\t\t\t\t\tQuick Take<\/p>\n
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board unanimously voted for a voluntary early retirement plan after a six-hour meeting marked by internal discord and lingering fallout from layoffs proposed last month.<\/p>\n
Grace Chinowsky<\/a>\u00a0is Lookout Eugene-Springfield\u2019s city of Eugene and University of Oregon correspondent. She is working in Santa Cruz through the end of January.<\/p>\n The Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board unanimously approved a voluntary early retirement incentive plan at a combative, six-hour meeting Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan, known as a supplemental employee retirement plan (SERP), is designed to encourage eligible employees to retire or permanently resign by June 30. The district says the incentives will help balance the budget and mitigate cuts after the board<\/a> approved 160 proposed layoffs<\/a> last month, sparking outcry.<\/p>\n Trustees\u2019 7-0 approval, which came more than four hours into a meeting marked by near-constant infighting, offered a rare moment of unity for the PVUSD board, staff and members of the public in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ashley Yoro Flowers, the president of the local chapter of the California School Employees Association, which represents the district\u2019s non-teaching staff, called the retirement incentives a \u201ccritical mitigation tool\u201d to reduce proposed personnel layoffs, which could include all district mental health clinicians, dozens of teachers and more than 40 special education positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing resignations and retirements to occur before layoffs is not only fiscally responsible, it is operationally sound,\u201d she said, urging the board to approve the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eligible employees \u2014 including certificated, classified and management staff \u2014 must be at least 55 years old with five years of service.\u00a0<\/p>\n They must submit a letter of resignation by March 13, just before the state-mandated March 15 deadline for the district to issue preliminary layoff notices. District staff are working with union representatives to determine which layoffs are necessary over the next several months, PVUSD spokesperson Alejandro Chavez told Lookout<\/a> last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Staff who agree to retire early would receive a district-funded retirement benefit equal to 70% of their final annual base salary, paid through an annuity administered by insurance broker Keenan Financial Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n Projections presented<\/a> to the board show that if many open positions go unfilled, the district could see significant long-term savings, but if they are replaced, savings could turn into losses. PVUSD can rescind the SERP if participation doesn\u2019t meet the district\u2019s \u201coperational and financial goals,\u201d per the board\u2019s resolution, in which case employees could withdraw their resignations.<\/p>\n Trustees and union representatives said the approval was overdue, as the idea had been floated for as long as three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brandon Diniz, president of the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, said the SERP is \u201cseriously solid\u201d and expressed his hope that union members reap the plan\u2019s benefits. He said in December<\/a> that he wished the district had worked with the union on retirement incentives before approving the cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to work hard to make sure that we hit this number, because this is what we need, not layoffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Members of the public continued to slam the proposed layoffs, though fewer were in attendance than at December\u2019s packed meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a long meeting on Dec. 11, the board\u2019s newly elected president, Carol Turley, cleared the room, which upset<\/a> some people hoping to testify against proposed cuts. This triggered the board to hold another special meeting<\/a> to resume public comment days later. She also interrupted some trustees to tell them their comments were off-topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n She began her comments on Wednesday by apologizing.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a conversation with a trusted friend who\u2019s had many years of experience as an elected person, who offered some constructive criticism that perhaps I was a little heavy-handed, particularly with my colleagues,\u201d Turley said.<\/p>\n The marathon meeting also featured an update on school facilities upgrades<\/a> funded by Measure M<\/a>, as well as a student achievement report<\/a>.<\/p>\n