WALL TOWNSHIP — The Wall Township Board of Education [BOE] approved salary increases Tuesday night for seven school administrators, including a $3,200 raise for Wall High School Principal Rose Sirchio, who has been out on paid administrative leave since 2022.
The raises were issued in compliance with a Memorandum of Agreement [MOA] between the Wall Township BOE and the Wall Township Administrative and Supervisory Association [WTASA], the union for education administrators, which took effect July 1, 2020 and expires on June 30 of this year.
The MOA states that there must be an annual salary increase for each employee based upon his/her 2019-2020 base salary. Per the negotiated agreement, Wall school administrators must receive yearly salary increases: Two percent for 2020-21; 2.25 percent for 2021-22 and a 2.25 percent increase for 2022-23.
Ms. Sirchio will be paid $200,763 for the 2023-24 school year. There has been no indication from Superintendent Tracy Handerhan, the school board or other district officials regarding when or if she will return.
Ms. Sirchio was placed on paid administrative leave on April 12, 2022, soon after she returned from chaperoning a school field trip to Disney World in Florida in late March. The reason for her administrative leave has not been disclosed by the board.
Although Ms. Sirchio remains on paid administrative leave to date, she is still listed as the high school’s principal on the district website.
The board also approved a $650 per-diem rate for Peter Righi, the current acting high school principal, “to serve as needed.”
A $3,200 salary increase was also approved for the former high school athletic director, Thomas Ridoux, who had been placed on paid leave following the football hazing scandal last November and returned from leave in June 2022. He is now the assistant principal at Wall Intermediate School and will receive a $177,446 salary beginning this fall.
Erin Embon – the former principal of Wall Intermediate School, was placed on administrative leave last April then reinstated in June, 2022. She currently serves as principal of Wall Primary School. Ms. Embon will receive a salary of $178,569, a $3,200 increase from last year.
A total of seven administrators received salary increases, all of which can be viewed by the public on the June 13 BOE Human Resources report at the district website, wallpublicschools.org.
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