Plainedge school district must pay $907G to Edward A. Salina Jr., superintendent who abruptly resigned, records show
Edward A. Salina Jr., shown here on Aug. 28. Credit: Newsday/Drew Singh
The Plainedge school district must pay a former superintendent more than $900,000 after he abruptly resigned in September, records show.
Edward A. Salina Jr., the district’s superintendent of 14 years, was granted a payout of $662,352.45 for 286.5 unused vacation days and 184 unused sick and personal days, according to documents Newsday obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.
The district also agreed to pay Salina $245,185.39 — the balance of his 2025-26 salary, according to a settlement agreement he signed with the district. Combined with his payout for unused time off, the district's full obligation to Salina comes to $907,537.84.
“What is paid is basically contractual,” school board president Joseph Beyrouty said in an interview with Newsday. “There's nothing more to it than that.”
Beyrouty declined to comment further.
Salina, of Jericho, could not be reached for comment.
The former schools chief's base salary for 2025-26 is $309,707, according to his contract.
His remaining salary is being paid in biweekly installments through June 2026, unless he gets a job in another educational institution, according to the settlement.
The settlement bars Salina and the district from discussing any disputes between them. In a joint public statement released in September, the board thanked Salina for his service.
The payout for unused vacation and sick days was baked into Salina’s contracts. The number of his annual vacation days increased from 20 in 2011 to 35 by the time he left the district. Salina also was entitled to 14 sick days and three personal days annually. All unused days were accumulated and rolled over to the next year.
The superintendent also had holidays off and was not required to work during spring, winter and Thanksgiving or December holiday recesses, according to his contract.
Some educators have said such agreements are a way for school boards to recruit and retain talent in a region with a high cost of living.
But Ken Girardin, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, called the payouts for unused days “special privileges paid for by taxpayers who themselves do not enjoy these privileges at their jobs."
He added, “The school board agreed to pay a lot of money and the school board didn't have to do that. The school board did not have to structure this contract this way.”
Salina’s most recent contract, first signed in 2023 and amended in 2024 to extend his term of employment, was to run until 2029.
Beyrouty declined to comment on why Salina left the 2,800-student district less than two weeks into the new school year.
At the same September meeting in which board members unanimously accepted Salina’s resignation, they appointed Carol Muscarella, a retired elementary school principal, as interim superintendent.
Beyrouty has said Muscarella, who is paid $1,200 per diem, would not stay on a permanent basis.
“It's just to basically keep the lights on and the employees paid. And I think she's done a phenomenal job with that,” Beyrouty said. “As a matter of fact, I think she's even gone above and beyond that and really helped tackle some issues that have come up along the way.”
Salina agreed to provide transitional support to the interim superintendent upon request, according to his settlement.
The board has appointed District Wise Search Consultants, a Woodbury-based firm, to aid in the search for a new superintendent.
Beyrouty said the district is working with the firm to incorporate school community input and create a profile of the next superintendent. He said the goal is to have the new superintendent in place by July.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
