Published: November 02, 2009 10:41 pm      

FALLS SCHOOLS: School board approves $20,000 raise for Maria Massaro

Niagara Falls School District assistant attorney Maria Massaro has been granted a $20,000 raise for additional duties school officials say she will be taking on.

The Niagara Falls Board of Education approved a new contract with administrative counsel Massaro that will pay her a salary of $65,000 for the 2009-10 school year, up from $44,829. 

School district officials said Massaro’s pay hike is a reflection of the new responsibilities she will be handling. According to Superintendent Cynthia Bianco, those extra duties include reviewing and approving all short-term contracts, serving as co-chairperson for a district health benefits committee and overseeing the free and reduced lunch officer, among others.

“Her role as administrative counsel requires her to report directly to me,” Bianco said. “The two major additions to her workload include the monitoring of the district’s worker’s compensation claims and monitoring the district’s insurance-related matters.”

In addition, Massaro’s new contract allows for 24 paid sick days a year that can be accumulated from year to year up to a maximum of 224 days. The contract also includes full health insurance including dental and vision. It also has a clause in it that states when the employee retires after 10 years of service he or she shall receive terminal leave pay based on “85 percent of her per diem rate of pay, which shall be based upon the highest annual base salary the employee received.”

The school board approved the new contract in an 8-0 vote during a meeting Oct. 22. Board member Christopher Brown did not attend the meeting.

Board Member Robert Kazeangin said he believes the raise is warranted as Massaro’s job functions have changed “dramatically,” he added that it’s not too often you can find an attorney willing to work for a $65,000 salary.

Massaro is one of three members of the district’s legal team which also includes her father Angelo and local attorney James Roscetti.

School Board President Russell Petrozzi said Massaro is in charge of the district’s “in-house” dealings while the other attorneys deal mostly with board matters.

“Maria is in charge of all the district’s in-house day-to-day operations,” Petrozzi said. “While Jimmy (Roscetti) and Angelo (Massaro) are in charge of litigation and contracts, all of the major dealings that the board is responsible for.”

Petrozzi said now that Massaro’s job scope has grown, the board will re-evaluate the situation in the future. He said he believes the district is well within its realm to employ three attorneys based on the size of the district and the expansive capital improvement plan it is in the process of completing.

“As things begin to slow down, we may reassess the need to have three attorneys and maybe bring it down to two,” Petrozzi said, “but who knows what will happen.”

Petrozzi said Massaro’s contract is salaried, which some districts do not do.

“Some districts pay by the hour and that is something in our particular case we choose not to do,” he said. “They handle all of our work at one flat rate.”

Massaro, who unsuccessfully ran for a city judgeship in 2007, practices privately at the law firm Hovey & Massaro. She was mentioned last year in a school district audit performed by the state Comptroller’s office which determined that Massaro was being paid as a district employee, despite her functioning as an independent contractor. DiNapoli’s office announced in May that it had revoked her pension. Massaro appealed the decision.

Phone calls seeking comments from Maria and Angelo Massaro went unreturned.