Teacher Retirements Mount but District Expected It

At this month's two meetings alone, the has accepted the resignations of six teachers with a total of about 220 years of experience in local schools.

And that's about a third of the number of teachers who have already left the district this school year or plan to at the end of the year.

Nonetheless, it's nothing the district didn't expect. In fact, it's something being counted on from a financial perspective.

Superintendent Bill Gretzula said in February that the pending 2011-2012 budget included no overall increase in teacher salaries and that was based on the assumption that 35 to 45 teachers would be retiring during or at the end of the current school year. Those retirements and the subsequent hiring of teachers with less experience are expected to save the district about $1.4 million, business director Jack Myers previously said.

Robert Cardillo, director of human resources for the district, said Wednesday that the district normally sees 20-25 teacher retirements each year and is expecting more this year in part because of the rising cost of health care amid a recession.

“We have a fairly senior staff,” he added.

Thus far, he said, 15 teachers have tendered their resignations for either the start or end of this school year. There's really no way to know how many more will do so before the end of the year, he added.

“There's really no incentive to tell us early,” he said.

Cardillo said administrators have discussed the loss of so much institutional knowledge.

“It's a concern to us but we do have about 435 teachers,” he said. “We're just hopeful that our induction program and mentoring in the first year gets them (new teachers) off to the right start.”

He explained that each first-year teacher gets a volunteer mentor from among the staff members who are tenured, or have worked three years in the district. Each mentor gets a $500 stipend.

Cardillo said he is impressed with those applying for teaching jobs these days.

“Young teachers are more in tune with modern-day issues such as inclusion and differentiated instruction,” he said. “Older teachers can be set in their ways.”

And the HR director said he is optimistic of the future.

“I think we have a pretty sophisticated interview process,” he said. “We get the cream of the crop.”