A New Jersey school board just told its $220,000-a-year superintendent he won't be getting a $27,000 merit bonus — a rare moment where taxpayers drew a line against the administrative class feeding at the public trough.

The Washington Township school board deadlocked 4-4 with one abstention Tuesday night on whether to award Superintendent Eric Hibbs the bonus, falling short of the five votes needed for passage. This is the third time since August the board has rejected the merit pay, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The fight likely isn't over: Hibbs has a pending whistleblower lawsuit against several board members, and his contract automatically renews for four more years in December unless the board acts.

Here's what makes this matter to every working American paying property taxes: Hibbs pulled down $220,375 in the 2023-24 school year and is already among the highest-paid school chiefs in South Jersey. His contract entitles him to a merit bonus of up to 14.99% of his salary — nearly $33,000 — if he meets goals set by the board. The goals Hibbs claims to have met? Completing Google training presentations, taking online professional development courses, and beefing up security processes. For that, he wanted $27,000 of taxpayer money on top of his base pay — plus carrying over 20 unused vacation days. He already collected $25,000 in merit pay for similar goals the prior year.

The board is so tangled in conflicts of interest that it had to invoke a rarely used "doctrine of necessity" just to hold the vote. Six of nine board members were deemed ineligible to discuss Hibbs' employment because they either have family members working for the district or are named defendants in Hibbs' lawsuit, according to board solicitor Nicholas J. Repici. The doctrine let conflicted members vote but barred them from deliberations.

Hibbs was suspended by the board last year, then reinstated in July after a judge found the board violated the Open Public Meetings Act when it suspended him. He did not comment at Tuesday's meeting and did not respond to a request for comment.

The county's interim executive superintendent, Robert Bumpus, approved the merit pay as required by state law — but the board still had to sign off on disbursing the funds. That's the checkpoint that held.

The Inquirer framed the story around board "infighting" and the superintendent being "embattled." What went unmentioned: what this district's student performance looks like while its chief administrator chases bonuses for completing Google slideshows. The question isn't whether Hibbs checked boxes on a rubric — it's whether anyone in the system is accountable to the families paying for it.

Hibbs has been superintendent since 2023. His contract runs through 2027 — and automatically extends four more years unless the board moves to stop it by December. The bonus fight may be settled for now. The contract fight is coming.