Ewing Superintendent gets new contract as district pushes $59.3M referendum
EWING » Superintendent Michael Nitti is here to stay.
The Ewing Board of Education has agreed to keep Nitti on board as the district strives to get the public on board to support a $59.3 million school-improvements referendum that would raise local property taxes if approved.
Nitti, who has served as Ewing’s superintendent of schools since 2009, is now under contract to serve as schools chief for at least the next five years, a critical period where the district hopes to get voter approval on a referendum that proposes districtwide security improvements in this age of mass shootings.
Under the new contract, which runs from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2023, Nitti will receive $204,300 in annual salary in the initial year and collect annual 2 percent salary hikes in each subsequent year of the contract.
Nitti got paid far less a few years ago under a salary cap regime imposed by former Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. Nitti’s annual salary was reduced from $195,052 to $167,500 effective July 1, 2014. The superintendent salary cap was modified in May 2017, prompting the Ewing Board of Education to pay Nitti $200,416 in the 2017-18 schoolyear and agreeing to pay him $204,300 in 2018-19, according to documents obtained by The Trentonian in an Open Public Records Act request.
The school board approved Nitti’s five-year new contract June 25 in a 6-0 vote, with board members Karen McKeon, Channing Conway and Maria Benedetti abstaining due to employment conflicts within the district.
“I am appreciative of the support of the board and honored to serve the Ewing school community,” Nitti said in a recent statement posted on the district’s website. “I have had a wonderful 30-year career in education, and my work in Ewing has been a rewarding highlight. It is important to me that our schools are set up successfully for the next generation of students, and October’s referendum is a big part of that process and plan.”
Anthony Messina, vice president of the Ewing Township Board of Education, issued a statement saying the board was “pleased to reach an agreement with Superintendent Nitti.”
“We look forward to partnering with him and his team to continue to move the district forward,” Messina added, “and working together to support a facility referendum that will provide progressive, modern schools for our students.”
The referendum
A special election will be held Tuesday, Oct. 2, where the voters of Ewing Township will be asked whether they want to authorize a modest tax increase to help finance $59.3 million in districtwide school improvements that would make the facilities safer and more secure.
All five schools in the district — Antheil Elementary, Lore Elementary, Parkway Elementary, Fisher Middle School and Ewing High — as well as the district’s Gusz Maintenance Building would each receive security upgrades and roof restorations or replacements if the referendum passes.
McKeon, the school board’s president, issued a community letter dated Aug. 7 saying the district needs the bond referendum because the district’s systems and facilities are largely at or near the end of their useful life, have operational issues and are no longer serviceable in some cases. “It is prudent and cost-effective,” she said, “to raise funds to revitalize and improve our buildings now through a referendum.”
A voter-approved referendum would modernize fire alarm systems in all schools, create a districtwide communications alert system, expand and improve the district’s camera system and implement security enhancements on classroom doors and other doors, according to district officials.
Ewing High School would undergo major renovations, receive asbestos abatement and a bevy of interior and exterior structural improvements and get improved parking facilities and drainage controls if the referendum passes. The other schools and the maintenance building would also receive key renovations under the referendum if it passes, according to the bond proposal.
Tax impact
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration is giving Ewing Public Schools a $1.6 million increase in state aid, which will allow the district to do a lot of nice things, including the district’s commitment to eliminate a previously approved tax hike under the district’s 2018-19 budget.
The referendum, if passed, would lead to an estimated $100 annual property tax increase on the average township homeowner, according to Ewing School Business Administrator Dennis J. Nettleton.
But Nettleton said the estimated tax impact would be “largely mitigated by our disappearing debt service,” which has sharply decreased and ultimately zeroes out in the 20202021 schoolyear. The disappearing debt, Nettleton said, has contributed to Ewing property owners receiving an average $123 school tax cut this year.
Voters in other nearby school districts have recently approved school-improvement referendums.
Lawrence Township voters in January approved a property tax hike to finance over $25 million in districtwide school improvements. Lawrence homeowners will pay an estimated $30 more in annual school taxes for every $100,000 of assessed property value due to the referendum’s passage, officials previously estimated.
Hamilton Township voters last September overwhelmingly approved a $55.4 million referendum to implement districtwide school improvements financed by a property tax hike. The average Hamilton homeowner will pay $47.83 more in annual school taxation as a result of the referendum’s passage and a favorable net interest cost, officials previously said.