District, teachers hash out deal

GLENDALE — A tentative deal for a cost-saving early retirement incentive was reached Tuesday between the Glendale Unified School District and its teacher’s union, officials said. The program was hatched as administrators work to cut down on the 112 lay-off notices they plan to send out by March 15.

More than 340 teachers qualify for the plan, which requires at minimum 70 teachers to opt in. District officials set Feb. 1 as the deadline for the program.

Total savings to the district depend on the number of teachers who take the incentive, officials said.

“The more retirements we have this year, the less likely the chance we have to do layoffs,” said John Garcia, assistant superintendent for human resources. “The timelines associated with layoffs are driving the deadlines for the early retirement plan.”

Glendale Unified averages 35 retiring teachers per year and officials said they hope elementary school teachers, more than single-subject secondary teachers, take the incentive. Administrators said they are preparing to send out 112 lay-off notices by March 15 with the assumption that they will likely need to fire half that amount.

“We would hope, in order to be most effective, we would have a greater number of elementary teachers [retire] because that’s where those 112 layoffs could occur,” Supt. Michael Escalante said at Tuesday’s board of education meeting.

The district may increase class sizes for kindergarten through third grade, which would cause a surplus of elementary school teachers for 2010-11, administrators said.

“If we go 30-to-1 [class size] and get 80 elementary retirees, we’ve got a gap of 32 there that we we’ve got to account for,” Garcia said. “It goes back to the reason for offering this, which is to give those folks who are close to retiring an incentive to retire in order to reduce any layoffs that might have to be done.”

The retirement deal could lower the number of senior teachers, who are most likely to be atop the salary schedule, which tops out at $88,000 without any extra duty assignments. When those teachers retire, they would be replaced with younger teachers who typically start with a $45,000 salary.

The deal also includes a provision in which retiring teachers may purchase health benefits for a younger spouse at district cost. The plan would discontinue when the retiree turns 75.