158 CUSD Teachers Enticed to Retire

 officials have offered teachers a financial incentive to retire, and 158 have taken them up on the deal.

By comparison, only 26 teachers retired at the end of the 2010-11 year.

In January, the by offering a five-year fixed annuity that would pay them 85 percent of their current salary over the course of five years, according to a staff report considered at that meeting.

• Is your teacher retiring? See the attached PDF for a list of those who are.

Savings would come if the teachers are replaced by younger counterparts who earn less, staff told trustees. At the January meeting, the trustees said they didn't have to go through with the plan if it didn't save at least $600,000 the first year.

With the 158 teachers on board to retire, staff estimates the district will realize $893,450 the first year and $2.86 million over the course of five years, states a new staff report the trustees will hear Wednesday.

Those figures are based on 17 of the positions not being filled, according to the staff report. If all of the teachers are replaced, the plan would actually cost the district money.

On the other hand, if none is replaced, the plan has the ability to save the district $10.1 million the first year and $51.8 million by Year Five.

Capistrano Unified is facing a severe financial crisis, and staff has determined and maybe as much as $51 million in a worst-case scenario.

Ultimately, how many teachers get cut and how large class sizes grow will be determined when the district negotiates with the teachers' union, Capistrano Unified Education Association. 

Earlier this month, the trustees who work the equivalent of 399 full-time positions. The notices give the district flexibility in figuring out how best to cut the 2012-13 budget, officials have said.

"CUEA is hopeful that the supplementary retirement incentive will be successful and that this opens up positions for laid off/temporary employees to fill," wrote CUEA Executive Director Christine Balentine in a March 6 letter to teachers who were put on notice they may not be back.

For most of the positions that open up, replacement teachers are available, according to the staff report for Wednesday's meeting. The only jobs that could not be replaced by teachers on the lay-off list are home economics teachers, one physical education teacher, one world language teacher and two speech pathologists.