According to information from the town accounting office gathered from employees’ tax forms last year, school employees made up seven of the top 10 and 13 of the top 20 salaries in town.

Topping the list of all employees is Superintendent Eileen Williams, who earned $128, 595 in salary and stipends last year.  Town Manager Rocco Longo came in second by over $20,000 ($107,016), followed by Assistant Superintendent John Kerrigan ($106,738), Duxbury High School principal John McCarthy ($100,000) and Police Chief Mark DeLuca ($98,458).

School salaries were so dominant in town in 2003 that for Town Accountant Sheryl Strother to provide the Clipper<//i> with the top ten salaries of town employees, she had to provide a list of 31 names.

Of the non-school employees’ top five salaries, Longo was the highest, followed by DeLuca, police sergeants Dennis Symmonds ($90,090), Michael Roberts ($85,599) and Christopher Mori ($85,426) and DPW Director Tom Daley ($83,025).

Behind the four highest members of the Duxbury Police Department and was Fire Chief William Harriman, who made $82,691 last year.  Harriman’s salary was not only lower than these town employees, but he also earned less than 11 members of the school department, including the principals of all the town’s schools, two assistant principals, the business manager ($91,530), special needs administrator ($85,500) and guidance director ($84,319).

Williams said that she was not surprised by the fact that school employees made up a majority of the town’s highest paid personnel and said that this was common among other communities in the Commonwealth.

"You need to look at the amount of preparation, degrees and certificates for these positions," she said.

Williams did provide the Clipper with her own list of the school department’s top 10 salaries for 2003-2004, but it did not include stipends for administrators and teachers who received pay in addition to their salaries for coaching, advising activities or her own stipend last year for mileage - $250 per month.

Looking at the 21 school employees the town provided information for, besides the 11 who earned more than Harriman, six are teachers making between $81,900 and 76,500.

Williams said these are some of the most senior staff in the department and in comparison to non-school employees, have higher educational backgrounds.

"I don’t want to sound denigrating to [non-school employees], but I expect others don’t have the multiple Master’s degrees [school employees do]," she said.  "My understanding is that with police, for example, a good portion of their compensation is overtime.  Our administrators have no overtime ñ this is a full-time, 12-month a year position and salaries need to reflect that fact."

She also added that for the town to attract and keep "the best and brightest" school employees, salaries have to be competitive and that the ones in town are by no means the highest in the state or in the area.

As for her own salary, Williams said that the fact that she is the highest paid in Duxbury has been printed before during her 11-year career and that she did not think it would come as a surprise to citizens.

"I have a doctorate degree, 17 years of experience in education and 31 years as an educator," said Williams.  "I have a high level of experience and academic preparation, I’m responsible for 50 percent of the town’s budget and ultimately responsible for 3,200 students and 500 employees and think the salary is appropriate compensation for these responsibilities."

<b>Public Safety Tops among Non-School Employees</b>

While members of the school department were high among the top paid in Duxbury last year, members of public safety departments were a vast majority among the top non-school salaries as well.

Eight of the top of these salaries from last year came from members of the town’s police (six employees) and fire (two employees) departments.

While all the police sergeants made more than Fire Chief Harriman, two police officers also made the top 30 ñ James Tougas ($77,393) and Ryan Cavicchi ($76,564).

Town Manager Rocco Longo said his only surprise about these numbers was that there were not more officers amongst the top earners.

"I’m surprised there were not more police and fire making more than the chiefs," he said.  "[Overtime] for line officers allows them to make more.  When we did this list five years ago, the top ten were all policemen. In 1994, police making over $100,000 was no problem."

Longo added that policemen can also earn even more now thanks to the Quinn Bill, that awards bonuses to officers who earn degrees in criminal justice, law enforcement and law.

As for citizens’ reaction to the salaries, Longo said that in Duxbury, salaries are open information, available to anyone, and that for the most part they are understood.

"It’s part of what we live with being in the public sector," he said.  I’m sure there are some who are confused, but it would be like if I went into a private sector company like Dell.  Would I understand all of their salaries?  If I want to learn, I can, or I can choose not to.  I think this community understands these things."

As for his own salary, the second highest last year, Longo said whether he is paid too much is an individual opinion and one he couldn’t speculate much on.

"If you talk about [my] salary and pay taxes in town, of course [there might be the feeling I’m] paid too much.  I haven’t met anyone who enjoys paying taxes," he said.

Citizens who did talk to the Clipper about salaries were not surprised by the numbers and often supportive of what the top wage getters were earning.

"While I’m not sure of the exact scope of her work, [Superintendent Williams] does manage that budget and if you look at salaries in the private sector for someone with that size a budget ($22.9 million for FY05), it would be higher than what she is receiving," said St. George Street resident Peter Smith.

While many citizens did pick either Williams or Longo as the top salaries in town, just as many were surprised to see that Harriman made not only less than his counterpart in the police department, but also three police sergeants.

"I would think that fire chief would have a lot more responsibilities and a lot more people to [oversee] than a sergeant who looks after people on a shift," said Josselyn Avenue’s Ron Bondlow.

<b>Balancing Budgets and Bodies</b>

Both Longo and Williams said while the town is in a difficult fiscal environment and cuts are being made to every department, that does not necessarily mean salaries should decrease.

Longo said that among town departments, the budget did address personnel, with some departments choosing to cut hours among staff members rather than eliminate positions.

"We developed the budget by consensus," he said.  "Not one entry was made without looking at the big picture [including salaries].  Zero percent increases to employees or cutting people creates difficult work environments, so it was an option, but we could address the budget issues [in other ways] and still provide for slight increases."

As for the school department, Williams said that one of the largest areas of the budget that was reduced was personnel, eliminating several positions and reallocating those duties to other administrators, adding to their already large list of responsibilities.

Williams did say that in addition to some people not knowing the numerous responsibilities of administrators and department heads, this also extends to teachers as well.

"I think there is the feeling that education is a female-dominated profession and believe many don’t understand the difference between the instruction we provide and day care or babysitting," she said.  "I think if I could get everyone in the community to spend the day walking in someone’s shoes, be it administrator, a teacher, a cafeteria worker or anyone else, I think they would have a better understanding of how difficult this work is."

Furthermore, said Williams, she is surprised by citizens who do not understand the value of professional days for staff members to increase their knowledge base through training, even if it means a day off for students.

"People wouldn’t go to a doctor, a dentist or a lawyer who is not getting continued education, but think it is fine for teachers not to get that same continued education," she said.  "There is a difficulty and challenge to this work."