The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
Nearly 600 school employees who are eligible for retirement are about to be offered an incentive to take their leave in June.
The incentive is a $12,000 lump-sum payment, but those who have worked for only seven of the 10 years needed to receive full health coverage in retirement can swap the payment for that health benefit instead.
School Board members unanimously approved the measure at their meeting Monday night with no discussion. They voted 8-0 with Tom Mercer absent.
Vickie Lucente, assistant superintendent for budget and finance, said this year's gap between expected revenue and expenditures cannot be filled without affecting the classroom, as has been done for the past two fiscal years.
"We have to find another way to do it," she said.
The problem is the federal government's stimulus money - $36 million that helped Chesapeake retain 239 school jobs - is about to run out. Some new federal funding for teacher positions is coming to Virginia, but Lucente said it won't come close to that $36 million.
Of 572 employees eligible for retirement, 290 are teachers. Chesapeake has about 5,800 school employees.
Each employee who takes the incentive would save the division between $9,780 and $63,143, depending on whether the position is re-filled. Re-staffing decisions will be made during this year's budget deliberations, officials said.
Chesapeake is not the first school division in Hampton Roads to offer recession-related buyouts. Forty-two employees in Portsmouth and 55 in Suffolk over the past two years took a retirement incentive equal to 20 percent of their salaries.
Virginia school employees are eligible for retirement at age 50 with 30 years of experience, or at 65 with five years of experience.
Elisabeth Hulette, (757) 222-5216, elisabeth.hulette@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Just Asking
They always want to make cuts to staff and classrooms. How much do all the sports programs cost the city every year? Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of local high school sports, but they are not a vital part of the learning process. Yes the do a great justice to the school environment and do make some money for the schools but I think the 3 R's are much more important. JMHO
Really?
You're kidding right? You must not have or have had children that played sports. My kids have been involved in sports programs in and out of school and I can say, without hesitation, sports ARE a vital part of the learning process. They reinforce what is taught in the classroom on many levels. Let's use football as an example--English & Reading: understanding the playbook & what the coach is talking about. Math: judging yardage & ball speed. Science: wind velocity vs. weight of the ball. And let's not forget that our sports programs require a certain grade point average from each player and again with football, the players must turn their grades into the coach every Friday...no grades....no play...Lastly, all the "book" knowledge in the world will get you absolutely nowhere without life skills...Sports teaches you how to win with pride, lose with grace, rally around a common goal and compromise for the good of the group...Take sports or any extra curricular activity out the schools and the kids might as well stay home and get a GED online....
Buy Out
It's a shame the classified employees do not fall under this category. I don't think they even realize they get no health credit. What a shame for them, wonder how the system would do if all classified employees called in sick one day??? I have worked for years thinking I could retire with some kind of insurance, guess what, not going to happen. Something about Congress approving it, well I don't see that happening with our elected participants. So I have nothing to look forward to for all my years. Can't ever retire, gotta have insurance. Guess they will just have to roll me out of here on a gurney.
Wow wow wow
Full health benefits after only 10 years !! No way. Plus a buy out so full health benefits after 7 years ?!?
How can a company possibly be solvent with such a ridiculous unsustainable retirement system...
Oh wait it's not a company, its local government...and its NOT SOLVENT !!
FULL HEALTH BENEFITS
It's worth saying again, FULL HEALTH BENEFITS AFTER 10 YEARS of employment. I bet most citizens have no idea of the lucrative benefits that are given so freely to city employees. I read about these fantastic retirement benefits many years ago and all was fine until the economy took a downturn. Now with dwindling revenue, city management is finally looking to see if cuts can be made. The bottom line is, if you live in Chesapeake, hold onto your wallet tight, because the city wants all of what's in it.
not a cost savings
"Each employee who takes the incentive would save the division between $9,780 and $63,143, depending on whether the position is re-filled. Re-staffing decisions will be made during this year's budget deliberations, officials said." So if the teachers are needed, instead of the experienced matured teacher, we end up with the rookie that needs experience and fine tunning. Is that really a savings? What would be a savings is to do away with the redundant high paid administrator positions. It seems that there is assistants to that assistants to the administrators. Then there are superintentants of everything, heck I'm surprised there's not a superintentant of paint by now. I think the best way of putting it is, "too much management and not enought workers". The teachers are the ones that get the job done, most of the administrators are counter productive.
How many ...
...will take the offer. Since retirement can be at age 50, some folks may decide it is not worth it in this economy to retire and enter a fixed income life style. Granted, some will get new jobs but those are not a plentiful as once been. I hope the pilot follows up on this in 2 - 3 months.