By Alexis Tarrazi / Senior Reporter

CARLSTADT (Dec. 2, 2009, 2:10 p.m.) — Members of the Carlstadt Board of Education recently approved several raises for the school district’s top administrators. In a year when Carlstadt residents have seen their school and municipal taxes spike, the raises have raised concern among some local officials.

School administrators received between 3 and 7.5 percent increases — with 4.8 percent serving as the average increase. Lunchroom/playground aides also received between 3.7 and 4.5 percent increases for the 2008-09 school year and between 4.5 and 11.5 percent increases for the 2009-10 year.

The administrators raises passed with five yes votes and two no votes Tuesday, Nov. 17. Board Trustees Walter Beese, Thomas Cox, Allison Forys, Greg Marafelias and John Ondrof all voted in favor, while Donald Diorio and Hernan Lopez voted against. The same vote break down applied to the lunchroom/playground aides with the exception of Beese abstaining, due to his wife working for the district.

Elaine Stevens and Gene Wojna were absent.

“Although I may not have agreed with all of the numbers, you have to provide compromise at times to come to an agreement,” Ondrof stated in an e-mail to The Leader. “I’m sure that all of the people that are involved from both sides weren’t totally satisfied with the settlement. … If both sides walk away from the negotiation feeling that they could have done better, then it was a successful negotiation. If either side is totally satisfied, then the other side didn’t do their job.”

Looking at the administrators in the district, Superintendent of Schools Stephen Kollinok will go from $140,000 for the 2007-08 school year to $152,500 for the 2009-10 to $160,500 for the 2010-11 year — his average increase is 4.6 percent. Business Administrator Stephen Imperato received the largest uptick with a 7.5 percent increase to bring his previous salary of $107,000 to $115,000.

In October, the board wrapped up a two-year long negotiation process with teachers over their salaries. It ended with an increase in pay that measures up to a 3.7 percent spike for the 2008-09 school year, 4.5 percent increase for the 2009-10 school year and 4.5 percent increase for the 2010-11 school year. The percent increase is inclusive of increments, which are set salary increases.

Cox noted that he was OK with the increases in order to bring the numbers up to par with neighboring school districts. “I thought it was an appropriate amount comparative to neighboring districts,” Cox said. “The majority pretty much agreed it wasn’t too much or overkill.”

Comparing the superintendent’s salary to other Leader towns, Lyndhurst Joseph Abate (who serves as both superintendent and business administrator) receives $186,820; Becton's former top official, James Jencarelli, received approximately $145,000; Rutherford’s Leslie O’Keefe gets approximately $170,000; North Arlington’s Oliver Stringham gets $173,559 and Wood-Ridge’s Elaine Giugliano takes in approximately $159,000.

Although most members were satisfied with the raises, Lopez and Diorio were not.

“I believe in these economic times people are faced with money problems, it is inappropriate to give someone that type of raise,” Lopez said in a phone interview. “To go from 3 to 7 percent is a little too much.”

Diorio, who recently ran for state Assembly, was also adamantly against the raises.

“I’m trying to reset the table of the renegotiation process,” Diorio said after the meeting. “Raises should be based on job performance. … But to have an arbitrary, capricious method of evaluating peoples’ performance, is not fair. Now that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t get increases. But automatic increases are just not what we need today and I don’t think we needed them in the past and certainly not moving forward.”

Both Diorio and Lopez also pointed to the borough council’s budget, which was finalized with a 14-percent municipal increase, Nov. 5. Additionally, the Carlstadt Board of Education hit taxpayers with a $10.7 million 2009-10 school budget in April. The budget increase of 4.8 percent, or $382,617, from last year is .8 percent more than the state-allowed spending cap.

“The town just issued a 14-percent increase and that doesn’t include the school taxes,” Lopez continued. “I don’t want to put more burden on the taxpayers. We are trying to utilize their money intelligently to save them money. … I was elected to be the watchdog of taxes and I will continue to vote no on all those things.”