Brian Osbourne, one of NJ’s finest superintendents, is a finalist for Superintendent of Ann Arbor Schools.  Currently at the helm of South Orange Maplewood School District, Osbourne  has had a public presence, serving as Chair of the New Jersey Dept. of Education Teacher Evaluation Pilot Advisory Committee. He also wrote a widely-circulated editorial in the New York Times describing how the Christie Administrations school aid cuts were effecting local school districts.

Most news reports ascribe Osbourne’s ambitions, at least in part, to NJ’s superintendent salary cap. Osbourne’s current contract with South Orange-Maplewood’s Board expires on June 30th, 2014. His salary is $208,170. But next year the state cap will kick in and his salary will drop $40K, to $167,500. Ann Arbor, on the other hand, has capped its next superintendent’s salary at $220K.

It’s worth noting  that in 2009, before the salary cap era, Osbourne current contract stipulated a 3.5% raise. He donated the whole increase, about $6K, to the local education foundation.

Osbourne came out of the Teach for America corps after graduating from Colgate. He then received his M.A.T. from NYU and an Ed.D. from Harvard Graduate School of Education.