Three employees in the Commack Union Free School District made the 100 highest paid school employees list released Wednesday by the Empire Center's SeeThroughNY project, with former Superintendent James Feltman topping the state-wide list with a salary of $657,970. 

According to the district, Feltman's salary included his accrued sick and vacation time for his 24 years of employment within the district, according to a statement posted  on its website on Thursday. Tim Hoefer, operations director for the Empire Center, said that while this is probable, it is also certain that his salary doubled in his year of retirement. 

"If you look at his salary for the 2007-08 or 2008-09 fiscal years, you will see that he made around $300,000 – he doubled his salary in the year of his retirement. If you think about individuals in the private sector, they rarely double their salaries in the year of retirement," Hoefer said. 

Two other Commack retirees were listed as well – former assistant principal Carol Bertolotti, ranking 18 with a salary of $310,117, and language teacher John Maher, ranking 73 with a salary of $251,323, both having served since 1969 and 1967, respectively.  

Hoefer said the overall idea of the center's research is to make this information available to the taxpayers in order to let them evaluate decisions made in school districts. Long Island and Westchester County districts' administrators and teachers dominated the list, which was based on a state-wide evaluation of all employees' pay for 2009-10. 

The school district and Feltman could not be reached for additional comment on these numbers.