Brown County Schools will not have to issue pink slips to any teachers or staff members as the district prepares to close one school and move staff elsewhere. Enough staff members have decided to take an incentive to retire early.
In February, the school board approved implementing more cost-cutting strategies in light of declining enrollment, including the closing of Brown County Intermediate School. It will be remade into the Educational Service Center and house the Brown County Career Resource Center and a daycare/preschool program.
Current fourth-graders will remain in their elementary schools for fifth grade. Current fifth-graders will move to the junior high school for sixth grade, and the junior high will be renamed Brown County Middle School. The middle school will serve all the district’s sixth- through eighth-graders.
In the past 10 years, the school district has lost the equivalent of two schools’ worth of students. Further declines are projected as the county’s 65-and-up population increases and the child-rearing-age population decreases.
To keep the number of certified staff in line with the closure, and to avoid firing teachers, retirement incentives were offered to teachers and non-certified staff like custodians.
Superintendent Laura Hammack told the school board at the March 4 meeting that six certified and 10 non-certified staff members had decided to take the incentive to retire early.
The district needed to save at least $500,000 for next school year. If five certified teachers decide to retire, that equals about $450,000, according to Hammack’s presentation on the 10 year-vision for the school district.
If teachers and non-certified staff did not take the retirement incentives, reduction-in-force notices would have had to be issued to at least five certified teachers and at least 10 non-certified staff.
Three levels of incentives could be deposited into teachers’ retirement plans at the end of the school year depending on when they volunteered to take them: $35,000, $30,000 or $25,000. The first incentive round ends March 12, the second will be from March 13 to April 2, and the final window will be April 3 to May 1.
Hammack said last week that there may be more certified and non-certified staff members who take the incentives between then and May 1, “but we do believe most will elect by next Friday (March 12),” she said.
“We’re witnessing folks who are excited about next step, who might not have necessarily been in the position to be thinking about retirement this year, but the incentives allowed for them to make that decision … We’re so excited for those staff members who have worked so hard and are now able to enjoy that next step in their life path.”
At the end of February, current staff at BCIS were informed of which school building they would work in next school year. “I know that the schools that are welcoming their new teammates have been reaching out and making those new staff members feel welcome,” Hammack said.
She added that more transitions may happen as the retirements are announced and teachers in the district decide to transfer to any openings afterwards.
School board members thanked Hammack and her team for their response to declining enrollment and funding from the state without firing any teachers or staff.
“I know I deeply appreciate it and I know the rest of the board does too,” board President Carol Bowden said.
Board member Amy Oliver thanked Hammack for her transparency about hard decisions having to be made, “then finding just some really creative ways to do that that has the least negative impact on everybody in the community. We really appreciate your efforts,” she said.
“We all thought it was going to be really bad news, then you guys came up with a really creative solution. It’s not perfect, but it certainly meets most people’s needs and keeps us fiscally responsible. Thank you.”
Hammack said some of the retirees were announcing their retirements, while others were waiting. An announcement on who is retiring will be made this Friday, March 12 to staff.
