrator it can.

While Hankin's package in Syosset is the biggest on Long Island, many districts have seen the amount paid their superintendents rise significantly over the last six years.

A Newsday examination of superintendent contracts shows that salaries and other compensation -- which can range from health club memberships to free housing to personal security guards, hefty tax-sheltered annuities and generous car allowances -- has shot up 38 percent during that time, reaching an average last year of just under $200,000.

It's an increase that's more than twice the regional inflation rate, nearly 40 percent higher than raises recorded elsewhere in the state and nearly 60 percent higher than was seen nationwide.

Supply and demand

A number of superintendents interviewed by Newsday, and their school-board supporters, say this level of compensation is a simple matter of supply and demand. Generous incentives are essential, they say, to attract talented educators into an area where the applicant pool appears to be shrinking due to retirements, and where cost-of-living is high.

How else, they ask, can senior teachers earning more than $100,000 themselves be persuaded to switch over to administrative jobs where political pressures are more intense, long hours are the norm and tenure is much less secure?

Superintendent James Hunderfund of Commack contends that taxpayers generally don't complain "when they're satisfied with the job you're doing in the district.

"If a superintendent makes what you would pay two senior teachers," he said, "is that not worth their while?"

But with money for student services growing tighter every year, many board members are finding themselves under attack for boosting pay and perks. And public ire on the issue has recently been sharpened by a burgeoning financial scandal in Roslyn, where a former superintendent and other officials are being investigated for allegedly embezzling at least $1 million.

The money used to boost superintendent pay "could be used to pay for another media teacher, or take a smaller chunk out of health care" for teachers, said Janet Bass, spokesperson for the American Federation Teachers in Washington, D.C. "That will not improve student achievement."

Meanwhile, some education experts suggest that high salaries can have more to do with ego than educational quality.

"It's communities saying we pay so much more, therefore, our schools must be better," said Alan Singer, professor of secondary education at Hofstra University in Hempstead. "Districts are shopping around for superintendents the same way corporations shop for CEOs."

Figures from the state

In its examination of salaries and benefits, Newsday drew on figures from a computerized state databank that has tracked budgeted salaries, benefits and other compensation for administrators since the 1997-98 school year. Newsday also examined last year's contracts for 116 superintendents, obtained through the state's Freedom of Information Law.

Here are some key findings:

Compensation for school executives has continued its rapid climb since 2000, despite an economic downturn that has slowed the flow of state aid to schools and made it more difficult for districts to win voter approval of budgets. In the past year, salaries budgeted for superintendents on the Island rose 6.1 percent, or more than twice the inflation rate. Total compensation went up faster, at a 6.6 percent clip.

A rarity only a few years ago, $200,000-plus salaries are becoming more commonplace. Nineteen districts paid salaries that high last year, mostly in affluent communities such as Great Neck, Jericho and Locust Valley, but also in districts of modest means, such as Hempstead and Levittown.

While superintendents emphasize that they work year round, unlike other school employees, most get generous vacations and sick leave. On average, superintendents receive more than five weeks' vacation and three weeks' sick leave each year, along with school holidays averaging another three weeks.

There is little evident link between salaries and superintendents' success or failure in boosting student achievement.

While wealthy districts tend to be high-achieving and pay their leaders well, several poorer systems with multiple schools posted on the state's academic "needs improvement" list also paid executives well.

Hempstead Superintendent Nathaniel Clay, for example, got $226,558 in total compensation last year, even though the percentage of his students earning Regents-level diplomas is the lowest in Nassau County.

Still, the president of Hempstead's school board, Youssef Soufiane, said he strongly supports Clay's pay package. He believes superintendents "are underpaid and overworked. If I could pay him a million dollars a year, I would."

Money to get right person

Commack's Hunderfund said he worries that a debate over pay could discourage quality candidates.

"I remember the old days when everybody wanted to be a superintendent -- you used to get 200 applications for every position. Now," he said. "you're lucky if you get 10 or 12.

"Plus," he said, "there are the pressures of the job. Everybody wants their kids to excel on tests and go to good colleges, and they want to pay leaders to come in and make things happen. You don't want to bring in some hack who's basically somebody's relative, sitting in some titular position."

But some taxpayers are worried that the dramatic rise in administrator salaries may be hurtful to students at a time when the economy is weak.

