SBA Rep: Brick an 'Attractive' District for Potential Superintendents

Brick is an attractive town for prospective schools superintendents to consider when looking for a job, a representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association said at a meeting Thursday night.

"I think you will get a lot of interest in your district because of those salary caps," Kathy Winecoff told school board members.

Winecoff was referring to New Jersey's cap on superintendents' salaries. Brick's school district stands just shy of 10,000 students, which means a superintendent can legally earn up to $175,000 per year. In smaller districts, salaries are capped to various amounts, with the lowest being $120,000. Districts that educate over 10,000 students are governed by separate rules.

"We are seeing, in those attractive districts, the pools of candidates are large," Winecoff said. "In order to make more money, they are looking to go to those K-12 districts."

The Board of Education has notified current superintendent Walter Hrycenko that his contract will not be renewed when it is up at the end of the 2011-12 school year. Winecoff said the board can start the process of searching for a new superintendent at any time, but the fact that four seats on the board – representing a majority of board members – are up for election next spring could throw a monkey wrench into current plans.

"The fact that you have a majority of your board turning over might make them a bit uncomfortable," Winecoff said, of prospective superintendents.

The current board will not be able to select the new superintendent. Under state law, the board in place when Hrycenko's contract expires on July 1, 2012 will have that task. So if a majority of board members are aligned against the wishes of the current board, there could be a conflict when it comes to hiring a schools chief.

The School Boards Association representatives were on hand Thursday to pitch their superintendent search service. The board could spent $6,500 or $15,000 for one of two packages where the association would shoulder some of the leg work of developing criteria for the new superintendent, writing a job announcement and advertising the announcement. Under the more expensive option, association employees would conduct backgrounds checks as well as the first round of interviews. The board did not make a decision Thursday on whether to use the association in their search.

Jane Kirchner, another association employee on hand Thursday, said state law requires the board to tender the successful candidate for the job a contract between three and five years in length.

Since Hrycenko is still under contract for the rest of the current school year, the board has the luxury of taking things slow, Winecoff said.

"You do have the luxury of time, where you can move through the process and not feel like you're under the gun," she said.

Board President Sharon Kight has said stakeholders, including district employees and the public, will be able to voice their input on the criteria for hiring the next leader of the township's school system. Hrycenko, at the end of the 2011-12 school year, will be able to return to his last tenured position of assistant superintendent.