For years, prominent politicians and media outlets vilified New Jersey’s school superintendents as overpaid and recipients of lavish perks.
In some cases, their statements proved true. Some superintendents across Monmouth and Ocean counties receive annual bonuses in the thousands of dollars. Some receive hundreds of dollars a month for car allowances or cellphone reimbursements.
In another example, one Monmouth County school leader gets a $6,000 payment to bring his family’s comfort dog into schools.
However, an in-depth analysis of superintendent contracts across Ocean and Monmouth counties along with interviews with New Jersey education experts paint a different picture.
Across the region, the highest paid superintendents of large school districts are a better deal for taxpayers than superintendents of some of the smallest school systems in the region, according to the Asbury Park Press’ analysis…
Will New Jersey schools consolidate?
Schools often have few incentives outside of financial pressure to consolidate services, said Marc Pfeiffer, an expert in local government, shared services and consolidation at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
“Every parent wants class sizes as small as possible,” he said. “Most schools will not increase class sizes unless there’s a problem.
“There has to be a crisis for that to happen. So a lot of schools, if their enrollments were dropping, didn’t do anything,” Pfeiffer added.