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Margaret Dolan faces $13,553 pay cut

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The state Department of Education on Thursday disapproved a contract extension for Westfield Schools Supt. Margaret Dolan and gave the township Board of Education until Dec. 15 to void the pact.

On Nov. 9, the school board approved a five-year contract for Dolan and retroactive to July 1 that called for an annual salary of $195,718 that would rise to $203,625 in 2015. Presently, Dolan is making $188,553. Christie's proposed salary cap would reduce her salary to $175,000.

In correspondence released Thursday, Union Executive County Schools Superintendent Carmen Centuolo wrote the Westfield Board of Education, that the state Department of Education made clear that a contract extension for the Dolan had not been approved.

The action is similar to the department's cancellation of a similar "improper" contract agreement approved by the Parsippany school board last month.

State Acting Education Commissioner Rochelle R. Hendricks has directed all executive county superintendents to conduct a review of all school superintendent contracts.

Until the review is completed, no contracts or contract extensions will be approved, and no contracts that expire after February 7, when proposed pay cap regulations will take effect, will be authorized unless they comply with the proposed regulations.

Dolan has maintained a salary reduction would not save Westfield taxpayers money. The Christie administration cut $4.22 million in state school aid to school district in March.