Today the Jersey Journal recounts that Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, perennially-hopeful gubernatorial candidate, is slamming the city School Board for raising taxes by $1,600 a year for each homeowner to compensate for loss in state school aid. Jersey City has been notoriously over-aided because of its former status as an “Abbott district” and the state, as StateAidGuy explains, has lessened its largesse from $419 million to $185 million, a loss of $234 million. An assistant to Fulop told the Jersey Journal the district has “bloated salaries in their central office and have not looked at any common-sense changes that have been recommended to them for years,” a sentiment that, oddly enough, echoes Chris Christie’s.

Let’s start with that damning charge of “bloated salaries in the central office,” which seems worth checking out. Former Superintendent Franklin Walker, who retirred recently, made $245,000, which seems like a lot. Then again, Jersey City is NJ’s second largest district, with almost 30,000 students. Yet,  according to the State Department of Education’s “user-friendly” district-by-district budgets, Jersey City seems to have at least one pecularity: the school board awards generous bonuses to its central office staff members.

For comparison’s sake, Newark, our largest district with about 40,000 students, doesn’t give its administrators bonuses, according to DOE. (To check out your own district, find your county, then your district, then click on the link and scroll to the bottom for local compensation linformation)

Here’s what it looks like in Jersey City for the school year 2021-2022:

• The Superintendent makes $245,000 with no bonus.
• The Director of Bilingual Programs makes $171,230 plus a bonus of $9,100.
• An Assistant Superintendent makes $181,596 plus a bonus of $7,200.
• Another Assistant Superintendent makes $160,700 plus a bonus of $2,000.
• Another Assistant Superintendent makes $168,000 plus a bonus of $7,200.
• The Director of Career and Technical Programs makes $164,581 plus a bonus of $300.
• The Assistant Business Administrator makes $129,000 with no bonus.
• The TV/Media Engineer makes $93,051 plus a bonus of $1,800.
• The Budget Officer makes $129,263 plus a bonus of $4,500.
• The Assistant Budget Officer makes $117,783  plus a bonus of $8,400.
• The Deputy Superintendent makes $174,930 plus a bonus of $7,200.
• The Special Assistant makes $125,240  plus a bonus of $2,000.
• The Business Administrator and the Hearing Officer don’t get bonuses.

Now, let’s be fair. Among NJ’s largest districts, there’s considerable variation. In Paterson, for instance, the majority of administrators get bonuses but the pattern is confusing, with the Director of Food Services getting a salary of $154,401 plus an annual bonus of $10,900, yet Superintendent Eileen Shafer getting no boost. (Then again, her annual salary is $267,900 ) In Elizabeth, fewer administrators get bonuses and the few that do receive smaller amounts. One exception: Superintendent Olga Hugelmeyer, who gets $210,000 a year topped off with a bonus of $31,479.

Bonuses for central office administrators became popular in New Jersey back in 2011 when former Gov. Christie issued a set of regulations with the quixotic title, “Christie Tool Kit: Putting Children First by Cutting Out-of-Classroom Costs.” These rules limited superintendent salaries within a range of $125,000 to $175,000, depending on the size of the district; in other words, district CEO salaries topped out at the governor’s own annual compensation. (There were exceptions for Abbott districts, districts over 10K students, and county special services districts.) Christie’s poster boy for excess was Parsippany-Troy Hills Superintendent Leroy Seitz, who made $225,064 a year for running a 6,000 student district.

Over the next few years school boards realized they were having to pay their next level of management—assistant superintendents, business administrators, principals–as much if not more than they could give their chief operating officers. Superintendents realized this too and there was a scurry to win cushier positions in New York and Pennsyvania school districts where compensation was much higher. Some older superintendents did the math and decided to double-dip, becoming “interim superintendents” (a gig when districts are between leaders) while also collecting their pensions.

And in another effort to retain top leaders, districts started skirting the cap by awarding their superintendents merit bonuses.

It was a mess. In 2019 Gov. Murphy rescinded the salary cap.

Yet apparently bonuses are here to stay, at least in Jersey City. Mayor Fulop may fulminate but he sort of nailed that one.