Perks climb for region's school chiefs

School committees across Eastern Massachusetts have used a variety of perks, including automobiles and bonuses for job longevity, to quietly boost superintendents' pay in recent years.

More than 80 percent of the superintendents in the region receive perks, which carry an average value of $11,000 . The average value of their perks has gone up 17 percent in the last three years.

During the same period, base salaries rose an average of 12 percent to $139,500. With perks, the average total compensation is $147,500, according to a Globe analysis of contracts for 162 superintendents in Eastern Massachusetts.

School committees are using the perks as a way to increase a superintendent's overall compensation without public scrutiny, a practice openly acknowledged in a guide to superintendent contract negotiations prepared by the state's school committee association. Base pay, sometimes published in towns' annual reports or discussed as part of the school system's budget, is typically the only figure most taxpayers see. They would have to comb through the fine details in a contract to determine what the perks were or added up to.

School committee members say they see the perks as a necessity at a time when competition for the best superintendents is fierce. Meanwhile, the public is concerned about how to pay for increasing school costs.

"Sometimes perks draw less attention than pure salary, and it makes it possible for districts to compensate a superintendent fairly without cheap shots from people in the community who think anything more than $60,000 for a superintendent is an obscenity," said Glenn Koocher , executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

The 10 superintendents in the Globe's review who receive the most perks, worth $23,000 or more, come from four vocational school districts, each consisting of just one school, Assabet Valley, Shawsheen, Blackstone, and Whittier; and five affluent school districts, Andover, Newton, Norwell, Wellesley, and Lincoln-Sudbury, which is a regional high school; and Brockton.

Manuel J. Rivera , who was supposed to become Boston's new superintendent in July but abruptly withdrew last month, would have had a perk package that included $50,000 annually for retirement, a $6,000 annual car allowance, a one-time $150,000 housing allowance, and the opportunity for a $20,000 yearly performance bonus, according to a school system official familiar with the package Rivera was offered. His base salary, excluding perks, would have been nearly $300,000.

The current Boston superintendent, Michael G. Contompasis gets $283,500, including a $13,500 retirement benefit, making him the highest paid superintendent in the state . He oversees the state's largest school system -- with roughly 58,000 students.

The Massachusetts Association of School Committees notes in its guide, written three years ago, that school boards use perks to keep base salary increases to a minimum and "avoid the charge of extravagance or objections on grounds of equity with other employees."

Koocher said the state group neither encourages nor discourages the practice, and emphasized that all superintendents' contracts are public.

"None of this stuff is hidden or camouflaged," he said.

But the Globe, which asked for contracts last summer through the state's freedom of information law, did not obtain the information easily. Many school systems didn't respond to the requests within the 10-day period established under the law; some took two months to provide the information.

The most lucrative perk in the contracts reviewed by the Globe was annuity payments, worth an average of $8,500, an investment vehicle that a superintendent can use to beef up state pension payments.

Annuities, which the school systems buy for the superintendents, are allowed to be counted as part of the superintendent's salary, increasing the value of the state pension.

Eugene F. Carlo , the superintendent-director of the Assabet Valley Vocational Technical School District in Marlborough, receives a $38,000 annuity and a $7,200 travel allowance -- the largest perk package for any superintendent in Eastern Massachusetts and about 25 percent of his $179,200 total compensation. He oversees a high school with about 1,000 students and a $14.5 million budget.

"That's outrageous for overseeing one building," said Hudson selectman Fred Lucy. Lucy said he had no idea that Carlo received an annuity. Hudson is one of the towns that feed in to the district .

The superintendent, 55, defended the retirement investment perk. "Older superintendents like myself . . . it's not necessarily about the salary. The longer term in this business is the annuity," Carlo said.

In other communities, the total amount of compensation superintendents earn has caused an uproar when residents have found about it.

In Wellesley, residents called it a "golden parachute" when Superintendent Matthew King received an 8.5 percent raise -- including a $7,000 retirement investment perk -- last June, one month after the town approved a $3.2 million property tax increase, in part to cover rising school costs. King had already said he would retire at the end of this school year.

"Having this done after the override was a slap in the face of the taxpayers," said Royall Switzler, a former Wellesley selectman and a state representative.

King's overall pay rose to $218,557, including $33,200 in perks. He is the third highest paid superintendent in the region; Newton's superintendent, Jeffrey M. Young, is the second-highest compensated, at $229,460, including $31,628 in extras.

Some residents accused the Wellesley School Committee of sneaking in changes to King's contract by voting on it last June when many residents were away, though the contract vote took place in public.

In an interview, Michael Young , chairman of the School Committee, defended the increase for King, who has led the district for 11 years. But the committee apologized for the timing of the vote on the $17,000 increase in an open letter to the community in October, and is now developing a policy to approve superintendent raises in May instead of June.

Secrecy surrounding changes in superintendents' contracts also has been an issue.

In Andover, the School Committee caused an outcry because the committee and Superintendent Claudia L. Bach quietly negotiated a deal to increase her salary and perks a year before her contract was set to expire in 2004. The deal became public when a private memo detailing the increases was given to a local reporter.

Ultimately, Bach's new contract led to a 24 percent jump in overall compensation since 2003-04. She now makes $166,419, including a retirement benefit and an annual bonus for job longevity.

The committee acted in secret because it was worried about Bach taking a job elsewhere, said Anthony H. James, the School Committee chairman. Bach, during the period the deal was struck in 2003, was a finalist for the Cambridge superintendency, which would have increased her pay to about $175,000. The committee compared Bach's pay to what superintendents were making in Lexington, Newton, and Wellesley, and increased her pay, he said.

"Unfortunately, the effect of not disclosing this publicly reflected poorly on the School Committee, and the School Committee publicly apologized for the error," James said.

Bach, who notes she turned down an offered perk two years in a row when Andover had a tight budget, said she never wanted the contract deal to be kept secret. "That was the most difficult time of my career," she said.

School Committee members and superintendents throughout the region predict that perks could become an even larger factor in the future because of the shrinking pool of candidates for superintendent jobs and the aging of those in the profession. Older superintendents, they note, want assurances of the best retirement package. Younger ones, who may be sought after by many districts, see other extras as crucial.

About 30 superintendents statewide have been retiring annually in recent years, about three times as many as a decade ago, according to the state superintendents association.

And this year, roughly 55 school systems of 330 in the state will be hiring superintendents.

School Committee members and superintendents, who like to compare the district's top job to a chief executive officer, say school chiefs' perks pale in comparison to the private sector.

"Look at the responsibility. I've got 16,000 kids and a $150 million budget, and 2,000 employees," said Basan Nembirkow, the Brockton superintendent, who receives $179,200, including perks. "What do you want to pay someone like that?"

According to Salary.com, a Waltham company that tracks compensation trends, a chief executive officer in the education, government, or nonprofit fields with as many employees as Brockton schools could expect to earn between roughly $650,000 and $1.7 million, including bonuses and stock, if the company were private.

Erin Conroy, a Globe correspondent, contributed to this report. Matthew Carroll can be reached at mcarroll@globe.com. James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com.

This story was reported by James Vaznis, Matt Carroll, Lisa Kocian, Kathy McCabe, and Tracy Jan of the Globe staff, and was written by Vaznis and Carroll.