Superintendent's 17 Percent Raise Questioned

After his year-end review for the 2009-2010 academic year, Brookfield Superintendent Anthony Bivona's three-year contract was renewed with three step increases that will raise his salary up to $220,000 by 2012. The goal is to bring the superintendent's salary more in line with other comparable school districts according to the Board of Education (BOE), however some have questioned whether this is the right time.

The BOE agreed to raise Bivona's salary this year from $167,375 to $172,313, a 2.95 percent increase. His salary also includes a $15,000 contribution to an annuity and the potential for an $8,000 bonus pending his next year-end review. All totaled, this brings his annual gross to $195,313, or a 16.96 percent increase over last year.

According to BOE Chairman Michael Fenton, the reason for the high increase was Bivona's relatively low salary compared to other schools in Brookfield's District Reference Group (DRG), which is composed of school districts of similar size and performance. The median income for a superintendent in Brookfield's DRG is $208,869, up from $202,785 in the 2009-10 academic year.

"He received a pretty outstanding review" this spring, Fenton said in an interview, but more surprisingly, "He said he wants to finish his career at Brookfield." In order to keep Bivona with the district, the board agreed to the raise this year and subsequent steps in the next two years.

"Over the next couple of years we want to get him, not up to the top of the DRG, but to the medium level," Fenton explained, with a base salary bump of 2.95 percent a year.

In Bivona's renewed three-year contract, his salary is bumped up to $177,396 next year, with $20,000 to annuity and the potential for an $11,000 bonus, and $182,629 in the 2012-13 academic year, with a $25,000 contribution and a $13,000 bonus. By 2012, the superintendent will have the potential to make $220,629 a year, 99.6 percent of the DRG median, which is projected to reach $221,589.

These raises are set in Bivona's contract and will not be up for reconsideration until the end of the three-year contract. "Tony's made a commitment to Brookfield, so we wanted to make a commitment to him," Fenton said.

"Certainly I'm very appreciative to the Board of Ed for my compensation," Bivona said, noting that "there was such a disparity with what other school administrators were making" and "the board wanted to ensure that I stay here."

Bivona is beginning his fourth year with the district, previously serving as superintendent of Region 6, which includes Warren, Morris and Goshen. "I enjoy working for the Brookfield Public Schools," he said, stating that he "can't answer whether I would have left," but that the raise from the BOE will ensure he is "committed to the district."

Finding a new superintendent would have included a 'superintendent search,' which could cost between $20,000 and $30,000, according to Fenton, effectively negating the base salary increases over the next three years, and in order to attract a viable candidate, "we'd have to pay them close to where Tony is right now."

With the difficult economic situation still plaguing the U.S. and the state, some residents are unhappy Bivona received a raise, let alone the extent of it.

"In the economic times that we have, with people losing their jobs and salaries being slashed… it seems a little unfair to me," Brookfield resident and district parent Ron Comizio said at the BOE's last meeting. "My children's classes are overcrowded by today's standards, and that is not unique, athletes pay to play, this town struggles every year to pass an education budget, then after it's passed we're giving out a 17 percent raise."

Board member Rob Gianazza hesitated to call it "a percentage increase," preferring to refer to it as a "salary adjustment," as the superintendent did not receive an increase last year.

Bivona elected to freeze his salary during the budget process last year, along with three of the collective bargaining units, and personally opted out of the district's health care program in his renewed contract, a savings of around $15,000 a year according to Fenton.

The raise was not included in the 2010-11 budget approved at referendum, as the BOE had yet to complete Bivona's evaluation as of the budget process, however it will not impact the school budget, Fenton assured. "We were really fortunate this year that we had a number of teachers that retired," he explained, as new teachers join the district at much lower salaries than exiting tenured teachers. "The impact on the actual budget is just not there."

"Tony's good for Brookfield, he has been, he's proved that," Fenton said in defense of the salary increase. "He certainly got us through some difficult budgets and some difficult economic times. It's a difficult economic time now, but Tony will get us through."

The BOE "deliberated on this for a very long time," according to Fenton, but ultimately approved the new salary structure unanimously.