Time to justify high salary

Metuchen Board of Education members recently voted to extend Superintendent of Schools Theresa Sinatra’s contract another five years.

Nothing wrong with that, on face value.

It makes sense to keep a competent professional who presided over the successful referendum in December on board for the renovations to aging Metuchen High School.

What doesn’t make sense is the almost unbelievable incremental salary hikes they approved for a person who presides over a school district that is dwarfed by many others in size and number of schools.

Sinatra will be making a whopping $182,300 by the 2009-2010 school year.

Metuchen’s population stood at an estimated 13,242, according to the 2004 Middlesex County directory of county and local offices.

And it’s a sure bet that not all of those 13,000-plus are children who attend Metuchen schools.

The district only has four schools — Metuchen High School, the Edgar Middle School, and the Campbell and Moss elementary schools.

We’re not talking about a district the size of Jersey City or Toms River Regional. We’re talking four schools.

Board President Ronald Grayzel lauded Sinatra’s performance as superintendent at the May 24 board meeting.

He noted that Sinatra had managed to bring in about $660,000 in rental income and “worked hard” to obtain grant money for asbestos abatement and special education.

Well, she should work hard. That’s her job. Especially for that kind of loot.

Here are the numbers: Sinatra’s projected salary for the 2005-2006 will hit $163,000. It jumps each year over the next five years to reach its $182,300 zenith during the last year of the contract.

School board member Devra Golbe said that Sinatra’s first raise “only gives her parity with her peers.”

It doesn’t seem likely that too many other school superintendents in the state with so few schools to preside over make that kind of money.

The school tax rate here rose 12 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation this year. Residents with a home assessed at the borough average of $184,100 will pay $4,510 just in school taxes this year. That’s not chump change.

Granted, Metuchen residents approved the budget with the tax increase. And they have a history of supporting school budgets and educational endeavors.

But residents of the “brainy borough” would do well to take a closer look at how much they pay their help.