[ back ]
Retire-rehire option due for 23 teachers
(by Tony Lange - April 13, 2012)
Retire-rehire option due for 23 teachers
By TONY LANGE
While the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio provides incentives for educators to stay in the classroom for 35 years, the Solon School District provides the incentive to leave after just 30.
The Solon Board of Education will conduct hearings June 11 and Aug. 13 to approve the retirement and rehire of 23 teachers for next school year -- by far the most the district has had at one time.
There are two reasons why there are so many teachers are involved in the district's retire-rehire program for the 2012-13 school year, Solon School Superintendent Joseph V. Regano said.
"One is we had a significant number of teachers reach the 30-year level, and so those teachers took advantage of this. It was probably one of the years that the district did a lot of hiring as it continued to grow," he said. "And the second reason is the uncertainty in state government, which includes not only school funding but funding for retirement systems."
Last January, the State Teachers Retirement Board approved a plan to strengthen the financial condition of the retirement system.
According to STRS, the board voted to set a minimum age of 60 with 35 years of service as the new threshold for teachers to receive full pension eligibility. At that point, teachers would receive 77 percent of their final average salary, which is more than a 10 percent decrease from current retirement plans.
Further reducing pension payouts, a teacher's final average salary would include his or her highest-paid five years, instead of the current three-year calculation, according to STRS.
The 23 Solon teachers who plan to use the retire-rehire program will not be affected by the pending STRS plan, which is awaiting legislative action by the Ohio General Assembly and governor before implementation.
The Solon teachers will start collecting current pension-plan benefits and return for the 2012-13 school year before an automatic resignation terminates their tenure.
While many school districts in Ohio do not offer retire-rehire incentives for teachers, Solon started the process about 10 years ago to encourage them to retire after 30 years, Mr. Regano said.
"This has been an extremely important part of our financial-expenditure puzzle," he said.
"We've been able to move higher salaries out and move newer salaries in, which further dovetailed into a reduced salary schedule that we negotiated with our teachers."
While Solon had the second-highest minimum salary rate in Ohio at $44,068 during the 2010-11 school year, according to the Ohio Education Association, new teachers in the district now are starting with lower salaries than their predecessors.
The three-year contract with the Solon Education Association lowered the district's starting salary to $41,238, a 6.4 percent decrease, this school year, along with instituting a three-year pay freeze and higher health-insurance premiums for teachers.
Solon's 30-year retire-rehire incentive is simply a factor of cost savings, district Treasurer Timothy Pickana said.
"Let's just say, hypothetically, that an employee is making $80,000 a year," he said. "Well, if you can provide an incentive for them to leave and bring in somebody at $40,000, you're saving $40,000 a year over five years. That would be a $200,000 savings to the district."
By multiplying that $200,000 by 23 employees, the school district could hypothetically save $4.6 million during a five-year period.
In reality, that savings is a low estimate, being that the actual average salary of the 23 teachers up for retire-rehire was $94,384 in 2011, according the information from the Ohio Treasurer's Office.
Of those 23 employees, there are two preschool, one kindergarten, three first-grade, three second-grade and two fourth-grade teachers at the elementary level, as well as an interventionist. At Orchard Middle School, there are two art teachers and three sixth-grade teachers taking the incentive. At Solon Middle School, there are two science teachers and an interventionist. At Solon High School, there are two science teachers and a media specialist.
With shrinking district-wide enrollment, there is no guarantee that all 23 of those positions will be filled come the 2013-14 school year, Mr. Regano said. "A year from now, we will be filling those spots, or as the district continues to decline enrollment, some of the spots wouldn't be filled," he said. "Then the savings becomes astronomical."
The district receives more than 2,000 teacher applicants a year, Mr. Regano said. With perhaps 20 openings, there would be a 1 percent chance of landing the job in Solon schools.
[ back ]
