CASAGRANDE AND O’SCANLON SAY PAY RAISE FOR CAMDEN SUPERINTENDENT SHOULD BE VETOED BY CORZINE

CAMDEN’S SCHOOL BOARD QUIETLY AUTHORIZED $6,600 RAISE FOR SCHOOLS CHIEF WHOSE COMPENSATION COULD TOTAL $282,272

    Governor Corzine should veto the recent raise given to Camden’s School Superintendent Bessie LeFra Young, who will be paid more than $225,000 while serving one of the nation’s poorest cities that is under state oversight and had to cut $7.2 million and 93 jobs from its budget this year, Assembly members Caroline Casagrande and Declan O’Scanlon, both R-Monmouth and Mercer, said.

    “In times of economic hardship, good leaders should set an example of shared sacrifice instead of keeping their hands out for personal benefit,” Casagrande said. “This raise is galling when considering the tough economic times facing New Jersey taxpayers who fund the bulk of Camden’s education costs and that the administrators under Young’s charge have gone three years without a raise.”

    According to the Courier-Post, the city school board voted at a special May 11 meeting on a 3 percent raise for Young, increasing her base pay to $226,600. It also approved a three-year contract extension for the superintendent. Other benefits including a $4,800 gas card, $1,360 cell phone perk and other allowances, health, retirement and compensatory time buy back benefits, could inflate Young’s total compensation to $282,272.

    “We'll hear from people trying to excuse this action that ‘$6,000 is a small amount of a budget the size of Camden’s,’” O'Scanlon said. "But that's not the point here. The level of obliviousness of the people making these decisions with our tax dollars is striking. You have to ask - what rock are these people living under that they don't know the sacrifices being made all across the socio-economic spectrum in New Jersey, and our nation? And what other wasteful decisions, that aren’t this obvious, are they making? It boggles the mind.”

    O’Scanlon and Casagrande sponsor a bill, A-3185, which would impose a statewide model for superintendent contracts that would ensure salary and other benefits remain uniform and reasonable throughout New Jersey. O’Scanlon also sponsors A-2975, which would cap excessive retirement packages for retiring school chiefs.

    “New Jersey taxpayers cannot afford to be fleeced by maverick boards of education – especially ones such as Camden that are not accountable to local taxpayers,” O’Scanlon said. “Three years ago, Governor Corzine rightly vetoed a lesser contract for Dr. Young’s predecessor. I hope he shows the same sensitivity to the state’s taxpayers now because the Camden Board of Education spends our tax dollars without concern.”

    Camden continues to perform worse than the averages for the state and other similar districts on standardized tests. Roughly 75 percent of its students failed math on the High School Proficiency Assessment (compared with about 25 percent statewide and 55 percent among similar districts. More than 50 percent of Camden high school students failed English (compared with about 15 percent statewide and 40 percent among similar districts). Roughly one-third of students do not graduate high school; the statewide average is little more than 7 percent. And in some high schools less than 20 percent are able to graduate passing standardized tests.

    Yet, state taxpayers pay 88 percent of the $16,131 that is spent per student in Camden during the 2008-09 school year.

    “Our school children, and taxpayers, deserve better results for the amount of money that is spent on education and educators in Camden,” Casagrande said.