"You can't take money from children, and give it to the superintendent," argues Julius Cohen, a retired New York City schoolteacher and resident of the East Williston district who opposes a recent $10,000 raise awarded the top administrator there. "When there are hard times, people have to make sacrifices, and this hasn't been done."

Meanwhile, other civic activists, such as Fred Gorman, chairman of the Nesconset-Sachem Civic Association, would like to see administrator salaries linked more closely to job performance requirements.

"There's no accountability in the system," Gorman said.

There is also a growing debate over whether there are, in fact, too few people vying to run school districts.

Bob Lowry, deputy director, New York State Council for School Superintendents, said that while his group hears "anecdotally, from talking to consultants, that they see fewer applicants, and fewer superior applicants" in some places, that "may not be necessarily true on Long Island."

Lowry says administrators working for less money upstate sometimes look to conclude their careers downstate, where salaries are higher. While they may face much higher costs of living on Long Island in the short run, he said, "they may be able to boost their retirement income" in the long term.

Nationwide, there is a growing movement toward granting "merit" raises to chief administrators, based on goals such as higher test scores.

Some of the Island's contracts do include performance bonuses, though the criteria for such awards can seem hazy.

Last year, for example, Bridgehampton gave a $10,000 "merit" raise to Superintendent Theodore Grocki, who later retired. But the school-board trustee who proposed the raise, Jack Zito, said he couldn't recall the exact reason for it, joking, "I don't even remember what I did yesterday. I guess we decided he did a great job."

Many taxpayers remain leery. The issue of compensation flared up last month at an East Williston board meeting, when several residents denounced the raise given Superintendent Carolyn Harris.

Though affluent, East Williston failed to pass its budget last spring, and subsequently cut back on field trips and other popular services.

As the meeting dragged past 11 p.m., residents argued that the raise was ill-timed.

"I thought that was absolutely outrageous," Cohen said.

Board member Neal Roher, meanwhile, defended the raise. "We felt that we were in danger of losing her and, believe me, there are districts out there looking for an honest superintendent," Roher said.

A rash of retirements

Often cited as evidence of the shrinking pool are surveys sponsored by the New York State Council of School Superintendents, a professional group based in Albany. Four years ago, 57 percent of superintendents said they intended to retire in the next five years. A follow-up survey, conducted last year, found the figure is now at 63 percent.

However, the council's studies also suggest the exodus could be temporary, since it's due in part to aging patterns and to state retirement incentives aimed at older educators.

One former executive headhunter, Len Adler, said his searches for superintendents on the Island yielded an average of 40 to 45 applications per slot, and as many as 55. Adler, who was a recruiter for an educational agency from 1999 through last spring, led searches for 26 districts.

Meanwhile, many civic activists say high salaries have less to do with the job market, than with cozy relations between superintendents and their boards.

"Basically, they do pretty much exactly what the superintendent wants them to do," said James Ward, a former Levittown school-board trustee who opposes the current board's spending policies.

Ward is critical of the "evergreen" contract won by Sirois in 1993, after he emerged victorious from a bruising political fight with an earlier board. Under that unusual agreement, renewed every year since and due to run until Sirois turns 65, cancellation would entitle the superintendent to a buyout now worth four years' salary.

As further protection, the contract stipulates that any board criticism of the superintendent will be done privately.

Sirois insists the arrangement has brought stability to his 8,000-student district and, thus, contributed to a marked improvement in scholastic achievement. James Moran, the current board president, agrees the superintendent has done a good job, but voices some misgivings about the contract.

"Sure, it ties our hands," he said.

Justified or not, superintendents' perks can become a hot political issue.

It happened eight years ago in Amagansett, when a longtime school-board president was voted out of office over a controversy involving the house that the district has owned since 1989 and provided to a succession of superintendents. Residents were riled because the superintendent at the time, George Aman, who has since retired, had built another, bigger house nearby and was renting it out at a price he wouldn't disclose.

Since then, the issue has cooled off, though local residents remain divided on the question of whether it's a good idea for the district to own a house that on the private market would likely fetch rent of more than $30,000 a year.

John Hossenlopp, the current board president, insists the house helps attract talent to a district located far out on the Island's South Fork.

Some Amagansett residents, however, remain uneasy that their district is apparently the only one in the state providing its superintendent with rent-free quarters.

"It's always a sore point that we give our superintendents a house within walking distance of the ocean," said one resident, Fiona Bennett. "But nobody cares anymore, because you can't fight the school board."
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.