All Eyes on Marlboro BOE Regarding Marlboro Schools Supt. Pact

Marlboro, NJ-February 14, 2021

The embattled Marlboro Board of Education will be conducting a public hearing and subsequent vote regarding schools superintendent Eric Hibbs' proposed new salary contract this Tuesday, February 16, 2021.

The meeting, to be conducted virtually, is to determine if the new contract--re-negotiated a year and a half earlier than the current contract's expiration of June 2022, will satisfy the superintendent, the Board of Education, and more importantly-- the community at large, in deciding to retain Dr. Hibbs with the Marlboro School District until 2026.

The salary pact, worth over 1.2 million dollars, includes "bonuses" during the life of the 5-year agreement.

Some residents have questioned how the Board has come to that amount. Posted on a Marlboro social media site, resident Ms. Debra Venedam, in an open letter dated February 12th (see above) and addressed to the Board of Education, writes, "...I am curious on how the Board negotiated the new contract and agreed to the financials/benefits? While I can't pull data from this year, Dr. Hibbs' proposed package seems to compare with much larger school district superintendents (larger student population, number of schools, includes those who also oversee high schools).

Did this Board look at similar school districts (#of schools enrollment) to ensure that the salary and benefits would be aligned to what others are paying for superintendents? What other districts did you use to justify and/or evaluate the new contract?

In late January of this year, the Freehold Regional High School Board of Education inked a 5-year agreement with Superintendent Charles Sampson for 1.2 million dollars excluding other benefits.

In determining that salary, Board president, Peter Bruno stated, " A survey of similar sized districts found Sampson's pay under the previous contract was lower than those with enrollment close to Freehold Regional's 10,571 students.

In the Fall of 2020, the (FRHSD) Board conducted a "comparability study" of superintendent salaries that had been approved by the Department of Education since the elimination of salary caps. In that study, the Board focused on school districts that were comparable to the FRHSD in size, demographics and geography. That study determined that Dr. Sampson's was no longer comparable, and as such the Board and Dr. Sampson entered into negotiations to develop a new employee contract."

Districts of comparable size in the study included Edison, New Brunswick and Hamilton.

Sampson's new contract, unlike Dr. Hibbs, does not have any provisions for any bonuses or "merit pay."

Marlboro School District official, Mr. Vincent Caravello, who serves as the Board Secretary, writes, "No such study was performed..." referring to the Marlboro Board of Education.

However, in standards promulgated by the state education commissioner, entitled, "Executive County Superintendent Review of Administrator Contracts Q&A", a guide regarding reviews of administrator contracts, shortly updated in August of 2019 (one-month after Governor Murphy lifted school superintendent salary caps), and codified by NJAC 6A:23A-3.1, indicates school boards of education are responsible for providing documentation to the county superintendent used to determine pay and benefits comparability.

This regulation is being used by Executive County Superintendents throughout the state to ensure that salaries in one district do not jump so high as to be out of proportion with other salaries in similar districts. The intention and the effect is to slow the growth of salaries so that one school district is not strapped with an excessive salary for its chief school administrator.

Pursuant to the New Jersey School Boards Association, to afford protection to taxpayers against skyrocketing superintendent salaries-- pay comparability studies are bound by regulation to review salaries for administrative positions to ensure that they will be…“comparable with the salary, benefits, and other emoluments contained in the contracts of similarly credentialed and experienced administrators in other school districts in the region with similar enrollment, academic achievement levels and challenges, and grade span.” N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-3.1(e)(1).

Tuesday's meeting will undoubtedly eradicate all confusion-- and hopefully, clear and truthful answers by ALL elected Board members will be forthcoming, justifying why a pay comparability study was not conducted.

If a pay study was not conducted pursuant to applicable law, voters must hold those Board members responsible and accountable this November.


This is the opinion of the Monmouth Watchdog.
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