Schools
Capo Looks to Entice Teachers to Retire
The school board will consider offering annuity financial incentives to encourage older teachers to call it quits.
The wants to motivate older, more highly paid teachers to retire.
Some would be replaced with younger counterparts at lower salaries; some may not be replaced at all.
On Wednesday, the school board will consider offering incentives – called a “supplementary retirement plan” in district-speak – to encourage veteran teachers to hang up the chalk.
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“Savings are achieved by replacing veteran senior employees with less senior employees who are lower on the salary schedule,” according to a staff report. “In addition ... certain positions may not be replaced, further increasing savings.”
The district plans to tempt teachers to retire with a fixed annuity through the Public Agency Retirement Services, an agency that administers more than 1,200 retirement plans for various public agencies serving more than 270,000 employees, according to the staff report.
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The cost of the incentives wasn't spelled out, but CUSD said the net savings to the district would total at least $600,000 in the first year. If not, the school board has the option of withdrawing the plan, according to the proposal.
The move would help the district cope with budget reductions, the staff report states. The district is , according to the latest figures.
The plan is designed to "incentivize retirement for many senior veteran employees over and above natural attrition,” the report says.
As times get tough, the tough do not get going. In 2007-08, 84 teachers retired, but that number plunged to 26 who retired in 2010-11, the staff report states.
Since 2009, Capo has cut its teaching force by 344, the staff report states. To this day, nearly 400 teachers remain on a waiting list to be rehired. Among them are 265 veteran teachers and 127 newly hired temporary teachers.
Teachers in non-management positions who want to take the deal would have to declare by the end of February that they would retire by June 30.
The board meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at district headquarters, 33122 Valle Road in San Juan Capistrano.
