Moorestown BOE Criticized for Hefty Salary Increase

By granting one of its administrators a $15,000 raise last week, the board of education (BOE) drew the ire of the union and at least one member of the public.

The Moorestown board of education voted unanimously last week to raise buildings and grounds supervisor Greg McCarty’s salary from $95,000 to $110,000 to sway him from accepting a job offer with the Cherry Hill School District.

Board President Don Mishler described the pay hike as “an investment, not an expenditure.”

“(McCarty) has been an outstanding employee,” said Mishler. “He has been the leader of an effort that has led to substantial savings in energy efficiencies for the district … That number is probably $1 million.”

McCarty, who is not a union member, has been with the district for at least seven years, according to Mishler.

But the board’s “investment” did not sit well with Lisa Trapani, Moorestown Education Association (MEA) president, who questioned how the board could find $15,000 to keep McCarty, while several programs and positions have been cut elsewhere.

She said with the money they were giving McCarty, the board could revive many elementary school and middle clubs that have been cut, as well as reinstate a number of assistant coaches—benefiting more than two-thirds of students at the and .

“We understood the need to make cuts. We did not like it, but we understood it. We understand that times are financially challenging,” she said in a prepared statement. “What we do not understand is how a BOE that less than a year ago can afford to spend $15,000 on a raise for one person when it has not reinstated one single program that has been cut.”

She also claimed the money could be used to buy a new iPad cart for another one of the elementary schools. The district currently has one iPad cart for all three schools.

But Mishler said Trapani’s apples-and-oranges comparison was “absolutely not fair.”

“If someone came to us with a proposal to buy one iPad cart, we would view that in exactly the same light,” he said, going on to explain that the district, the Home and School Association and the Moorestown Education Foundation were working on a deal to split the cost of buying two more iPad carts so the elementaries wouldn’t have to share.

“If it hasn’t been officially acted on, it will be soon,” he said.

Rich Booth, a former maintenance assistant with the district who was laid off last year, also criticized the board for hiking his former boss’s salary.

“A school district that hasn’t been doing anything but cuts … for them to turn around and give one administrator a $15,000 raise is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “There’s not many people making that kind of money.”

Booth was let go, along with five other buildings and grounds employees, so the district could save money by hiring private contractors to do some of the work they had been doing.

Business administrator Lynn Shugars said the district saved approximately $200,000 by outsourcing athletic field maintenance to the Brickman Group.

Trapani and Booth both noted the size of Moorestown's buildings and grounds department—the number of buildings and employees—is much smaller than Cherry Hill. Calls to Cherry Hill to verify the size of its buildings and grounds department were not returned. 

Mishler clarified the district did not match Cherry Hill's offer to McCarty, but "incentivized it to the level that he was inclined to stay."

"We will react to opportunities to maintain or improve the district," Mishler added.