Assembly candidate Steve Cook announced a three-point plan to reform the administration of school districts throughout New Jersey on Aug. 28.
The three-point plan, deemed the School Administration Reform Act, is designed to reform school district and municipal government health benefits.
SARA expands on Cook’s implementation of the Citizen Campaign in the Hamilton Township School District and municipal government. According to cook, the campaign adopts best practices for employee health insurance and related brokerage services.
First, Cook proposes to end tenure for school district business administrators and replacing it with contracts similar to superintendent contracts.
SARA would prohibit “double dipping” by placing earning restrictions on superintendents and business administrators who are “bought out” of contracts due to poor performance or differences with their employer. The act would require all future contracts to prohibit lump sum payouts and maintain the employee on the payroll, with no responsibilities or title, for the duration of the employment contract to prohibit them from benefiting from payouts from one district while subsequently becoming employed at another district.
Lastly, Cook’s act includes compelling school districts and municipalities receiving over 50 percent of their budgets from state aid to join the State Health Benefits Plan or adopt the Citizen Campaign’s practices for employee health insurance and brokerage services.
“I see municipal governments operate with business administrators that do not have tenure and school districts should do the same,” Cook said in a statement. “The fiasco of paying an employee because they received tenure due to an oversight is inexcusable. Sadly, the recourse is they could be bought out of their contract and get a job elsewhere with another full salaried government position.”
According to Cook, taxpayers in the 14th legislative district and statewide may save tens of millions of dollars if the reforms are put into place.
