Schools Superintendent Paid $21,560 Bonus

The Board of Education has awarded the Superintendent of Schools William O. George III a $21,560.50 bonus for his performance in meeting five pre-set goals in the 2012-2013 school year.

The annual bonus program is part of his 2011-2016 employment contract. If he had met all of his challenges set by the Board, Superintendent George, who now earns a base salary of $187,500 to oversee the education of 10,000 students at 17 schools, could have earned up to $27,750 in merit pay. 

The 9-member Board of Education rewarded the schools chief for savings in areas including health insurance auditing and enforcement, professional development delivery, and transportation costs. They also gave him full credit for exceeding a goal to raise $100,000 in revenues because he not only oversaw the sale of unneeded textbooks and found efficiencies in preschool revenues, but he also successfully campaigned the state for a raise in the amount of Extraordinary Aid in the amount of $128,524.

But the Board felt his performance did not merit full credit in the effort to raise 10 percent of the NJ ASK math grades in grades four and eight to move either from partially proficient to proficient or from proficient to advanced
proficient. The 8th grade test scores made the leap, but the fourth grade scores did not. The board gave him half credit. 

He was given less than full credit for improving in-district programs for the benefit of special education students, and for development of a long-range facilities and demographic plan. 

Read more details in the Merit Pay Discussion memo released by the Board of Education, following their vote on Sept. 24. 

In 2012, with seven months on the job, George was awarded a pro-rated bonus of $13,079 for accomplishing the board's 2011-2012 goals.