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Light Rain Retirement costs increase to save money later
Two retirement incentives will increase costs but save money in the long run in the Oceanside school budget, according to administrators. These retirement incentives, which the board of education approved at the March 17 meeting and at the previous meeting on March 3, will drive the cost of retirement and sick leave payment from a projected $206,360 this school year to $863,515 in the 15-16 school year.
“It’s important to note that even though there’s a large increase in that line, the net savings to the district as the result of offering the two incentives is a net $2 million,” said Chris Van Cott, the assistant superintendent for business. “And that’s comprised of $1.3 million savings just from replacing certain staff, and then another $700,000 of teachers that will not be replaced. So $700,000 is attributed to attrition.”
Superintendent Phyllis Harrington said that in one incentive, 9 employees would receive $5,000 a year for 10 years toward their health insurance, while 11 employees that took the other incentive would receive a onetime payment of $35,000. The retiring employees are 17 teachers and 3 administrators.
The first incentive will be paid as $45,000 a year, while the other will be paid once in the 15-16 budget, which comes to $430,000. The rest of money in this budget line includes payment for unused sick days.
“The only time it ever makes sense to do a retirement incentive because you’re losing a lot of valuable experience,” said Harrington. “This is an incredibly fiscally sound decision. Because I can tell you that if we did not save the $2 million that were have evidence that we are saving, we would have had to cut a tremendous amount from this budget.”
Van Cott also stated once again that the school district expects to present a budget within its state-mandated tax levy increase limit of 1.56 percent, or $1.8 million. You can see the budget section that was discussed, which covers curriculum, instruction and student services, at http://bit.ly/1MYeSqe.
The next board of education meeting is on April 21 at 7:30 at School No. 8. A budget hearing will be held on May 12 at School No. 9E. The budget vote is on May 19.
