In a June 28 meeting of the Elmont Board of Education, the Elmont board voted unanimously in favor of granting superintendent of schools Hal Harper a $23,000 raise in salary. Harper, the former principal of Elmont Memorial High School, just completed his first year as superintendent after taking over from the highly popular Dr. Maria Palandra.

The vote came before the board re-organized on July 6 during a meeting in which two new trustees - Frank Ragona and Pamela Byer - were sworn in. The vote to increase Harper's salary was unanimous.

At least one board member, former board president Aubrey Phillips, believes that some of the members of the board low-balled Harper when it came to his salary when the he was hired as Elmont's new superintendent last year.

Phillips, who was the president of the board when Harper was hired and is in favor of increasing the superintendent pay, said he, former trustee Joy Madera, trustee Elsy Guibert and former trustee Ken Williams were the ones who believed that Harper was the best man for the district, but Harper was hired at a rate that didn't put him on the same level as other superintendents.

In fact, Phillips said that Harper was hired at a rate 20 percent lower than the board was willing to pay others and Harper's salary is well below what other superintendents with a budget the size of the Elmont School District's make.

Three Nassau County school districts with budgets similar in size to Elmont - Glen Cove, Lynbrook and Locust Valley - reported to the New York State Department of Education that they paid their superintendents at least $225,000 in salaries and benefits during the 2005-2006 school year while Harper failed to break the $200,000 barrier.

Although a published report questioned why the board chose to increase Harper's salary only nine months into his three-year contract, Phillips, who was still the board president at the time of the vote to increase the superintendent's salary, believes the board took the opportunity to begin to address the disparity between Harper's salary and that of his colleagues. Phillips believes Harper's salary increase, which will give him a salary of $188,000, at least moves Harper in the right direction.

Robert Nori, the board's vice president at the time of Harper's hiring and the new board president, voted in favor of the salary increase and in an interview with the Three Village Times, spoke in full support of Harper and the job the superintendent did in his first year.

"Mr. Harper, I think, shows tremendous potential as a leader," said Nori, who added that Harper showed that potential in his first year. "We're looking for a long relationship with him. A number of board members felt that he's done the job and he's proven himself. I'm really excited about working with Mr. Harper. He's a tremendous role model to the kids in the district. He shares the same vision that the great majority, if not all the members of the board, has about where our district is going."