An ex-neighbor of mine, who fled from Port Washington to Great Neck, recently asked the president of our school board, (Karen) Sloan, to justify the salary and the direct perks that our school district has been paying to our superintendent of schools, Kathleen Mooney, who is about to retire.
Mooney is paid a salary of $270,000 a year and she also directly receives perks (like an annual contribution to her private retirement account, private health insurance, etc.) amounting to $70,000 a year. Sloan’s response to my ex-neighbor’s question was (that) Mooney is paid all that because “she is wonderful.”
There is an interesting article on Page A12 in today’s Newsday about a proposal to increase the salaries of our state governor, other state officials and our state legislators. Our governor, Andrew Cuomo, is now paid a salary of $179,000 a year. Under the proposal, his salary would rise to $250,000 a year, on Jan. 1, 2021.
Salaries for the state comptroller, the state’s attorney general and the state’s lieutenant governor, would rise from about $155,000 each, now, to $220,000 each, on Jan. 1, 2021. The governor and his top officials certainly have much more responsible jobs than Mooney has, yet, if the proposed salary increases are approved of, none of them would be earning what Mooney is now earning.
Why is that, do you think? The answer must be that Gov. Cuomo, one of the highest profile state governors in the country and his top officials just aren’t “wonderful,” and so they don’t deserve to earn what our retiring superintendent earns.
Do you think that our school board will find a replacement for Mooney who is at least as “wonderful” as she is and that the replacement will not cost us more than $340,000 a year, in direct costs? My answers to that are, yes and no.
“Wonderful” is the kind of nonintellectual response that you get from a mother, serving on the school board.
Joel Katz
Port Washington
