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Lenape Regional High School District Superintendent Dr. Carol Birnbohm.
BIRNBOHM (Continued from Page 1)
in 1998, to her more recent multiple awards for Superintendent of the Year on the county and regional levels. “In light of her unparalleled commitment to and leadership of the LRHSD, it is the board’s steadfast belief that it is in the best interests of the district to extend Dr. Birnbohm’s contract at this time. Doing so will ensure the stability and continuity of administrative direction, which has helped the LRHSD navigate many challenges and will continue to allow us to successfully move forward in the best possible position.” Under the renegotiated contract, Birnbohm, for the new school year, is scheduled to receive $244,686 in compensation, according to Allyson Roberts, a district spokesperson, and thereafter, in school year 2022-23, she is scheduled to receive $249,580, in school year 2023-24, $254,571; in school year 202425, $259,663; and in school year 2025-26, $264,856; totaling $1,273,356 over the fiveyear period, or equating to an average annual salary of $254,671. Fitzgerald pointed out that the required salary caps imposed in 2011 on New Jersey
superintendents had since been eliminated in 2019. “This allowed for immediate contract negotiations at that time, including increased superintendent salaries and the elimination of merit bonus compensation,” the board president maintained. “However, unlike many other chief school administrators in the state, Dr. Birnbohm did not seek any immediate change to her employment contract until this contract renegotiation with the board in 2021.” Fitzgerald contended that since the lifting of the cap, the compensation packages for “many other superintendents” throughout the state “significantly increased,” but the “compensation for Dr. Birnbohm in this renegotiated contract is completely budget neutral.” “In other words, the salary provided to Dr. Birnbohm is entirely consistent with the overall compensation structure of her previously existing contract,” Fitzgerald maintained. “It (the contract) also has less than comparable compensation provided to superintendents of other districts of similar size, demographics, geography and what have you.” The Pine Barrens Tribune previously reported when Birnbohm was last awarded a five-year contract in 2017, that her annual base salary when she became the district’s superintendent in 2012 was $177,500.
Birnbohm, through the contract adopted in 2017, received an annual base salary of $196,584 in the 2017-18 school year, and for each subsequent year of the contract, she was to receive a 2 percent salary increase. The contract signed in 2017 was said at the time to be good through June 30, 2022. That 2017 contract had also stipulated that the superintendent could receive merit bonuses each contract year if she met three quantitative merit criteria (3.33 percent of her annual salary for each) and two qualitative criteria (2.5 percent of her annual salary for each.) “As was pointed out by Board President Barry Fitzgerald at the meeting last week, Dr. Birnbohm’s renegotiated contract is completely budget neutral – meaning it does not represent an increase over the total overall budgeted compensation from her previous contract,” said Roberts in a statement provided to this newspaper. “Consistent with the new compensation laws governing superintendent contracts that have been in place since 2019, this contract eliminates merit bonus payments and simply incorporates that same total budgeted amount into salary. “In other words, unlike the higher contracts of many superintendents, which have been renegotiated since 2019, the salary amount in the new contract does not exceed the previously set salary and merit bonus compensation structure from the last contract. In addition, the annual, overall contract increase percentage also remains at 2 percent, unlike other recent superintendent contracts in the state which have also had higher annual increase percentages.” Both Fitzgerald and Roberts pointed out that the superintendent’s renegotiated contract was “reviewed and determined to be appropriate” by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) through the executive county superintendent, and the public hearing on it was advertised. Birnbohm, a graduate of the district’s Cherokee High School, began her LRHSD career in September 1992 as a math teacher at her alma matter. After spending about eight years at Cherokee as a teacher, she was elevated to
an assistant principal post there in July 2001. Three years later, she was elevated again, this time to serve as the district’s director of Programs and Planning. Birnbohm then spent five years as the district’s assistant superintendent, from July 2007 to June 2012. She became the superintendent of the district in July 2012 when Emily Capella retired from that post, where she now oversees approximately 6,840 students in grades 9–12 in four high schools (Lenape, Seneca and Shawnee being the others), as well as those enrolled in the Sequoia Alternative Program. The district comprises Evesham Township, Medford Township, Medford Lakes Borough, Shamong Township, Southampton Tow nsh ip, Tab er nacle Township and Woodland Township. A resident of Southampton, Birnbohm holds a doctorate in Education Leadership from Wilmington University, and a master’s deg ree in Education Adm inistration from Rowan University. She received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Education from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), where she served as co-captain of a two-time NCAA Division III national championship lacrosse team. “In my time as board president, I have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Birnbohm on a much more regular basis,” Fitzgerald said. “Through my interactions with her, I have developed a deep appreciation for her tireless dedication to the LRHSD, it s st ude nt s , st a f f, a nd c om mu n it y stakeholders. With that experience, I have also been fortunate to see firsthand how Dr. Birnbohm’s commitment and leadership have benefitted the LRHSD in so many ways, including many of which the general public would not even be aware. The board is very pleased to be able to continue with the educationally and fiscally sound leadership of Dr. Birnbohm and we look forward to working together with her in the future to maintain the standards of excellence for which the LRHSD has been well-known for many years.” Birnbohm’s response to Fitzgerald’s remarks was, “You said a lot.”
