Bayport-Blue Point: No to salary cap

The Bayport-Blue Point School Board unanimously rejected petitions Tuesday night from nearly 180 residents trying to cap salaries of top administrators in line with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's call for belt tightening.

The petitions signed by 179 residents were the first in the state since Cuomo's call last month to cap top salaries, according to a state superintendents' association.

Cuomo's proposal called for holding superintendents' salaries at $175,000 or less, depending on the district's size. The average schools chief on Long Island earns more than $200,000 a year. Cuomo earns $179,000.

Superintendent Anthony Annunziato, president of Suffolk County's school chiefs association, recently told Newsday such a cap would prompt an exodus of his colleagues from the state. His remark irritated some residents, who consider district salaries too high.

"Everybody agrees with most of what he's [Cuomo's] talking about," said Rita Palma of Bayport, who narrowly lost a bid for the school board last spring and more recently organized the petition drive. "So we have to back him up, and give the governor the support he needs. And I hope other districts will follow up."

Annunziato, whose $242,550 salary would have been cut to $155,000 under Cuomo's plan, had recommended that the ballot proposition be rejected.

"It is not good policy to leave negotiating with employees to popular vote," said Annunziato, who recently announced he and top aides would take salary freezes next year.

Petitioners sought a May referendum on whether salaries of their superintendent and assistant superintendents should be "reasonably consistent" with Cuomo's plan. A "yes" vote would be advisory, rather than binding on the school board.

State law does not authorize voters to set school salaries. And a series of state legal rulings have discouraged -- though not banned -- advisory votes of this sort.

Palma is a controversial figure in the district, where she first gained attention in 2005 for seeking to obtain exemptions from school vaccinations for one of her three children on religious grounds. Still, the 179 signatures netted by her petitions were more than the number required by the district to act.

David Fallon of Bayport, an attorney who signed the petition, said, "I don't think any superintendent on Long Island should make more than the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court."