Here is a brief report about Early Stipends in the ECASD in 07-08. There is a very comprehensive table with all the details that I will try to get posted to the blog by a more tech-savvy person than I am.
Maria
Documents Released: District Paying Out Millions in Stipends
An Eau Claire School District official says the district cannot afford to continue paying out millions of dollars every year in early retirement stipends.
According to documents News 18 requested, the district will pay more than 200 former teachers and administrators over $2.3 million in early retirement stipends this year alone. A complete list of those payments can be found by clicking on "Links" on this page and then “Early Retirement Stipends.”
Eau Claire School District Business Director Dan Van De Water says money paid out for stipends comes straight out of the budget every year. He says that cost is unsustainable.
Van De Water says the district is putting an end to the practice. Teachers hired after July 2004 and administrators hired after July 2008 will no longer receive the stipends in their contracts.
However, the district is contractually obligated to pay out tens of millions of dollars to current employees, who do have the stipends in their contracts. Van De Water says the district could still be paying out the stipends for years to come.
Updated: April 30, 2008, 8:55 pm
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The key word from VandeWater is "unsustainable". If something we are contractually obligated to is unsustainable, then what? Bankruptcy to eliminate the obligation? When we say we are in dire need of a referendum, it is really just to cover stipends for the next 25 years. Unbelievable.
Here is news story from Beloit illustrating the theory of early retirement stipends
I agree it does not work in Eau Claire:
Turner sought retirements, got ‘em
By Ashley Rhodebeck
Daily News staff writer
One-fourth of high school teachers taking incentive plan
An incentive package offered to educators retiring at the end of this school year prompted about one-fourth of Beloit Turner High School's teachers to step down, leaving the district in a win-win, albeit scary, situation, the superintendent said.
Upon ratifying the 2007-08 and 2008-09 teachers contract in January, the union accepted the School District of Beloit Turner's retirement stipend offer that would give retirees $11,000 per year for four years (two more could be purchased with unused sick leave) instead of $6,500. Those retiring at the end of next year would receive $8,000 per year.
District officials offered the incentive knowing it may prompt more teachers than usual to retire, but it would give them a way to free up money to hire more teachers.
What they foresaw came true.
Without the incentive, Superintendent Dennis McCarthy predicted no more than two would have retired.
Of the 14 teachers eligible for retirement, seven will at the high school, he said, noting officials figured they would need five or six to retire in order to pay for the incentive and be able to hire more staff.
“You have to find a way to pay for new positions when you have a growing enrollment like this,” McCarthy said.
Enrollment is expected to steadily increase within the next decade, peaking at 1,620 students for the 2014-15 school year, a district study found. This year there was a 32 student increase.
The departing teachers made about $58,343 this year and would have earned more than $59,000 next year. Of the six replacements the district has hired thus far, the most any of them will make is about $33,600, McCarthy said.
The savings will pay for the incentive offer and new teaching positions, such as a fifth fifth-grade teacher at Townview Elementary and a speech and language educator at Powers Elementary. Depending on enrollment, the district will hire between one and two teachers for 4-year-old kindergarten, which will debut at Turner in the fall.
McCarthy recognized losing seven teachers with 244 years of combined experience will have a significant impact on Turner High, which employs about 30 educators. Many of the retirees served as coaches or activity advisors, so the remaining educators and replacements will have to fill those roles, too.
“It's exciting but a little scary to lose that much experience,” McCarthy said, calling the situation a win-win because the retirees can move to a new chapter of their lives while the district can realign its budget and finances to catch up with staffing issues and class sizes.
Because the school system began hiring replacements earlier than most districts, administrators said they had a better selection of candidates.
Even so, of the six hired, one has one year of teaching experience while the rest will be first-year teachers. Thus, McCarthy said, district staff will work harder with those teachers and will try to pair them with experienced teachers who would act as good mentors.
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