School Superintendent Turnover Rate Rises In NJ [AUDIO]

Nearly one in three New Jersey School Superintendents chose to leave their jobs in the 2011-2012 school year, and a lot of the turnover is pinned on salary and other changes.

The School Boards Association says 31 percent of the supers have left. And of those who have left, 90 percent have retired. The turnover is the highest since the Association began keeping score 11 years ago.

Spokesman Frank Beluscio says one big factor is the new caps on salaries, prompting a high number of those leaving the job to retire. Superintendent contracts are now capped at 120-thousand dollars for small school districts in New Jersey. The cap rises to $175,000 for a district with up to ten thousand students.

And superintendents with more than ten thousand students are subject to separate rules developed by the State Education Department. Extra stipends can be awarded in certain situations, according to the School Boards Association.

Beluscio says, in addition to the salary caps, the changes in pension and health benefits have increased the number of superintendents opting for retirement.

Those changes now require public employees to pay a greater share toward pensions and health benefits. The School Boards Association says there's no scarcity of applicants to replace those leaving, and many come from inside the school districts themselves.