Some superintendents in South Jersey get tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses

Washington Township’s embattled superintendent has been fighting for a more than $27,000 bonus.

The school board has repeatedly voted to deny merit pay to Superintendent Eric Hibbs, making it the latest source of infighting and disagreement in the Gloucester County district.

“You don’t have to like the fact that merit pay was in there,” Hibbs said of his contract at the most recent meeting. But, he said, he’s legally entitled to the payment on top of his $215,000 annual base salary because he met the goals listed in his contract.

And he’s not the only South Jersey superintendent who has negotiated merit pay or other bonuses as part of a contract. The measure is a little-known way for New Jersey superintendents to earn higher salaries.

About 54 of the state’s 600 public school chiefs, or about 9%, had perks negotiated in their contracts in the 2023-24 school year, according to data from the state Department of Education.

Here’s what to know about the practice of giving merit pay to New Jersey superintendents:

In South Jersey, at least eight of nearly 100 superintendents had merit or bonus pay provisions in their contracts in the 2023-24 school year, the most recent available state data obtained under the Open Public Records Act. The information may be incomplete because it is compiled from self-reporting by districts, and some superintendents have left their jobs since the data was compiled.

Among the districts offering merit pay are: Barrington, Black Horse Pike Regional, Clayton, Salem County Vocational, Washington Township in Gloucester County, Woodlynne, and West Deptford. Merchantville had it also, but that superintendent has since left the position.

An Inquirer analysis of state data found that bonus compensation packages range from $2,000 to $56,989 for the 2023-24 school year.

They include additional pay granted for meeting performance goals, obtaining a doctorate, or longevity bonuses for years of service.

The districts with the most lucrative merit packages are in North Jersey: $56,989 in Bergen County Vocational; $43,272 in Hudson, and $36,489 in Union.

Clayton Superintendent Nikolaos Koutsogiannis, in his ninth year as schools chief, received $4,350 in longevity pay. He joined the district in 2008 as a principal and is one of the longest-serving superintendents in Gloucester County.

“I enjoy my job here,” Koutsogiannis said. “They wanted to keep me here. I was more than willing to stay.”

The Barrington, Black Horse Pike Regional, Salem County Vocational, and West Deptford superintendents did not respond to numerous email messages.

Some South Jersey districts where superintendents are among the highest paid in the region don’t offer merit pay, including Winslow, Lenape Regional, Burlington City, Mount Laurel and Cherry Hill.

Former Gov. Chris Christie imposed a cap on superintendent salaries in 2010 in an effort to curb property taxes. Christie said superintendents’ base pay should not exceed the governor’s salary of $175,000.

Because of the cap, dozens of superintendents left the state for higher salaries elsewhere and districts had difficulty recruiting educators. Others negotiated merit pay and bonuses to boost their earnings.

After Gov. Phil Murphy lifted the cap on superintendents’ annual salary in 2019, merit pay became less common, said Timothy Purnell, executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association.

But merit pay still exists in many districts.

Superintendent salaries can vary, as boards negotiate contracts based on experience, district size, and other factors.

The state Department of Education must approve contracts, including merit pay provisions and goals. Executive county school superintendents review contracts for each district.

Purnell said his association, which provides guidance to more than 600 New Jersey school boards, generally steers them away from considering merit pay. Longevity pay, however, is encouraged as an incentive to keep quality superintendents, he said.

Many superintendents are less interested in pursuing additional goals because merit pay is not factored into pensions, Purnell said.

When merit pay is in a contract, the board and the superintendent establish merit goals at the beginning of the school year. At the end of the year, the superintendent must submit evidence that the goals were met. The executive county superintendent must sign off on the request before any bonuses are paid.

The state specifies quantitative and qualitative goals that may be included in merit pay. It also sets the value of each goal, a percentage of the superintendent’s base salary.

Based on a district’s needs, merit pay may be given for meeting goals such as reducing chronic absenteeism, increasing student achievement, setting up learning academies, or establishing a foundation.

Hibbs’ goals approved by the board include completing Google training presentations, taking online professional development courses, and beefing up security.

In September, the executive county superintendent approved $9,072 in merit pay for Barrington Superintendent Anthony Arcodia for meeting two goals — improved parent communication and overhauling the parent-student handbook, records show.

Barrington School Board president Mark Correa said Arcodia waived his right to merit pay for the 2025-26 school year because of the district’s belt-tightening. He will be eligible for merit pay in future years, he said.

The district “believes in rewarding our high-achieving, long-serving superintendent when possible,” Correa wrote in an email this week.

Some school chiefs get a stipend for holding an additional administrative position such as serving as superintendent and a school principal, typically in smaller districts.

Purnell said merit goals can muddy the waters for districts because superintendents could become so focused on those goals that they lose sight of the overall strategic plan.

“The question would be why do you need to receive merit pay when it’s your responsibility to provide a thorough and efficient education,” Purnell said. “You don’t want the goal to become more important than the best interest of all children.”

In 2007, the Camden school board bought out the contract of then-Superintendent Annette Knox after learning that she received $17,500 in bonuses without board approval or knowledge. A state criminal probe looked into the bonuses and allegations of grade-fixing and test score-rigging in the district. Other administrators ultimately faced charges for submitting fake pay vouchers, but Knox was not charged.

A superintendent focused on achieving merit goals may neglect other priorities more difficult to assess, said Bruce Campbell, a senior fellow in Penn’s Graduate School of Education. Gains are often the result of team effort, he said.

“Student outcomes are the result of a whole system and are heavily influenced by factors outside one leader’s control,” Campbell said. “If a district uses merit pay at all, I recommend it be a small slice of compensation.”

Merit pay does exist in other states. Earlier this year, the state-appointed superintendent for Houston Independent School District received a $173,660 bonus based on his annual performance evaluation which credited him with boosting standardized test scores. His annual base salary is $462,000.

Nationwide, the median salary for a school superintendent was $156,000 for the 2023-24 school year, according to the School Superintendents Association. The group does not track merit pay.

The median superintendent salary among 91 South Jersey school districts was $176,088 for the 2024-25 school year, an Inquirer analysis found.

In Philadelphia, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. recently got a contract extension that will keep him in the nation’s eighth-largest school district through 2030. He is paid $367,710. He does not get merit pay.

In Washington Township, Hibbs has the most lucrative merit package in South Jersey. He received $25,000 in bonus pay for the 2023-24 school year, according to district records obtained by The Inquirer under the state’s Open Public Records Act.

Hibbs has asked the board several times to approve $27,319 in merit pay for the 2024-25 school year indicating he had met four of the five goals approved by the board. His contract allows an annual merit bonus of up to 14.99% of his salary, the maximum permitted by the state.

The request has been rejected by the board, failing to get five votes needed. The dispute is expected to lead to another legal showdown between Hibbs and the board.

» READ MORE: Washington Township school board again rejects $27K merit pay for Superintendent Eric Hibbs

During a heated exchange at a board meeting last month, Hibbs accused the board of retribution. He was suspended for five months earlier this year over an ethics complaint. A judge ordered his return and Hibbs was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

“My merit pay that was 100% approved and achieved has been consistently voted down by certain members,” Hibbs said at a recent school board meeting.

Hibbs was hired in 2023 with an annual base salary of $215,000, making him among the highest-paid superintendents in South Jersey. He is entitled to an annual merit bonus of up to 14.99% of his salary, according to his contract, which runs through 2027.

Staff writer Kristen A. Graham contributed to this article.