TOMS RIVER – After several years of the school district suffering under a series of state aid cuts, people had mixed feelings on the Board of Education giving the superintendent a raise of almost $50,000.
Superintendent Michael Citta’s new contract starts retroactively on July 1, 2025, and ends June 30, 2030. His pay for the 2025-26 school year will go from $228,159.72 to $275,000. For the next year of his contract, 2026-27, there will be a 2.5 percent raise. For the final three years of his contract, there will be 3 percent raises. His salary for 2029-30 school year will be $308,012.43.
The raise had faced criticism since it comes at a time when state aid had been cut by millions of dollars for seven years in a row before finally getting an increase last year.
At the meeting when the raise was given, residents were critical of the increase but school staff supported it.
When opening the floor to the public to comment on the contract, officials began by reading a letter from an instructor in the district, Joyce Kaack. She compared Citta to a previous district where she worked that cycled through a number of superintendents, each making a lot of money and then leaving, whereas Citta is in it for the long haul and cares about students.
Scott Campbell, president of the Toms River Education Association, said he went to another district’s Board of Education meeting, where they are discussing firing 81paraprofessionals, and their superintendent didn’t even know how many special education students were in the district.
“That doesn’t happen in Toms River…because we have great leadership,” he said. “Culture where students are first is created from the very top.”
Diana Ricciardelli of Toms River was concerned about how people are going to be able to pay for this increase as well as the budget that was increased at the same meeting (a separate article on the budget is forthcoming from this newspaper). She told the officials “We have a lot of seniors on Social Security. I don’t think they can afford these new raises.”
“I’m on Social Security and I have no problem paying my taxes,” said Board member Kathy Eagan, a retired teacher, who was running the meeting since Board President Ashley Lamb was attending the meeting from home on the phone.
“You’re a very lucky person,” Ricciardelli responded.
Teacher Jamie Tesoro said that the pay increase for his contract was not out of the ordinary for superintendents. “I fully support it – I fully support teacher raises too – but I think we’re doing the best we can in Toms River.”
Krista Whittaker, a South Toms River resident who frequently criticizes the board and administration, said they shouldn’t give Citta a raise.
The board voted to approve the superintendent’s contract. Board member Maria Matarazzo was the only “no” vote. Eagan and Joseph Jubert of South Toms River had to recuse themselves from voting. The rest voted to approve it. Some commented on their vote.
“Mr. Citta has pride in this district,” Beachwood representative Katie Coyne said. He took a lower salary when he took the job, and put off raises during the years state aid was cut.
Other district have business administrators making more money than Citta is, she said. If they had to hire a new superintendent, the new one would demand a higher salary.
Citta took “a huge concession in salary” when he was chosen, said Lisa Contessa, a board member representing Toms River. If you divided it by the number of hours he works per week, since it’s essentially a constant job, it isn’t nearly enough to compensate him for the job he does.
“Thank you for your support and for the vote of confidence for myself, the district, and the kids,” Citta said.
He touched on a “long and ugly” superintendent search that had political undertones before being chosen.
“I love this place. I love these kids. I love the staff.”
He said that the fact superintendent contracts are voted on publicly is “absurd,” but he tries his best to block out the political noise.
