Warren Hills' Merluzzi now highest paid superintendent in Warren County

WASHINGTON TWP. | At its last meeting for the year, the Warren Hills Regional Board of Education gave its superintendent a new label -- that of the highest paid school chief in Warren County.

Peter Merluzzi's $179,440 salary, a nearly 3 percent raise from the previous year, puts Warren Hills on top of the other top-paying districts, Hackettstown and Phillipsburg, according to the Warren County Department of Education.

County Business Administrator Bill Poch said Hackettstown's Robert Gratz had the previous top salary, about $174,000. The contract for Phillipsburg Superintendent Mark B. Miller, who started with the district in September, earns him about $175,000, Poch said.

Merluzzi, of Forks Township, said he has been in the district since the mid-1990s and has been a superintendent in that district and others for about 30 years.

"I have more experience than everybody else and I've been in the district longer," he said Tuesday.

He added that he "unfortunately" has the title of being the highest paid in the county because it often brings criticism to the district.

Merluzzi said his contract does not specify what his raise will be each year, leaving it up to the board to set the salary each year. The superintendent's is the last salary to be set in the district, Merluzzi said.

Merluzzi is in the third year of his five-year contract, which extends through 2011.

School board members either could not be reached or declined comment Tuesday evening.

The Warren Hills Regional School District includes a middle school and a high school and totals more than 2,000 students, according to 2007-08 enrollment data from the New Jersey Department of Education.

The district serves Washington and the townships of Franklin, Mansfield, Oxford and Washington.

District voters in September approved a $5.5 million referendum for new athletic facilities.