NHP-GCP Superintendent, NHP Mayor Respond To Cuomo's Superintendent Salary Cap

Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing for a cap on school superintendent salaries based on enrollment numbers, with the largest amount being $175,000.

Approximately 223 superintendents currently make more than $175,000, according to a press release from Governor Cuomo, which is 33 percent of superintendents.

Superintendent Robert Katulak's salary was $192,600 last year, he said, adding that the less than $30,000 difference between his compensation and the $175,000 cap "doesn’t even pay for a teacher." He added that it also doesn't address the bigger issue with school's budgets -- their teacher retirement system and employee retirement system benefits.

The district's Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael Frank said at that, “Salaries and benefits alone are causing the budget-to-budget increase to go up 5.37 percent ... salaries are causing [a] 1.91 percent [increase].”

Katulak cites an inherent structural problem with this system. He explained that new public employees contribute three percent of their wages annually toward their retirement, which stops after 10 years. To get a decent pension though, Katulak added that educators need to work for about 30 years. If these teachers contributed more toward their retirement during that 20-year period, that part of the budget wouldn't be in such dire straights, Katulak noted. To make a change of this scale though, Governor Cuomo would have to call a constitutional convention, Katulak said.

He also noted that the requirements of the job should merit higher pay.

"When you have a CEO of any firm, whether a public or a private company, the person is on duty 24/7 and has to make very difficult decisions," he said. In this case, as "CEO" of the school district, he has to provide a well-rounded education that local taxpayers can afford.

Katulak added that the job requires several degrees and experience. He has 30 years of experience before becoming a superintendent at various levels.

Lowering superintendents salaries may make it difficult to find qualified candidates in a timely fashion, Katulak said, adding that some BOCES superintendent positions in the metropolitan area remained vacant for up to five years for that reason.

Katulak also noted that "if a certain area chooses to select a superintendent for a salary to which they want to pay, who is anyone to tell them otherwise."

On this point, Katulak and Mayor Petruccio seem to agree. Petruccio noted at the Tuesday night's Village board meeting that he agreed with the spirit of what Cuomo's cap would do in getting rid of high-end superintendent salaries as an educator himself but added that Cuomo is otherwise off base.

"The Governor taking the authority in his own hands to make changes at school board levels is one step away from telling villages and towns, which he would like to eliminate, what they can and can't do," Petruccio said. "I believe in the law of subsidiarity which says that what the local government can do best, it should do and only when it can't do a job should the next highest level of government step in."

Update: Superintendent echoed Katulak's sentiment that "the district has the right to pay a superintendent whatever the board of education chooses."