The Wyckoff K-8 Board of Education on Monday approved an interim business administrator to run the district's finances for the first half of 2027, after leaders of the teachers' union told the board the salary should be weighed against student-facing positions they said the district chose not to fill.

The interim contract sets an annual salary of $219,596, prorated over the six months, about 22% higher than the starting salary the union said the district gave each of three principals hired over the past two years, and roughly three times the starting salary union president Sheila McLean cited for a school counselor.[1][2][3]

The board voted to hire Michael Rinderknecht as interim business administrator and board secretary from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2027.[1] The business administrator is a school district's chief financial officer; state certification rules list the job's areas as budgeting, accounting, insurance, purchasing, facilities, personnel administration, transportation and food services.[4] Rinderknecht will succeed Patricia Salvati, whose retirement from both roles takes effect Dec. 31.[5] Finance Committee chair Georgina Nico said the interim appointment fills "a tremendous gap" left by Salvati's retirement.[6]

The union's case

Jamie Getrajdman, vice president of the Wyckoff Education Association, opened the public comment period by citing an NJ.com report that Wyckoff had the highest median administrator salary of any New Jersey school district in 2023-24, "about 50% higher" than the statewide median.[7] "These commitments deserve an explanation when we have been told that budget constraints prevent replacing staff who work directly with the students," Getrajdman said.[2]

Getrajdman said the district did not replace a retired music teacher, and that the restructuring of the music department that followed "destabilized the department through unnecessary staff reassignments made without input from the remaining music teachers."[8]

McLean, who said she has worked in the district as a counselor and social worker for 21 years, said that when a counselor resigned, the district did not replace the position. Instead, she said, "counseling, child study team responsibilities, and HIB investigations were redistributed, leaving staff responsible for workloads that previously required multiple professionals."[3] The child study team evaluates students for special education, and HIB refers to investigations under the state's anti-bullying law.

Ilyssa Callandrillo, of Glendale Road, a candidate for the board in the Nov. 3 election, said the concern was not Rinderknecht's qualifications, and asked whether other applicants were considered. "I would love to know, for the one month that we had the posting open, did we have any other potential candidates?" Callandrillo said. "Was anyone else interviewed?"[9] Callandrillo said starting the business administrator at a high salary would leave "little wiggle room" if the district later needed a new superintendent, and asked how the board was preparing "to take on such a big salary like that."[9]

The board's case

Personnel Committee chair Dr. Kathleen Greaney said "there were multiple people interviewed for this position and he definitely rose to the top."[10] She said Rinderknecht spent nearly 20 years as business administrator in Glen Rock, has since served as an interim in Fort Lee and Lodi, and is a Wyckoff resident.[10]

Greaney said New Jersey law allows a retired business administrator to fill a vacancy as an interim for a limited period. "Specifically, two years," she said. "He is not a permanent hire."[11]

She tied the choice to the district's finances. Rinderknecht, she said, "has the skills to help us manage our $55 million budget while we continue to navigate significant financial challenges," adding that "next year healthcare premiums will increase to another 34%."[12] "We did not want to be short-sighted when making this decision," she said.[12]

Nico said the state commission that sets school employees' health plan rates, which had deadlocked 4-4, has since approved next year's increase.[13] Salvati put the combined medical and prescription increase at 34.4%, effective January 2027, and said the district is again looking at private carriers.[14]

Asked by a fellow board member whether the interim salary would set a new baseline, Nico said it would not. "Any salary is based on tenure, experience, and we also need to factor in their previous salary," Nico said. "So, no, that's not going to be the baseline moving forward for a permanent position once the interim position expires."[15]

The salary ranking

Later in the meeting, Salvati said she had looked into the NJ.com statistic. "That is true for that period of time," she said. "That no longer applies. We had some very long-term employees at the time. Three employees together have collected about 84 years of service, so yes, salaries would be high."[16] She said the figure "does not apply to our current administrative team."[16]

Sorted statewide, the state's own figures in the 2025 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending show Wyckoff with the highest median administrator salary of any traditional public school district in New Jersey in both 2023-24 and 2024-25; only one charter school was higher. Those figures are based on staff counts taken each October, in 2023 and 2024, so they do not reflect the principal hires the union described.[17][18]

In the second public comment period, McLean said the NJ.com report drew on that state guide.[19] "Principals left, principals retired. It was an opportunity for the district to rein in some of those high salaries," she said.[19] McLean said the teachers' salary guides, the pay schedules set in their union contract, will be negotiated this year, while "the administrators don't have guides, so they're able to negotiate any salary that they can."[20]

The vote

The hire was part of the board's consent agenda, which passed 6-0, with board member Vivek Bhushan absent.[21] The board pulled a separate item reassigning two instructional aides to kindergarten aide positions and postponed it to its November meeting.[21]

Six candidates are running on Nov. 3 for three board seats, two full terms and one unexpired two-year term. They include Callandrillo and three sitting members: Barbagallo, Benedik and Bhushan.[22]