53 TEACHERS TAKING EARLY RETIREMENT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Thirty teachers in the Palmdale School District and 23 teachers in the Antelope Valley Union High School District have taken advantage of the districts' incentives to retire early.

District officials say the departure of these senior teachers - let go to save money, since they make more than younger teachers - should not affect staffing for next school year.

``I don't think it's a huge impact. We will have to go out and get additional teachers,'' high school district Associate Superintendent David Vierra said. ``The impact is veteran teachers leaving and being replaced by new teachers who will not quite have the expertise of those who left.''

The high school district this year was awarded a $350,000 federal grant to offer monetary incentives - such as signing bonuses, college course reimbursements and assistance in covering moving costs - to attract teachers to the district.

Teachers must be credentialed in a core subject area and work at Antelope Valley, Littlerock or Palmdale high schools, which are three underperforming schools, Vierra said.

Twenty-five teachers were hired this year through the grant, which offers incentives of up to $14,000 per person, Vierra said.

In the Palmdale School District, 65 employees took advantage of its Accelerated Retirement Incentive Program, including the 30 instructors, 21 nonteaching workers, and 14 employees who work in management.

Twenty-seven are leaving the district June 30, and 38 in June 2003, said Rick Grove, director of personnel services. Of the 27 departing this year, 12 are teachers, Grove said.

``Only 12 of them are this year. It's a typical year, it's not an exceptional year at all. I don't anticipate it affecting staffing at all,'' Grove said.

Along with the 23 high school teachers who took up the early retirement offer in the high school district were four management employees, said Jill Hilder, the district's director of risk management.

Vierra said typically an average of 15 teachers retire every year. Teacher recruiting efforts will be helped with the boost in pay approved by the board two years ago to help bring in inexperienced but credentialed teachers.

The annual salary for novice teachers with a bachelor's degree and a credential was set at $41,824, which at the time it was approved was higher than that paid to new teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Palmdale's program was offered to full-time teachers who are 55 and older and have worked for the district at least 10 years. They will get an extra year's salary, paid over several years starting five years from now.

In the high school district, departing workers will receive enhanced retirement pay on top of what they would normally receive, officials said.

``It depends on each employee. It's a different amount for each person. There were different ways of taking it. You could take it as fast as five years, or do it in 10 years, or it can go to beneficiaries,'' Hilder said.

High school district officials in February estimated that its supplemental retirement program could save the district $1.4 million over five years if about three dozen employees signed up.

Grove said he has not calculated the savings generated by Palmdale's retirement program.

The high school district's plan was made available on a one-time basis this past spring to teachers and other certificated employees who are 55 and older, have reached the 10th step on the salary schedule, and have been with the district six years or more.

The program also was offered to administrators and other management personnel who are 55 or older and have reached the maximum step on their particular salary schedule.

Of the 1,525 employees in the high school district, about 100 teachers and a half-dozen management staffers were eligible for the plan, officials said.

Of the 1,600 employees in the Palmdale district, nearly 150 were eligible, including 78 teachers and 19 administrative and management personnel.

The average salary of those 78 teachers is about $65,000, versus the average pay of $42,000 for a new teacher hired into the district.

One-third of the high school district's 756 teachers and about one-quarter of Palmdale's 1,011 teachers are not fully credentialed, according to state statistics for the 2000-01 school year.