WESTFIELD – 11-13 teachers will be taking advantage of early retirement incentives offered by the Westfield Public Schools in May, saving at least ten jobs, according to school administrators.
Altogether, about 35 teachers and staff will be retiring from the district this year.
“That won’t happen again for many years,” said retiring Superintendent Suzanne Scallion. “It allows us to hire replacements lower on the pay scale.” She said the district saved about $700,000 in retirements, assuming replacements earn on average $20,000 less.
DR. SUZANNE SCALLION
“That was an enormous benefit this year,” she added. She said that in a typical year, 12-15 staff retire from the district.
Scallion said that the incentives that were offered encouraged people to go out at less than the maximum benefit. A $15,000 incentive that will be paid out over two years was offered to certain teachers that qualified to retire early.
On June 15, the day that teachers must be notified if they are at risk of losing their jobs, eight Unit A (Teachers) were given non-renewals. Non-renewals are given to teachers in the first three years who don’t have recall rights.
Four Unit B (Assistant Principals and Supervisors) were also given non-renewal notices last week, but three have already been placed in Unit A.
No Unit A teachers that had recall rights were laid off.
“We had massive teacher retirements this year, unheard of,” said Director of Human Resources Jennifer Willard. “There easily would have been 10 layoffs had we not had all the retirements,” she added. She said the positions of some of those retiring will be eliminated, allowing the district some flexibility.
Both Scallion and Ron Rix, the district’s director of business services, said they were building in contingencies to the budget, which won’t be approved until the June 30 City Council vote. The Finance Sub-Committee has recommended an additional $600,000 cut to the school department budget.
