Eight teachers opt into early retirement program

When school starts next fall some familiar faces will be absent in the Newton Community School District buildings. At Monday night’s board meeting, NCSD board members learned eight teachers have opted for an early retirement package, including two teachers who have 40 years of service to the district.

Board members made the decision to offer the early retirement package during a special board meeting last month in an attempt to fix the district’s budget crisis. The board opted to reopen the opportunity for early retirement, allocating $260,000 towards the plan. Encouraging older, more expensive teachers to retire helps the district’s bottom line, NCSD superintendent Bob Callaghan said, but he also noted there’s no replacement for the experience veteran teachers bring to the table.

“It’s really a benefit to students, that experience is hard to replace,” Callaghan said. “You have to weigh the loss against the benefit they provide to the students.”

Under the early retirement plan, teachers over the age of 55 with 10 years of service in the district are eligible to take advantage of the plan. Those eligible under the plan would receive a payout of 25 percent of their base salary. During the 2013-14 school year, 10 employees in the district took advantage of the plan, four teachers and six associates. All of the employees who participated were already eligible for retirement. The current retirement matrix requires teachers to reach a score of 88 or higher, which is calculated by the teacher’s age, combined with the number of years the teacher has worked.

As Laura Selover, the district’s director of human resources read off the names of retiring teachers she noted the number of years each teacher had worked for the district. Many of the teachers on the list have had long careers in Newton.

“Combined that’s a total of 275 years these people have dedicated to education,” Selover said.

For the eight teachers who have opted into early retirement, this will be their final year in Newton. Some, like Newton High School art teacher Ruth DenHartog and Bev Thomas, who teaches family and consumer science at the high school, have more than 40 years of service with the district. NCSD board president Travis Padget, a Newton graduate, noted on Monday that some of the teachers who were retiring were teaching at Newton when he was a student.

“I would like to just personally point out that there are three teachers on this list that taught when I was in high school,” Padget said.

Two members of the district’s classified staff also opted to take an early retirement package through the district. Both Betty Buckley, Berg Middle School secretary and Kim Hoskins, BMS custodian have been with the district for more than 20 years.

Despite the retirements of longtime teachers, the possibility of layoffs still looms large over the district. In January, principals were asked to generate a list of possible cuts, including staff cuts. All told, the district is looking to cut eight positions; one from each of the four elementary schools, three from the middle school, and one from the high school. While Callaghan said the district hopes to avoid layoffs, balancing the budget remains a high priority.

“We’re still looking at trying to keep our expenses and our budget for salaries in check,” Callaghan said.

Last Thursday, Callaghan said it was too early to say if positions vacated by retiring teachers would be filled, or whether those retirements would eliminate the need for layoffs, insisting the next step is finish the district’s budget.

“From my perspective, nothing’s changed since October, nothing changes until April 15 when our certified budget is released,” Callaghan said. “We don’t expect layoffs, we haven’t had layoffs in years.”

Contact David Dolmage at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or ddolmage@newtondailynews.com

Early Retirement

Eight NCSD teachers and two members of the district’s classified staff will opt into an early retirement package offered by the district.

• June Clute AH/EH LMC 24 years NCSD

• Ruth DenHartog NHS Art 40 years NCSD, 44 years ed total

• Ina Hubbard-Heidemann BMS sixth grade 32 years NCSD

• Laura Lengeling NHS Art 34 years NCSD 37 years ed total

• Steve Pearson, BMS PE 37 years NCSD

• Marcia Schrader, NHS Foreign Language, 23 years NCSD, 35 years ed total

• Bev Thomas, NHS, Family and Consumer Science 40 years NCSD

• Randy Young, LOC-ELA 14 years NCSD, 26 years ed total

Classified Staff

• Betty Buckley, BMS Secretary 23 years NCSD

• Kim Hoskins, BMS Custodian 29 years NCSD