SMUSD extends early retirement incentive for nonteaching employees

By: NOELLE IBRAHIM - Staff WriterOfficials also weigh in on governor's proposed cuts to education | Tuesday, January 15, 2008 1:07 AM PST ∞

SAN MARCOS -- San Marcos Unified trustees voted Monday to offer an early retirement incentive to qualified nonteaching employees, with the stipulation that if the incentive is determined not to be fiscally sound in the district's eyes, the offer will be rescinded.

"If it works out financially where it'll save the district money, we'll go ahead (with it)," said Len Judd, assistant superintendent of human resources. "It has to be a positive for the district."

The incentive plan would credit "classified" employees -- noncertificated personnel such as custodians, clerks and mechanics -- with an additional two years of service credit to be applied to their retirement allowance if they retire voluntarily at the end of the school year, June 30. Between 165 and 175 people are eligible out of the district's roughly 850 classified employees, Judd said.

"It allows us to reward those people who've worked for us for a long time," he said. "It's a nice bonus."

Trustees must decide whether or not to extend the incentive each year, he said. The district made the same offer to teachers in October, and 39 teachers applied by the Dec. 31 deadline, said Judd.

"We didn't really expect that many," he said, describing the popularity of the incentive this year. "If it works out financially, it means we'll have to hire more people, but we have a lot of people who want to work for us, so it shouldn't be a problem."

The plan will be offered to classified employees who are at least 55 years old and have completed at least 10 consecutive years of service in the school district.

Employees hoping to take advantage of the incentive must sign up by April 16. The plan will be implemented if a study confirms that it would be cost effective for the district, said Judd. A separate cost analysis is being done for teachers and is slated to be complete within a couple of weeks, he said.

As retiring employees typically leave at the top of the pay scale, the district could save money by hiring younger employees with lower salaries, he said.

"It depends on who is interested," said Judd, adding that the district will not know how much money the offer would save until it analyzes applicants' salary, age and years of experience. "Office managers have a different salary schedule than maintenance workers. Some (employees) will cost us money and some will save us money, so we have to look at the overall savings."

The savings would come from the difference between the retirees' salaries and salaries of new employees, less the cost of paying out an extra two years of service credit, he said.

Though the plan was approved in a 5-0 vote, Superintendent Kevin Holt announced that the board has no interest, after this year, to offer the incentive again for several more years.

In other news, Holt and trustees weighed in on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal last week to slash nearly 10 percent of the funding for public education from the state budget as part of a plan to erase an estimated $14.5 billion revenue shortfall over the next 18 months.

"The only losers are the children who attend our schools," said Holt, adding that midyear cuts could impact the support, supervision and safety of students. "I hope the community will rally and let the governor know and legislators know how disappointed and sickened we are education would take such a dramatic cut."

Board President Sharon Jenkins said she found it ironic that the governor has touted 2008 as "the year of education" in California.

"For him to make the announcement he did, it's pretty astonishing someone could be so hypocritical," Jenkins said.

-- Contact staff writer Noelle Ibrahim at (760) 740-3517 or nibrahim@nctimes.com.