66 teachers retiring from two districts

Forty Connellsville Area School District teachers and 26 from Southmoreland School District have indicated they will retire at the end of this school year.

In Southmoreland, 17 of those teachers are at elementary schools, nine are in secondary education.

In Connellsville, the retirements will save the district a substantial amount of money as administrators begin work on the 2007-2008 budget. Business manager Gene Cunningham said a new teacher may earn as much as $30,000 less than a senior teacher.

Superintendent James Duncan said he and other administrators are assessing the district's staffing needs and may not replace all retiring teachers.

Duncan said the number of retirements is higher than normal, with more retirements anticipated. Teachers who have worked for 35 or more years in Pennsylvania qualify for full retirement benefits. Occasionally, the state offers a "30 and out" early retirement incentive. That incentive is not being offered this year.

However, state Rep. Peter Daley (D-49) has introduced legislation creating an early retirement incentive for state and school employees that, if approved, would take effect next year.

Daley said this legislation could open 10,000 jobs in public education and 4,000 in Commonwealth employment.

House Bill 230, which addresses school employees, allows those who have taught for at least 30 years to retire early with no penalty to their pension benefits. The bill provides two windows for early retirement, from March 1, 2008 to June 1, 2008 and from March 1, 2009 to June 1,2009.

Daley said the bill is designed to have no net cost to the pension system. It accomplishes this by requiring the state Department of Education to deduct an amount equal to 60 percent of a district's net savings from the district's state reimbursement and to transmit that amount to the Public School Employees' Retirement Fund.

Duncan said Connellsville experiences periodic age clusters of teacher retirements.

Additionally, the six-year teachers' contract is currently being negotiated. The contract expires June 30. Duncan said teachers who qualify for retirement may have wanted to retire before the new contract takes effect.

Besides the high number of retirements, the district received another benefit as it begins budget preparations: a $1.55 million rebate from Intermediate Unit 1. Cunningham said the rebate resulted after an audit of the district's 2005-2006 health insurance usage. Connellsville purchases Blue Cross insurance through the IU's consortium, which offers lower rates.

Cunningham said the district received $800,000 last year. In previous years, refunds have averaged about $400,000. The refunds result when the district submits fewer or less costly claims than anticipated.

Southmoreland

Southmoreland Business Manager Bill Porter said that most of the individuals who are retiring from that school district did so because of an added incentive in the current contract, which ends June 30, that will pay $10,200 a year for six years on top of their retirement benefits to those teachers who meet the age or years of service criteria.

"This incentive is not one that carries on with each contract," Porter said. "It was specific to this contract and may or may not be included in the next contract that's negotiated."

He added that this rash of retirements will save the district about $600,000 in expenses in the upcoming year.

"First, the district will be eliminating five of those positions through attrition, because the number of students we have continues to decline," Porter said. "Also, the cost difference between a new teacher and a veteran teacher who is retiring is about $18,000."

Peggy Tarasan, secretary for Superintendent Dr. John Halfhill, said the starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree is approximately $33,000; the salary for a teacher who has been with the district for 15 years, with a bachelor's degree, is approximately $63,000.

The district's good financial news will only last about a year, however.

"After this initial savings, things will pretty much fall into place the following year," Porter said. "We're still dealing with approximately 160 positions and if the new contract calls for similar costs (such as rate increases for salaries and benefits as well as Pennsylvania State Retirement System benefits), we'll be back to where we are now."

The retirees

Among those to date announcing retirements in the Connellsville Area School District are:

= Helen Auman, librarian; Virginia Beecher, Junior High East teacher; Terry Boors, senior high teacher; Karen Bradley, Zachariah Connell Elementary School teacher; Deborah Bronson, South Side Elementary School teacher; Clara Brougher, Bullskin Township Elementary School teacher; Barbara Casini, Bullskin Township Elementary School teacher; Elaine Chojnacki, Connellsville Township Elementary School teacher; Janet Cofsky, Dunbar Township Elementary School teacher; Sheryl Craven, Junior High East teacher; Jacqueline DeHainaut, Bullskin/Connellsville Township Elementary School guidance counselor; Elaine Evancheck, Dunbar Borough Elementary School teacher; Sandra Firestone, Junior High East teacher; William Fox, senior high teacher; Linda Galiardi, Zachariah Connell Elementary School; Dennis Gyory, senior high teacher; Lynda Hall, Clifford N. Pritts Elementary School teacher; Barbara Karp, Junior High East teacher; Paula Kelly, Bullskin Township Elementary School teacher; Earl Lancaster, Bullskin Township Elementary School teacher; Rosemarie Linney, Zachariah Connell Elementary School teacher; Sylvia Martin, Bullskin Township Elementary School teacher; Linda Miller, Clifford N. Pritts Elementary School teacher; Beverly Ondik, Bullskin Township Elementary School teacher; Holly Patterson, Dunbar Township Elementary School teacher; Odis Pletcher, CACTC instructor; Kathleen Powell, Dunbar Township Elementary School teacher; Dauna Prinkey, Dunbar Township Elementary School teacher; Janet Romesburg, Clifford N. Pritts Elementary School teacher; Linda Ruth, Zachariah Connell Elementary School; Patricia Sapanara, Junior High West teacher; David Stewart, Junior High East teacher; Sherry Stewart, Junior High East teacher; Linda Suter, Junior High East guidance counselor; Gary Wandel, senior high teacher; Christine Warmuth, Junior High West teacher; Patricia Yost, Dunbar Borough Elementary School teacher; Jeannine DeMuth, Junior High West principal; James Pallygus, South Side Elementary School principal; William Wilson, director of Federal Programs and Elementary Education; Kenneth Hominsky, truant officer; Homer Zelmore, maintenance employee; Joseph Ambrose, school police employee; Charlie Matthews, chief of security.

Southmoreland retirements include:

= Harry Bowser, senior high social studies; Debbie Cavalier, senior high English; Dennis Dunkard, senior high biology; Elaine Prudente, senior high social studies; Gretchen Shepler, senior high English; Dolores Vance, senior high Spanish; Ron Demagall, junior high math; Virginia Leczner, junior high guidance; Richard Smith, junior high art; Forrest Moore, elementary music; Carol Valentovish, elementary computer; Vivian Goslicky, Alverton Elementary; Joseph Hawk, Alverton Elementary; Howard Stock, Alverton Elementary; Karen Hermes, Ruffsdale Elementary; Charlene Stock, Ruffsdale Elementary; Connie Woods, Ruffsdale Elementary; Sara Beatty, Scottdale Elementary; Jo Ann Centafanto, Scottdale Elementary; Cathy Firestone, Scottdale Elementary; Bob King, Scottdale Elementary; Sharyn Kmieciak, Scottdale Elementary; Peggy Mullen, Scottdale Elementary; Richard Pritts, Scottdale Elementary; Patty Relovsky, Scottdale Elementary; Nancy Wood, Scottdale Elementary gifted.