Early-retirement plan reduces teacher layoffs
CARTHAGE — Two teachers whose positions were cut in the 2010-11 budget will have jobs in the district next year because of the district's early-retirement incentive, but district officials were hoping they could reinstate more people.
"There weren't as many people as we anticipated who took advantage of the incentive," Business Manager Amy M. Marrocco said. "Originally, we had 10 who said they were interested, but only five teachers ended up submitting letters."
As part of the 2010-11 school year budget, 32 district employees were cut, including 14 teachers. The early-retirement incentive was implemented so some of those teachers would be able to have jobs next school year despite the position cuts.
One elementary teacher and one music teacher whose positions were cut will be reinstated because two of the teachers who retired taught those subject areas. In order for a teacher whose position was cut to be able to keep their job, someone must retire who comes from the same certification area. For example, the district can't bring back a foreign language teacher when a social studies teacher retires.
The General Brown Central School District Board of Education also opted to offer its teachers the early-retirement incentive. District Business Administrator Michele A. Traynor informed board members earlier this month that there'd be no cost-savings for support staff, but there would be a savings of $100,000 if eight individuals in the Teacher Retirement System take the incentive.
Thus far, only four of those targeted individuals have submitted letters to the district office requesting to participate in the program. The Board of Education may approve or deny those requests during the Aug. 16 board meeting.
Gov. David A. Paterson signed into law an early-retirement incentive for most public employees earlier this year. The Carthage and General Brown school boards approved part A of the state's retirement incentive, which allows teachers who are at least 50 years old with 10 years of experience teaching in the district to retire.
Eligible employees who participate in the optional retirement program receive a retirement incentive of one-twelfth for each year of service multiplied by 15 percent, multiplied by the employee's annual salary, up to a maximum benefit equal to 45 percent of salary.
Mrs. Traynor said there's also a chance the remaining four targeted teachers could get the incentive if they get their paperwork in before the Aug. 31 deadline.
None of the targeted positions would make room for reinstating 21 positions that were recently cut as part of the voter-approved 2010-11 school budget, Mrs. Traynor said.
"We'd be filling the positions that would be vacant," she said. "The hiring process wouldn't start until someone retired, and there was an actual position open."
General Brown, however, is getting ahead of the game and has been requesting applications from individuals interested in filling the anticipated openings of a K-through-12 reading teacher, an elementary teacher, a seven-through-12 English teacher, a 7-through-12 math teacher, Earth Science teacher, chemistry teacher and biology teacher, as well as a media specialist. Mrs. Traynor didn't specify which four of those had taken the incentive as of Thursday afternoon.
Mrs. Traynor said she won't know what the district's cost to participate in the incentive will be until after the deadline.
Carthage district officials also decided to offer the incentive only to teachers and not support staff because it was the most cost-effective option. The cost to implement the incentive program is $250,000, which will be paid in a one-time installment, Mrs. Marrocco said.
The incentive was put in place in Carthage in June, and the deadline for teachers to submit their letters of intent to retire was Monday.
Of the 10 Carthage teachers who initially expressed interest in retiring, the main reason some decided against it was financial uncertainty, Mrs. Marrocco said.
"We were hoping for more, and if more would have taken advantage of it, we could have brought back three more people," Mrs. Marrocco said. "Some of the teachers were really on the fence and decided that with the economic conditions, they couldn't lock into a fixed income for the next 20 years. We had a big retirement incentive in 2002 and about 30 teachers took it. But then, they could be confident that they could live off what they would be getting."
Though only five Carthage teachers took advantage of the incentive, it still will save the district money because some of the teachers who retired had been with the district for at least a decade, and could have been making close to $70,000 per year. The teachers who will be reinstated and the new teachers district officials hire to take those positions likely will be newer teachers, who make closer to $40,000 per year, Mrs. Marrocco said.
"We brought back two teachers and we feel very good about that," Mrs. Marrocco said. "But it's a double-edged sword, because you lose a lot of experience and knowledge when your top-end people leave."
