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Burlington Teachers Offered Unique Buyout

Burlington, Vermont - November 18, 2009

Third-grade teacher Sue Clark will be the first to tell you she loves her job.

"You can't teach without being passionate," she said.

But when she heard about the district's early retirement plan she could hardly control herself. The reaction was immediate.

"Yeah!! That's how I felt. I wanted to dance," she said.

Clark will retire at the end of this school year after 22 years at C.P. Smith.

The district is offering early retirement incentives to all teachers 55 years of age and older with at least 20 years of teaching experience-- 10 of which must be in Burlington.

In exchange for early retirement, teachers will receive 20 percent of their annual salary for three years so long as they work 20 days a year at the school after they retire; substitute teaching, working on special projects and mentoring new teachers.

"This is a unique plan," Burlington School Superintendent Jeanne Collins. "I haven't heard of anybody offering the financial incentive tied to giving days back to the district before."

"It would be painful, painful to walk away, so it's like a gift to me," Clark said. "I'm already thinking of projects I would have liked to have done but just didn't have the time or energy to do them outside of school."

The district is hopeful at least 13 of 80 eligible teachers will accept the buyout to a projected cost savings of about $200,000.

Burlington has seen school budget increases of nearly 10 percent each of the past two years and the goal this year is to limit the spending increase to less than 5 percent.

This is just one way the district hopes to achieve that.

"I really think this is a win-win plan because one of the difficulties of early incentive plans is you lose a lot of experience," Clark said.

Cutting costs and retaining experience by thinking outside the box.

The district hopes 13 teachers will accept the buyout but says a failure to meet that quota doesn't necessarily mean positions will be cut. Teachers have until December 21.

Bob Abbey of the Burlington Education Association said the union hasn't had time to review the plan yet. He says there are a lot of details that need to be worked out before the BEA endorses it, but he agrees it could be a win-win for teachers and the district.

Keagan Harsha - WCAX News