$150K-Plus Salaries For Princeton Superintendent, Principals, Admins

PRINCETON, 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 15 members from the Princeton school district.

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 now dismissed Princeton High School Principal Frank Chmiel and former school counselor Dana Karas.

The highest-paid Superintendent in New Jersey is Leigh Byron, of Trenton Stem-To-Civics charter school who makes $384,000 a year. David Aderhold, of the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District also makes the top 20 list with $262,551 a year.

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

1. Carol Kelley, Superintendent, $244,800
2. Rebecca Gold, Interim Asst. Superintendent for Human Resources, $208,000
3. Jason Burr, Principal - Princeton Middle School, $193,010
4. Lawrence Patton, Princeton Charter School, $192,747
5. Michael Bouldin, Business Administrator and Board Secretary, $186,285
6. Margaret Crisafulli, District Office, $183,613
7. Dineen Gruchacz, Principal - Community Park, $182,654
8. Priscilla Russel, District Supervisor of World Languages, $175,078
9. Kimberly Tew, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, $175,000
10. Angela Siso Stentz, Principal - Johnson Park, $173,223
11. Frank Chmiel, Former Principal - PHS, $169,000
12. Luis Ramirez, Principal - Littlebrook Elementary, $158,603
13. Nancy Whalen, Principal - Riverside, $156,000
14. Dana Karas, School Counseling (former), $154,775
15. Patrick Lenihan, Visual and Performing Arts, $152,483

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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