BOARD APPROVES GOLDEN HANDSHAKE.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Veteran teachers and administrators will be offered an early retirement incentive under a measure approved this week by the Newhall School District Board of Education.

About 10 percent of the district's 260 certificated employees - faculty and administrators who hold a teaching certificate - qualify for the offer that the school board unanimously authorized Monday night.

Newhall district employees who meet specific criteria can apply for the so-called golden handshake, made available through the state's Education Code, from April 7 through July 11, the board decided.

``We need to know how many teachers will go because we need to know how many to hire,'' said Anne Hazlett, assistant superintendent of personnel and instruction. ``They must have a minimum of five years of service and be at least 55 years old,'' Hazlett said, ``or they can be 50 years old and have 30 years of service.''

Participants who choose to resign or retire from the school district earn an extra two years of service under the State Teachers' Retirement System, the public education equivalent of a pension system.

The result of two added years of credit is that the new retiree draws a higher monthly payment, Hazlett said. A worker's monthly retirement payment is calculated using a formula based on his age at retirement and the number of years he worked for the school district, she noted.

Age 60, Hazlett added, is regarded as the ideal time at which to retire at the peak benefits level.

The golden handshake would credit a person who retired after 30 years with the school district, for example, with 32 years of service, she said.

Newhall can offer the incentive only if the payouts either would save the school district money or be ``cost neutral,'' Hazlett said.

``If the district is able to certify that there's no salary hit to the district, then they can offer that retirement incentive,'' she said. About 25 Newhall district teachers and administrators meet the criteria.

However, Hazlett predicted few employees would take the offer.

``Some of them are really too young. The hit you take if you retire early - before the age of 60 - is so significant that few teachers choose to take advantage of the incentive,'' Hazlett said.

The early retirement offer, she noted, has nothing to do with the district's larger payroll this year as a result of the extra teachers hired for the class-size reduction effort. Generally, younger - and thus lower-paid - teachers were hired for class-size reduction in the lower grades, while retiring teachers tend to have worked their way up to the top of the district's pay scale.

``There is no way that we want our most experienced teachers to leave the district. We hope they choose not to retire,'' Hazlett said.

The school board, Hazlett said, had pledged last year to offer early retirement during the 1996-97 school year - before the state government made available funds for public schools to decrease the student-to-teacher ratio to 20-to-1 in primary grades.

This is not the first time Newhall has offered the golden handshake, nor is the incentive made available every year. ``I would be surprised if more than two or three took advantage of (early retirement) this year,'' Hazlett said.