School’s In Session!

By Mark Williams, Chair NPCCR

Enjoying the summer heat wave? Had fun on your weekend visit to the Shore or perhaps a little closer to home? Already starting to think about back to school supplies? OUCH! Sorry!

Well, tomorrow night, it’s time for adult education. School Board meeting, 7:30 p.m. at 33 Mountain Ave.

So we all felt warm and fuzzy towards the School Board when they announced the budget for the coming school year. They actually had saved taxpayers money.

That warm and fuzzy feeling, for me, went away when I started educating myself on the pending contracts of the Superintendent Birnbaum, Assistant Superintendent Rich and Business Administrator Donald Sternberg.

The current contract for the Superintendent expires on June 30, 2009 and has a five-year renewable term; Assistant Superintendent one year and Business Administrator one year.

Let me say this before I move forward. The following is in no way meant to bring into question the integrity or professional qualifications of the Superintendent; Assistant Superintendent or the Business Administrator. I would, however, question what the School Board as a whole as well as the Executive County Superintendent were thinking when the contracts were approved.

Let’s take a peek behind door number one!

Superintendent Birnbaum – Contract Expires June 30th, 2009

1. Yearly salary increases are automatically built into the contract, apparently for the five year life of the contract. The superintendent gets an increase equal to the highest increase given to any other administrator, or to any employee bargaining unit within the school district.)

2. Many extras are written into the contract (I had to read it two or three times to pick up on most of them):

• “$3,500 yearly contribution to an annuity” (apparently above and beyond the basic pension).
• “$2,000 additional stipend – in recognition of many years of service.” This means the five-year contract provides for $10,000 in additional monies above her negotiated salary. How about we give her a five year Certificate of Appreciation like they do in the real world?
• “$1,800 to defray costs of driving personal vehicle within the school district.” What! North Plainfield is 2.9 Square miles. The average distance from the Board of Education building to each school is, what, 10 to 12 blocks at the most! At the current (2008) IRS rate, for work related vehicle use reimbursement, at .585%, the vehicle would need to be driven 3,100 miles to use up the $1,800. (3,100 miles at .585% = $1813.50.) Be a good role model for our children. Walk.
• “The board shall provide the Superintendent with a state-of-the-art computer and other equipment for use when working outside of the office.” State-of-the-art. What’s that mean? Does my kid have state-of-the-art books in school? Does my kid have state-of-the-art resource materials? Does my kid have state-of-the-art computer access? Or do the teachers dig into their own pockets to make sure the kids have what they need to learn? Do the PTA’s and PTO’s have fundraisers to pay for extra supplies? When you go shopping, do you have your child’s teacher’s wish list?
• “At any time during the term of the contract, the superintendent may exercise the option of converting unused vacation days to salary.” As previously reported, 16 administrators cashed in unused vacation days for this past school year for a total cash reimbursement of $38,000. The Superintendent converted 6 unused vacation days into salary totaling approximately $2,500.

See you at the board meeting.