Measure Would Help Control Costs, Prevent Lavish Compensation Packages
(TRENTON) — Assembly members Joan M. Voss, Ed.D., and Ralph R. Caputo announced Wednesday they have introduced legislation that would reinstate career tenure for school superintendents.
“Removing lifetime tenure for superintendents has had some serious unintended consequences,” said Voss (D-Bergen), vice chair of the Assembly Education Committee. “Superintendents now act more like free agents, moving from district to district when their contracts expire, negotiating new deals that have led to the bloated salaries and over-inflated, lavish compensation packages taxpayers are currently forced to fund.”
Under the Voss/Caputo legislation (A-2359) the current system of contract tenure for school superintendents would be replaced with career tenure. Any superintendents currently under contract would not be eligible to begin accruing career tenure credit until the expiration of the current contract and their subsequent rehiring by the local board of education.
“Restoring career tenure could be a quick and easy way to combat the current superintendent mentality that, no matter how good the pay under an existing contract, a future contract will always be more lucrative,” said Caputo (D-Essex) a retired teacher and former school administrator. “That type of thinking has to stop. It’s harmful to taxpayers, who foot the bill, and it’s harmful to students, who don’t benefit from a top administrator focused their long-term educational well being.”