$1.6M In School Administration Salaries In Long Valley

MENDHAM/CHESTER, NJ — Superintendent and principal salaries are increasing, and taxpayers in Long Valley spent $1,604,698 on the superintendent and principals in their school district last year.

According to data from the New Jersey Department of Education, more than 2,500 educational administrators in the state earned $150,000 or more during the previous school year.

That kind of pay is becoming more common for New Jersey school administrators. Former Governor Chris Christie set a salary cap of $175,000 for superintendents in 2011. However, in 2019, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation that eliminates the cap on superintendent salaries while establishing guidelines for school-executive contracts to limit or standardize bonuses and other perks.

The list below contains the administrators, along with their school, years of service, and, finally, their salaries from this past school year:

Washington Township

• Mark Ippolito, Long Valley Middle School, Washington Township School District, 18, $168,522
• Joseph Ciulla, Old Farmers Road School, Washington Township School District, 29, $151,107

West Morris Regional

• L. Douglas Pechanec, District Office, West Morris Regional High School District, 25, $195,515
• Timothy Rymer, West Morris Central High School, West Morris Regional High School District, 24, $173,470
• Janet Slover, West Morris Central High School, West Morris Regional High School District, 41, $171,000
• Toni Liskiewicz, West Morris Central High School, West Morris Regional High School District, 24, $168,500
• Edward Braun, District Office, West Morris Regional High School District, 23, $168,300
• Michael Reinknecht, District Office, West Morris Regional High School District, 26, $168,300
• Michael Ben-David, District Office, West Morris Regional High School District, 21, $239,984

With reporting from Josh Bakan, Patch Staff