Salary Request Turned Down

The East Hampton School District has prevailed in a salary dispute with Charles Soriano, who was named principal of the district’s middle school in the summer of 2012.

Mr. Soriano had been an assistant district superintendent, and the shift resulted in a base salary decrease of about $25,000, down to $180,000. He sought to have his previous salary restored, with his attorney arguing that the decrease went against tenure rules. In a decision announced on Nov. 26, MaryEllen Elia, the commissioner of the New York State Education Department, disagreed.

“We successfully argued that the middle school principal position was in the same tenure area . . . as the formerly held central administration position and thus the district was not required to gain Mr. Soriano’s consent to the transfer from the one to the other [lesser paying] position,” Kevin Seaman, the attorney representing the district, said in an email.

Richard Hamburger, Mr. Soriano’s attorney, said he continues to believe his client “was legally protected from a salary decrease when he was reassigned. . . .  Tenure is toothless if tenure protection only extends to occupancy of a position, and not to the salary that a tenured administrator is earning in that position,” he wrote in an email.

Mr. Hamburger said his client was deciding whether to appeal the commissioner’s decision.