God forbid the publication in which this story appeared was correctly credited.

Drivers are among perks for supers
Monday, June 30, 2008

MOUNT LAUREL - School boards in some New Jersey communities, including Jersey City and Union City, still give perks to their superintendents that would make almost any employee envious and any taxpayer mad.

They include picking up $500 worth of health bill co-payments each year for Upper Saddle River superintendent Joyce Snider and giving Long Branch superintendent Joseph M. Ferraina $9,000 per year in a car allowance.

A handful receive cars for their personal use or car expense payments big enough to lease a vehicle.

Jersey City's Charles T. Epps Jr. and Newark's Marion A. Bolden, who retires today, are provided drivers when they are working.

State Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy said the drivers are justified because it can be so hard to find a parking space in the state's largest cities.

Since word got out in May that Barbara Trzeszkowski, the school superintendent in tiny Keansburg, was retiring with more than $740,000 in special payments on top of her $115,000 per year pension, state education officials and lawmakers have been scrutinizing the contracts of school administrators and proposing benefit curbs.

Most of the superintendents get 20 to 25 vacation days a year and at least a dozen sick days, plus bereavement leave and some personal days.

But Union City's Stanley M. Sanger could get up to $150,000 for unused sick days.