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031105 Economics and emotions
of teacher retirementBY ABBY LU BY
On June 30, 12 teachers will be leaving the Bedford Central School District. Of those teachers, seven are retiring with more than 30 years of teaching behind them.
For Robert Cooper, the district's assistant superintendent for personnel, the retirement of veteran teachers means a loss for the district.
"Any time you lose people who represent the culture of a place or carry with them the accumulated knowledge of a system, that system loses," said Mr. Cooper. "People who have been here a long time not only know about the subject that they teach but they have an expertise in an array of areas."
For the district, in the process of selling next year's budget to voters, rising costs of the state retirement system is a line item that sometimes needs explaining.
Bedford Central School District superintendent Dr. Debra Jackson said the teachers who are retiring in June are not the part of the retirement system that will affect the district's budget.
"The retirement system is much like the Social Security system," she said. "We pay into the retirement system, and then the teachers draw from the state pension plan, not from the school district," she said. "As part of our payroll, we pay into the state retirement system at the rate the state says we need to pay for our current employees.
In her budget presentation last week, Dr. Jackson described the soaring pension plan rates as "major budget hits." Bedford's budget for 2005-6 reflects a 315 percent increase from 2.52 percent to 7.9 percent, or $2.4 million. Part of that hike is because New York State has recently mandated an accounting change that requires districts to account for retirement funds on a cash basis rather than on an accrual basis. The other reason is that pension plans are not earning that much in interest.
"When money that's in the retirement system is earning greater interest, the state takes less from the schools," said Dr. Jackson. "When the money is not earning as much interest and they have to pay out to people who are retiring, then the state requires more from us in terms of future payment for current employees."
She said that given the current economic situation, the percentage that the district needs to pay for all current employees has gone up.
Mr. Cooper said the teachers who started in the mid-1970's could expect a retirement package of about 60 percent of their salary.
"It's a pretty good deal, but you've also been contributing for 30 years," he said. "You did it from day one to day `the end' as a teacher. You walked your way through, starting
in the low five figures - I started in 1978 making $11,000 a year, while my peers in business, law, medicine were eclipsing me in ways I couldn't even compete. Now that I went through this whole system, I have the opportunity to do OK as an old person." (His 2003 Salary: $ 111,722.73)
Mr. Cooper said that teachers get paid according to a state scale. "In this system, I paid into the retirement plan every year based on a rate set by the state," he said. "It's a specious argument that teachers are walking away with the house. Talk to me about 30 years of grading papers on the weekend when your friends were out partying. But teaching was what I decided to do, the life I chose." (Get out the crying towel-jpg)
Losing a part of the teaching community is not easy for the school community or for the departing teachers as well, said Mr. Cooper.
"Retiring is a tough decision for people who have worked in this district for a long time. They feel committed to the kids and their school, and for some teachers, it's been their life. Retiring is, in general, an emotional, life-changing event and carries with it a certain kind of vulnerability, a kind of end game."'
`Any time you lose people who represent the
culture of a place or carry with them the
accumulated knowledge of a system,
that system loses.'
ROBERT COOPER