Princeton schools chief receives merit bonus, Trenton superintendent hopes for same
TRENTON >> The county official who approved nearly $20,000 in merit pay to Princeton’s superintendent of schools will determine whether Trenton Superintendent Fred McDowell receives a similar bonus for meeting performance benchmarks.
Yasmin E. HernandezManno, interim executive county superintendent of the Mercer County Office of Education, allowed Princeton Public Schools chief Stephen C. Cochrane to receive $19,532 in merit pay last year.
“Congratulations. The merit criteria have been satisfied based on my review of the documentation submitted by the Princeton Board of Education and their certifying Board resolution,” Hernandez-Manno said in a letter dated Oct. 18, 2017, to Princeton’s school board President Patrick Sullivan. “Therefore, in accordance with 6A:23A-3.1(10), I am pleased to approve the payment of merit bonus in the amount of $19,532.”
The Princeton school board in September 2017 unanimously passed a resolution attesting that “Superintendent Cochrane has achieved and completed two of three Quantitative Goals and two Qualitative Goals established for 20162017.”
On Oct. 24, 2017, Princeton’s Board of Education held a follow-up vote authorizing Cochrane’s merit bonus after HernandezManno issued her blessing of approval.
Trenton Superintendent McDowell hopes to receive nearly $25,000 in merit pay this year. The Trenton Board of Education voted last Monday to submit a resolution to HernandezManno certifying the superintendent’s merit goals for the 2017-18 schoolyear have been satisfied, according to school board attorney James Rolle Jr.
Questions abound on whether the school board held a proper vote in public, but Trenton school board President Gene Bouie suggests the board operated in accordance with New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act, also known as the Sunshine Law. In a twopage written statement, Bouie said Trenton Public Schools has evidence that McDowell improved student performance and met merit goals.
McDowell, who collects $196,584 in base annual salary, failed to fully meet a merit goal calling for him to bring the IEP or Individualized Education Program compliance rate to at least 95 percent and failed to fully meet a goal calling for student performance in reading and math to improve by at least 3 percentage points over 2016-17 data. But McDowell still requested thousands of dollars in merit pay on those goals for improving the IEP compliance rate from 83 percent to 85 percent and for improving student performance on the PARCC assessment, among other justifications.
Hernandez-Manno may give McDowell a merit pay bonus ranging from zero dollars up to nearly $25,000 when she reviews the Trenton school board’s merit pay resolution and any supporting evidence the district provides. The Trenton school board would need to pass a follow-up resolution authorizing any merit payments approved by the county education boss.
Cochrane, the superintendent of Princeton Public Schools, easily proved his merit to Hernandez-Manno last year on four goals. He collects $196,584 in base annual salary like McDowell but did not immediately pursue a fifth goal that could have resulted in a larger merit-based payout.
Here is a breakdown on Cochrane’s merit pay compensation from October 2017: He received an additional $4,188 for meeting a district goal calling for him to create a Diversity Council and subject the vast majority of district employees to cultural sensitivity workshops; he received an additional $4,188 for meeting another district goal calling for him to create a committee promoting authentic service learning among all students districtwide; he received an additional $5,578 for meeting a district goal to develop a referendum proposal for districtwide infrastructure improvements; and he received an additional $5,578 for meeting another goal calling for him to empower administrative leadership around differentiated instruction of high quality.
Cochrane failed to meet a quantitative goal calling for him to implement a new system for evaluating principals, supervisors and central office administrators by June 2017. The Princeton superintendent in his merit goals explanation said he delayed implementation of that goal due to the New Jersey Department of Education devising a pilot for 2017-18 of a “new evaluation instrument based on a relatively new set of standards for school administrators. It made sense to delay this goal to take advantage of the pilot across multiple districts.”