by Jennifer Tangeman
A group of teachers at Southeastern schools have accepted a retirement incentive.
As part of budget cuts for 2010, eight teachers signed on to retire after this school year. In return, through a past sale of bonds, they will gain a $20,000 benefit to either a health plan or a 401 A tax annuity.
The situation is a win-win for the teachers and the school corporation, Southeastern superintendent John Bevan said.
“It helps out the school in that we will absorb the loss of all but one of them,” the superintendent said.
The savings for the schools will be about $500,000 through attrition.
The response to the incentive was a bit more than expected, he said.
“You always hope it will work perfectly, but in reality, we expected four or five teachers to retire,” Bevan said.
A surplus of retirements will not be a disadvantage, though. Bevan said the retirements will allow the corporation to reach budget reduction numbers without laying off any young teachers.
He said he believes the balance of seasoned and rookie teachers would remain.
“We have a lot of senior teachers that will still be in the system,” Bevan said.
As for those who are leaving, Bevan said he believes the teachers are all happy with their decision and did not feel pressured to leave.
“You always hate to see people who have given their lives to the district decide to hang it up, but the incentive we gave them let those people know they were a value to the district, and we didn’t just want to push them out the door,” he said. “From what I know they were all happy with the decision, and at the same time, know it serves the long term interest of the district.”
The incentive package was part of budget cuts proposed for 2010. Bevan explained the corporation is experiencing a reduction in the general fund budget of about $759,000 for 2010. He said the cuts represent about 7.55 percent of the overall budget.
Other changes to cut funds include a re-alignment of grades. Starting next school year, grades one through three will be housed in Thompson Elementary and grades four through six will be housed in Galveston Elementary. Both of the schools will have kindergarten.
Among cuts being discussed are reducing the full-day kindergarten program by one teacher and one aide, eliminating freshman volleyball, basketball and cheerleading, reducing coaching staff for freshman football and junior high and varsity basketball and eliminating fifth- and sixth-grade traveling basketball.
Bevan said the retirements will help now, but the financial situation still looks bleak for the future of Indiana schools.
“For right now, we will be able to deal with the current economic situation,” he said. “But with Daniels’ recent comments, if the economy doesn’t improve, we’re looking for move severe cuts next year.”
• Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.
