This evening at 7:30 the Lakewood Board of Education will renew attorney Michael Inzelbuch’s contract. According to the agenda, Inzelbuch will retain his $600,000 annual compensation, as well as his $475 per hour rate for “any litigation services.” In school year 2020-21 the Asbury Park Press reported Inzelbuch’s salary plus hourly rate came to  $1.12 million.

The median salary for a school board attorney is about $80,000 per year.

David Sciarra, founder of New Jersey’s Education Law Center, has called Inzelbuch’s salary “lavish and unprecedented,” especially in the context of the school district’s fiscal instability and its need for “loans” every  year from the Department of Education.

“There is no compensation for any school district employee that approaches his compensation,” Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, said about Inzelbuch. “Those numbers are unheard of anywhere else in the State of New Jersey.

“My own view was, it was outrageous when it started and it sounds like it is doubly outrageous in a handful of years,” said Paul Tractenberg, a former Rutgers law professor and an expert on public education who has previously called Inzelbuch’s compensation into question. “The notion that a district that is struggling to find dollars to educate its students is laying out (hundreds of thousands of dollars) to its attorney is obscene and immoral as far as I am concerned.”

Here is the item from tonight’s agenda:

Move to reappoint General Counsel, Michael I. Inzelbuch’s contract from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024; to be paid through budget account #11-000-230-331-00-0000.

1. Inzelbuch shall be engaged by the Board as General Counsel for the period of July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024 at the annualized retainer of $600,000.00, and payable in equal monthly payments of $50,000.00, plus costs, if applicable, commencing August 1, 2023 (for the period of July 2023) and thereafter paid monthly through July of 2024 for the period of June 2024.  Payment will be made on the first day of each month succeeding the month worked.  There will be no charge for hours worked in excess of the $50,000.00 monthly retainer.
2. In addition, Inzelbuch shall be compensated at the hourly rate of $475.00 for any litigation services, payable monthly, upon presentation of detailed logs documenting litigation services.
3. As an independent contractor, Inzelbuch shall not be enrolled in the Public Employment Retirement System or any other State run pension system, nor shall he be enrolled in health benefits plan or any similar State run health coverage plan.
4. Third party expenses and disbursements made by Inzelbuch on the Board’s behalf will be separately itemized and reimbursed by the Board in accordance with customary and unusual practices for law firms representing public school districts, including, but not limited to, filing fees, messenger services and stenographic transcripts.  Inzelbuch shall not request or be entitled to reimbursement for mileage, travel, parking, photocopying, faxes or similar expenses.