MANCHESTER — A longstanding provision in the contracts of Manchester Essex Regional School District teachers entitles retiring teachers who notify the district at least a year before they retire to an extra 25 percent of their salary for their final year on the job.
This extra boost is described as a "bonus," and is the subject of projected fiscal 2013 budget funding line as a "retirement incentive."
But Schools Superintendent Pam Beaudoin said the provision "is a legacy component of the contract."
"It looks like it's been in the (teachers) contract since before the regional district was created," she said Monday.
Beaudoin said three teachers had notified the district by the Dec. 1 deadline that they intended to retire, and so the district plans to spend $60,000 on retirement incentives for fiscal 2013, which begins next July 1.
Beaudoin also said that only two employees had filed for the benefit in the two years prior.
The incentive budget line is part of a preliminary $21.2 million fiscal 2013 budget proposal that is projected to carry a 5.7 percent increase to the costs of each of the district towns of Essex and Manchester.
But Manchester Essex Teachers' Association president Jeff Bodmer-Turner said Monday the incentive helps the district plan for the budget more efficiently for the coming year by encouraging teachers who plan to retire to inform the district early in the year.
"It establishes the ability to plan the budget," said Bodmer-Turner. Without the benefit, he said, the budget "wouldn't be able to be done in an orderly way."
Last-minute vacancies make organizing the school system more difficult, as the hiring process for new teachers can be time-consuming and the need for a new teacher has a firm deadline of the beginning of a new school year, he indicated. Vacancies must be posted to the teachers association at least 15 days before the application deadline in order to give existing teachers the chance to apply to move into the vacant spot, according to the existing contract.
The incentives do more than allow the district to get its ducks in a row, according to Bodmer-Turner. The incentives are also meant to open up new positions, Bodmer-Turner said.
"It is less expensive to hire new people than to maintain the people who are already in place," he said.
Other schools have used that logic to institute their own retirement incentive programs, though those are targeted plans to free up a given number of positions, not a standard option given to each teacher at all times. At Manchester Essex, however, the retirement incentives are not a reaction to the need to reduce costs in a given year but a permanent benefit.
The pay bumps are not pensionable, according to Beaudoin, meaning that, while the teachers involved make a higher salary during their final year, the increase does not qualify them for a pension based on that pay level.
The contracts for district employees were negotiated for fiscal 2008 to 2011, with a continuation for fiscal 2012, which began last July 1 and runs through June 30.
The existing contract may be continued for another year, or the teachers association and district could return to the negotiating table.
Stephanie Bergman can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3451, or at sbergman@gloucestertimes.com.
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