Schools

Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board Approves Early Retirement Incentive

Seventy-four teachers who signed on to the early-retirement plan will receive $15,000 each in their health care savings plans.

Anticipating the need to adjust its 2011-12 budget by several million dollars, the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district board on Tuesday voted 4-0 to enact a one-time incentive plan for 74 teachers who elected to retire early, at the end of the 2010-11 school year.

The district will pay $15,000 into the health care savings plans of each participating teacher, which will be at least cost-neutral for the district because fewer teachers will be paid at high levels on the salary schedule, district Director of Human Resources Tom Pederstuen said.

Pederstuen said he thinks there could be long-term cost savings from the measure, but because the district doesn’t necessarily know how much earlier than planned the participants are retiring, he can’t be sure.

Board member Art Coulson said the incentive helps the district financially, and also helps teachers who had retirement on their minds already and teachers who plan to stay with the district.

“We’re able to preserve some of the jobs that would have been lost,” board member Coulson said.

To be eligible for the incentive, teachers had to be at least 55 years old and have worked in Minnesota public schools for 15 years, or if younger than 55, have worked in Minnesota public schools for 30 years, Pederstuen said.

The board elected to consider the plan if at least 70 full-time equivalent teachers signed on. Coulson said the district proposed the incentive in past years but didn’t get enough interest in it.

In recent years, about 41 teachers on average have retired from the district per year, Pederstuen said.

The district will need to cut spending or increase revenue by $8.5 million to $12 million, according to a district memo, accounting for a state-funding cut of between 2.5 and 5 percent. State funding makes up 73 percent of the district’s general fund revenue.

About $5 million in jobs funding that became available last year will be applied to the 2011-12 budget to make up part of that total, according to a release.

Pederstuen said the district has begun to look at staffing for next year, but because of several variables—enrollment numbers, the courses students enroll in and staff leave time among them—it’s too soon to know how many teachers could be hired into the retirees’ slots or whether there could be layoffs, and if so, how many.

Coulson said while the district is doing better than projected budget-wise and cuts likely won't be as bad as initially anticipated, there will be changes in the district.

"People are gonna feel it," he said.

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A district committee started working last week on ways to balance the 2011-12 budget, and will release its recommendations the first week of March. The district has scheduled focus-group meetings for parents and community members for March 8-9, and will approve adjustments on March 28.

Board members Rob Duchscher, Jackie Magnuson and Mike Roseen were not present at Tuesday's meeting.

Find out what's happening in Apple Valley-Rosemountwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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