July 17, 2008
Recycling school superintendents
School districts must search aggressively for a new superintendent before they can hire a retired superintendent as a temporary replacement, under new Department of Education regulations.
No longer can a school superintendent retire on Monday and then be rehired Tuesday as an interim replacement for himself. The new regulations require a one-year waiting period before the school district can ask the education department for a waiver so it can rehire its retired superintendent. (Apparently, a retiree would not have to wait a year to work in a neighboring district.)
The regs and a related bill, which Governor David Paterson is expected to sign, follow Newsday stories about retired superintendents, who collect six-figure pensions while earning six-figure salaries as interim superintendents.
Retired superintendents can work while collecting full pensions if: they are 65 or over; earn no more than $30,000; or get a waiver. Newsday reports the education department's waiver review process has lacked rigor.
Only one person among the department's 3,000 employees handled waiver applications, typically taking just 10 minutes to an hour to review the paperwork, according to a 2006 Suffolk district attorney's grand jury report.
Under the new regulations (which exclude New York City), a school district seeking a waiver must demonstrate a good faith effort to recruit a permanent superintendent. In emergency situations (such as the death of a superintendent), a district can receive a waiver without advertising widely for the job.
Finding the new regs on the department's web site isn't easy. Inexplicably, they are buried within the pages of the Office of Higher Education (although they don't apply to college administrators).
To simplify your search, click here for the regs and here for related information. The regs also change the waiver process for retired teachers wanting to return to the classroom.
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