$150K-Plus Salaries For Edison, Metuchen Superintendent, Principal, Admins

EDISON, NJ — School administrators in New Jersey are among the highest-paid in the country and it comes as no surprise they make upwards of $150,000.

The state Department of Education recently released data that showed over 3,200 administrators made $150,000 or more during the 2022-23 school year — an increase after 2,556 did so the year prior.

This also includes members from the Edison and Metuchen school districts.

Patch pulled salary data that includes superintendents, principals and assistant principals, curriculum directors and other employees in administrative positions within New Jersey schools.

Since the data is from the 2022-2023 school year, the list also includes former Edison Superintendent Bernard F Bragen, who was among the top 20 highest-paid school administrators in NJ.

The highest-paid Superintendent in New Jersey is Leigh Byron, of Trenton Stem-To-Civics charter school who makes $384,000 a year.

Here are the top earners in Edison and Metuchen, along with their current or most recent position and most recent salary. All data comes from the New Jersey Department of Education:

EDISON:

• Bernard Bragen, Superintendent, $259,996
• Gail Pawlikowski, District Office, $215,058
• Jonathan Toth, District Office, $215,000
• Anthony Shallop, John P. Stevens High School, $198,029
• Charles Ross, Edison High School, $195,437
• Joan Valentine, John Adams Middle School, $192,218
• Edward Aldarelli, District Office, $189,263
• Brian McGrath, Herbert Hoover Middle School, $186,513
• Emden Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson Middle School, $185,861
• Jennifer Blevins, Woodrow Wilson Middle School, $183,595
• Baninder Mahabir, District Office, $180,210
• Shawn Scully, Lincoln Elementary School, $179,146
• Michael Duggan, Menlo Park Elementary School, $178,122
• Ami Hoffman, John Marshall Elementary School, $176,892
• Nicole Cirillo, Woodbrook Elementary School, $176,240
• Kelly Ann Rappa, Herbert Hoover Middle School, $175,723
• Sandra Schlatter, Washington Elementary School, $175,010
• Matthew Bolton, Thomas Edison Intermediate School, $174,784
• Nicole Bevere, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, $174,769
• Regina Paparsenos, Martin Luther King Elementary School, $173,974

METUCHEN:

• Vincent Caputo, Superintendent, $197,459
• Michael Harvier, District Office, $188,759
• Richard Cohen, District Office, $173,406
• Tania Herzog, District Office, $166,361
• Edward Porowski, Metuchen High School, $163,170
• John Cathcart, District Office, $161,088

Why Are School Administrator Salaries Rising?

Back in 2011, then-Gov. Chris Christie implemented a $175,000 cap for superintendents. The Christie administration raised the maximum base pay for superintendents to $191,584 in 2017.

Then in 2019, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law that eliminated the cap for superintendent salaries but set guidelines for school-executive contracts to limit or standardize bonuses and other perks.

School executive pay has long been a controversial subject in both local school district budgeting and state policy. While administrative salaries are often a flashpoint for criticism in school policy, many districts struggled to maintain experienced superintendents when the position's pay was capped, according to a 2019 analysis from NJ Spotlight.

Superintendents, principals and other school leaders throughout the nation have faced intense scrutiny for COVID-19 management and from politically charged movements to overhaul or eliminate certain subjects and topics from the curriculum. But those obstacles have also fallen to teachers and other rank-and-file school employees. And New Jersey has faced a shortage of teaching candidates that preceded the pandemic.

(With reporting from Michelle Rotuno-Johnson, Patch Staff)

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