Newton to discontinue early retirement program

The Newton Community School District Board of Education took the first steps in ending their early retirement program.

The early retirement program, which has been offered in the district for more than a decade, will not be offered after the 2010 fiscal year.

Superintendent Steve McDermott said the policy was used to encourage early retirement so younger teachers could be hired in their place.

“Many districts used it to encourage the reitrement of more experienced staff members to have younger folks hired and lessen payroll,” he said, “However, sometimes that policy encourages some of the top performers to leave and you don’t want to encourage them to leave too soon.”

The superintendent said the program has stopped being an effective tool in reducing the costs of salary and benefits and the board has kicked around the idea of discontinuing the policy for several years.

“Recent budget challenges maybe caused us to reconsider the idea (of discontinuing the policy),” McDermott said.

The board unanimously approved the first reading to remove the board policy at Monday’s meeting. The second reading of the policy will take place at the Nov. 23 meeting.

“I realize the difficulty with removing the policy is it creates a certain level of unfairness because people have come to expect it,” he said. “But if you offer it too many years it really doesn’t change retirement patterns in staff and it is no longer a benefit.”

In other business:

• The District Improvement Team will present findings at the Nov. 23 meeting. Members of DIT will present findings from their school boundaries study.

• The next board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 23 at the district’s administration office annex building.