Cut salaries, not teachers

To the Editor:

I was disturbed to read about the 80 layoffs that will take place in Oceanside’s school system (“Cutting back,” Jan. 13-19). I strongly believe that our administrators need to control and cut spending in other areas.

For example, the salaries of our top administrators are excessive. According to the State Public Employee Payroll and Pension statistics, found at www.seethroughny.net, Oceanside’s superintendent earns $316,196. Why is Dr. Herb Brown’s salary higher than the base salaries of our governor ($179,000), vice president ($230,700), speaker of the house ($223,500) and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ($223,500)? Does Louis Frontario, assistant superintendent for business, deserve a salary of $223,630, the same as Chief Justice John Roberts?

In these hard economic times, it makes no sense that our administrators continue to receive excessive salaries while they lay off hard-working teachers, cut programs for our children and

continue to raise our school taxes.

Governor Cuomo has recently offered to give back 5 percent of his salary, as are many other public servants and corporate leaders as a sign of goodwill to help make things more palatable. Why are our top education administrators, Dr. Brown and Louis Frontario, not willing to do the same? Why lay off teachers in place of an across-the-board pay cut for administrators and the top 26 paid principals, directors and supervisors? See their pay on www.longislandschools.com.

Dr. Brown has led our school district for many, many years and I’m sure he is looking forward to his retirement and a healthy pension. However, now is not the time for him to pad his pension fund. Instead, he should show leadership by giving back to his community, the teachers and the parents who have

supported him for so many years. 

The residents of Oceanside fear that if we don’t keep paying these outrageous salaries, the Oceanside School District will deteriorate and our property values will go down. A 5 percent pay cut across the board will not cause property values to go down. In fact, it might help increase property values by making

our school taxes more affordable.

Dr. Brown and the top 26 paid Oceanside district employees, why don’t you, like so many other public servants and corporate leaders, offer to take a salary decrease to help save jobs and educational programs for our children?

Mark Milberg

Oceanside