To help alleviate the Hollister School District’s budget
problems and keep young teachers employed, officials offered a new
retirement plan this year that 25 teachers accepted, and added up
to bonuses of at least $20,000 for the departing educators.
To help alleviate the Hollister School District’s budget problems and keep young teachers employed, officials offered a new retirement plan this year that 25 teachers accepted, and added up to bonuses of at least $20,000 for the departing educators.
The new retirement package provides the newly-retired teachers $2,000 for every year they were employed within the district, Assistant Superintendent Dennis Kurtz said. The bonus would be distributed to the retiree in multiple ways, including $2,000 each year or in one large sum.
To be eligible, the teachers had to be employed by the district for at least 10 years, making the minimum bonus $20,000. They had to be eligible to retire and had to sign up before a March deadline.
The annuity purchased from Keenan & Associates, the largest privately held consulting firm in California, should save the financially-troubled district roughly $256,00 per year, Kurtz said. The district would save $1.28 million over the next five years.
“It is something we will only do if it saves us money,” Kurtz said.
But with a district budget of over $45 million, it’s a small yearly savings, said district school board member Alice Flores.
“It’s a savings but its not going to knock in any dents,” she said.
See the full story in the Pinnacle.
