This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Who Is The Long Branch School District's Highest-Paid Employee?

Superintendent Michael Salvatore is not the district's top-paid employee.

In almost every school district in New Jersey, the highest paid employee is the person in charge – the superintendent. But that’s not true in Long Branch.

The city’s school psychiatrist, Dr. Matthew Schiff, makes $175,000, putting him at the top of the pay list. He makes $5,000 more than the superintendent, Michael Salvatore, according to district payroll records.

What makes the situation especially unusual is that most school districts in New Jersey do not have psychiatrists on their regular payroll, according to payroll records and education experts.

Find out what's happening in Long Branch-Eatontownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Long Branch Public Schools hired Schiff in September 2009. “You can look across the country and you won’t find another school district that has a psychiatrist,’’ said Salvatore’s predecessor, Joseph Ferraina. “I did that.’’

When asked what prompted him to put a psychiatrist on the payroll, Ferraina said, “I get emotional when it comes to stuff like this.’’

Find out what's happening in Long Branch-Eatontownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ferraina said a family member of his used to have panic attacks. “I would say, ‘What’s the matter? Suck it in,’’’ the retired superintendent recalled. “Then I learned that panic attacks were a real sickness. They’re worse than having cancer.’’

That family experience, Ferraina said, convinced him of the importance of providing psychiatric care to Long Branch’s school children.

Dr. Schiff visits, screens and provides services for more than 300 Long Branch students each year, according to the district’s spokesman, Walter O’Neill.

Last year, Long Branch Public Schools tried to see if it could find a staff psychiatrist for less than what it was paying Schiff, officials said. 

“The reason districts do not have a psychiatrist on staff is because the services are typically unaffordable,’’ said O’Neill. “When advertised last year as an open position, not one person applied for the position who was a certified psychiatrist. The services typically run between $250-$600 an hour. With an increased prevalence in mental illness, the salary is justified in case load alone.’’ 

Schiff’s contract calls for a 30 hour work week, which puts his pay rate at about $110 per hour. But it’s not clear how many of those 30 hours are spent in sessions with students.

City school officials said that if they retained a psychiatrist on a contract basis it would cost more than $250 per hour. Moreover, Ferraina said many private psychiatrists have few openings in their schedules and students used to wait weeks before they received the care the district thought they needed.

The New Jersey Department of Education is not sure whether any other school district in the state has a psychiatrist on its payroll. “We do not have a job code for psychiatrist,’’ said education department spokeswoman Allison Kobus. “They would be listed as a professional employee under the non-certificated staff.  We would not be able to identify them specifically.’’

There are, however, 1,724 school psychologists on local school district payrolls, Kobus said. State law requires that psychologists be part of child study teams. The psychologists can be on the regular payroll or retained through a contract with a private company, official said.

State records show Long Branch has 10 school psychologists. District officials say they make between $46,000 and $84,000 a year.

The main difference between the two is that psychiatrists are medical doctors who can make diagnoses of mental illness and prescribe medication, while psychologists have doctoral degrees in psychology and treat patients with therapy rather than medication.  In many cases, psychologists may refer patients they think need medication to psychiatrist.

Long Branch’s school psychologists have a caseload of about 60 to 75 students each, according to O’Neill. The psychologists, however, deal with the students on much more frequent basis than Schiff does with his school patients, official said.

The psychologists “follow a child’s academic and social development daily,’’ O’Neill said. “The district psychiatrist has periodic visits.”

Only students with apparent mental illness issues are referred to Schiff, officials said. As part of his school job, Schiff does prescribe medications for Long Branch students, officials said. Also, in some instances, he sees students’ family members.

Schiff stopped his private practice when he took the position in the Long Branch school district, according to O’Neill.

Neither Schiff nor Long Branch Board of Education responded to requests to be interviewed for this story.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?