Long Island educators' salaries: 58 earned over $300,000 during 2023-24 school year, data shows

Of 92  educators statewide earning $300,000 or more, 58 worked on Long Island, including a longtime assistant school superintendent who retired with a final-year compensation package totaling nearly $600,000, the state's latest payroll records show. 

Another 1,662 professionals earned $200,000 and up, including 976 in this region, Newsday found in its payroll analysis.

Moreover, the numbers are growing. For example, the number of educators in the $300,000-plus bracket has risen 56% statewide over the past three years, and 41% on the Island.

Newsday’s annual compensation review is drawn from data obtained from the New York State Teachers' Retirement System, using the state’s Freedom of Information Law. The survey covers 261,600 educators statewide, with total compensation of more than $19 billion. For the Island, the survey includes about 60,428 educators with earnings of nearly $6.3 billion.

The great majority of listings are superintendents, teachers, counselors and other public-school professionals. Also included in the upper-income brackets are 43 administrators, professors and others in the State University of New York system. Data does not include New York City schools employees, who have their own retirement system.

All listings are for the 2023-24 school year, which is the latest available and was released earlier this month.

5 of NY's top 10 on LI

Five of the state’s 10 top-paid educators hail from Long Island. Leading the Island group and in second place overall is Benjamin Ciuffo, an assistant superintendent for educational operations in the Jericho district. He retired in June after 55 years as a teacher and administrator in Jericho and elsewhere. Ciuffo’s final-year compensation is listed at $599,524. 

Jericho officials said Ciuffo’s salary accounted for $275,000 of that package and the remainder of the money came from one-time payouts for unused vacation and sick days, as well as from life-insurance taxable income.

Ciuffo, reached by phone, noted  payment for unused sick days was part of his original contract agreement, when he moved to Jericho from another district. 

"Look, I was there over 31 years," Ciuffo said. "It's kind of an incentive for good attendance." 

Hank Grishman, Jericho’s superintendent, described Ciuffo as “a well-respected educator in both Jericho and in his field.” Ciuffo, who holds a doctoral degree in education from Columbia University, was recognized at a school board meeting by local politicians and community members upon his retirement, and also by a resolution adopted by the State Senate. 

Kishore Kuncham, a retired superintendent from Freeport, ranks seventh with $488,773. Kevin Coster, superintendent in the William Floyd district, is 10th with $386,888. 

Freeport's legal counsel, John Gross, issued a statement on behalf of the district's school board that said in part: "Dr. Kuncham successfully served the School District, its students and the larger community of Freeport as Superintendent for nearly two decades."

Gross added that Kuncham's base salary was $365,172, and the remainder of his package was from payouts for unused sick and vacation leave and other contractual allowances. 

A spokesman for the William Floyd district, James Montalto, said Coster's compensation included $303,850 in salary and also payment during the 2023-24 school year for sick and vacation time that will no longer be available at retirement. 

Montalto added Coster had nearly 30 years' experience in education as an elementary teacher and administrator, and that the district during his administration had experienced a rise in graduation rates, improvements in facilities, an upgrade in bond rating and expansion in instructional programs including career and technical programs. 

"As a leader of one of the largest districts on Long Island, he is extremely committed to the district, its students and the community he serves," Montalto said in an email.

Elsewhere on the Island, educators in the upper-echelon salary group include two award-winning Stony Brook University faculty members: Kenji Fukaya, a mathematics researcher, third statewide with $534,848; and Esther S. Takeuchi, a professor of materials science, fifth at $481,129.  

No. 1 on the top 10 list is from beyond the Island: Joyce F. Brown, president of the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, with total compensation of $682,589. 

Cashing in unused sick, vacation days

The Island's generous contracts for educators usually include not only salaries but also provisions for accrual of unused sick and vacation days. Typically, these are cashed in upon retirement — a practice that can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to final-year compensation. 

Fiscal experts at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative Albany-based think tank, are critical of the practice. They point out that payouts of this sort are rare in the private sector, and even for local governments in other parts of the country. In contrast, payouts have been provided for decades in this state, not only for top education supervisors, but also for police, teachers and other public employees. 

"It's one thing to have higher pay for a difficult or important job," said Tim Girardin, the Empire Center's research director. "It's another thing to let a cash benefit accrue, virtually without limit."

As for the issue of salaries, school supporters contend that steep payroll costs are driven by the Island’s equally steep cost of living. Joe Dragone, an adjunct professor at Hofstra University and former school business official, cites state education figures showing that living expenses on the Island outstrip those in some less-expensive areas of the state by as much as 42.5%.

“If you’re working in Erie and you’re earning $100,000, in order to have the same buying power working on Long Island in the same job, you’d have to earn $142,500,” Dragone said. “So as a result, Long Island school districts, in order to attract quality candidates, have been forced to offer salaries significantly higher than they would in other areas.”

Also, there's an income gap. For a family of four, the median income last year was $188,850 for Nassau County, $175,211 for Suffolk and $130,591 for the state as a whole, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Other analysts add that the Island’s generous salaries for teachers help with recruitment, not only from within this state, but also from other states such as New Jersey. The flip side of that, however, is that some of the Island’s less-wealthy districts recently have found themselves squeezed by payroll costs.

One district that has faced this predicament is Sachem, the Island’s second-largest system with a student population of nearly 12,000.

If you’re working in Erie and you’re earning $100,000, in order to have the same buying power working on Long Island in the same job, you’d have to earn $142,500.

— Joe Dragone, adjunct professor at Hofstra University

In May, school officials there called for a 4.87% tax hike that would have overridden the district's state-assigned cap on taxation. Officials said the extra money was needed to meet growing expenses, including a $7.3 million increase in employee salaries and benefits for the 2024-25 school year. 

Sachem’s plan split the mostly middle-class community. On May 21, more than 8,000 voters showed up at polls — more than twice the number usually participating — and rejected the district’s proposal.

Ultimately, officials in a revote managed to obtain a tax increase of 1.92%. Fred Gorman, a longtime resident and taxpayer advocate, said the experience left a lasting impression.

“The community made it absolutely clear that enough is enough,” Gorman said. “I don’t think they’re going to try that again.”