Up to 15 Lakeshore faculty members could get $10,000 for retiring early
By WILLIAM F. AST III - H-P Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:33 PM EST
STEVENSVILLE - The Lakeshore Board of Education on Monday agreed to offer a $10,000 bonus to up to 15 teachers who agree to retire at the end of this school year.
The teachers have until April 23 to decide, Superintendent Don Frank said. At least nine will have to sign up for the offer to take effect, he added.
The action mirrors that taken by the St. Joseph school board last week. Frank said the Lakeshore board has been discussing the move for months, but has held off in hopes that the state funding picture might improve.
That hasn't happened, and Lakeshore is looking at the need to cut $800,000 to $1 million in expenses for the next school year.
"We've been talking things out, and holding back, but we just don't see a clear way out of the woods right now without doing something drastic," Frank said.
It's the first time Lakeshore has ever been forced to make such an offer, Frank said.
"Difficult times call for difficult options to be considered," Frank told the board. "I do not look forward to losing individuals who have served the district well."
The $10,000 amount equals what the district would have to pay any teachers who are laid off at the end of the school year, Frank said.
How much money the offer saves depends on how many of the retiring teachers are replaced, Frank said after the meeting.
The offer goes only to teachers at the top of the pay scale so, including benefits, that would work out to "about $90,000 per individual," Frank said. "If you took the nine (teachers) and didn't replace any of them, you've taken care of a good part of the problem."
However, "Likely that won't be the case," and the district will replace some of the retiring teachers with some not at the top of the scale, Frank said. That would probably save around $20,000 to $30,000 per person, he said.
Frank said 80 of the district's 172 teachers are eligible for the retirement offer.
In a committee report Trustee Mike Welch said the board is looking at other ways to save money as well. Options under discussion include fewer bus stops, "pay-to-participate" policies for extracurricular activities, eliminating teaching positions, and publishing the Lakeshore Light school publication only online, he said.
Welch said the committee discussion of those possibilities "was very difficult. There were a lot of ideas put other there. None of them were pleasant."
Also Monday, the board renewed the contracts of all administrators and supervisors except for Kim Fowler, transportation director.
The board voted to keep Fowler's contract under consideration until next month. Frank said the move has nothing to do with Fowler's performance, and remains under consideration because Lakeshore and Bridgman districts are sharing transportation.
In other matters, Frank said that long-time athletic director Jim Sanford is retiring at the end of this school year.
Sanford actually retired five years ago, but continued on as athletic director under a third-party contract, Frank said. He'd been in education for 34 years when he retired, the superintendent added.
The board voted to recognize Sanford's "outstanding contributions to Lakeshore."
After the meeting Frank said Sanford has actually been working for a company that hires retired administrators, then contracts them back to school districts. The company pays their insurance and benefits, so Sanford's willingness to enter into that arrangement saved Lakeshore a good deal of money, he said.
Frank reported the Feb. 10 student count stood at 2,918, up slightly from the 2,915 students counted last fall.
Lakeshore normally goes down 1 percent from fall to the February count, so the results are encouraging "for enrollment in the fall," Frank said.
wast@TheH-P.com
|
