Jan Dicker, a first-grade teacher at Sunset Hill School works with students in her class last month. Dicker has been in the district for 24 years and plans to take early retirement at the end of the school year. At left is Eliza Haase, and in foreground at right is Garrett Romero.

Jan Dicker’s teaching career in Lawrence has been filled with accolades, and now the Sunset Hill School first-grade teacher is planning to reap the benefits.

Dicker, 61, is probably best known for teaching 20 years at the now-closed Grant School in North Lawrence. At the end of this school year, she will take advantage of the district’s early retirement program.

“I think that the incentive package is wonderful,” Dicker said.

She qualifies for the benefit that essentially gives a one-year salary divided over five years until she turns 66. But because of the increased expense of offering the benefit, the district is considering some changes.

Both district administrators and Lawrence Education Association leaders have said the district needs to be smarter about how it offers such an incentive.

In 2002, 58 teachers received early retirement benefits, and the total payout was $639,118. This school year, 125 people are drawing early retirement benefits, which costs $1.6 million a year, including $498,000 in insurance costs.

Sixteen more employees, including Dicker, will draw early retirement benefits beginning next school year. To control cost, the district recently stopped allowing newly hired administrators and classified staff members to be eligible for early retirement benefits, but this did not apply to teachers.

Originally, the system was cost-neutral because as older employees retired, younger ones, who had a lower salary, replaced them, said Superintendent Randy Weseman.

But health insurance costs have changed that and made the system more expensive.

Reform options

Currently, a school district employee becomes eligible for the five-year early retirement benefit after working in the district 15 years. They must also have 20 years or more of credit under the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System and be at least 57 but not yet at retirement age under the Social Security Act.

For two years, a subcommittee of teachers, administrators and board members has studied the early retirement system. Its reform is a topic in the current teacher contract negotiations.

Under the latest school board proposal, teachers hired for next year would not be eligible for the old early retirement benefit. Instead, the district would pay monthly contributions into a 403(b) account. Employees could become fully vested after six years. They could also chose from various investment tracks for their accounts.

Teachers hired before last year would have the choice between the old and new plans.

But LEA negotiators said they were “floored” by another part of the proposal dealing with the current early retirement system. In calculating an employees’ benefits, the proposal would take away service time recognized under KPERS and instead factor in someone’s consecutive years working in the Lawrence district.

“It has never ever been said that there would be a proposed change in calculation to our early retirement plan,” said Dan Karasek, a Prairie Park School fifth-grade teacher, during a negotiating session on March 26.

But Central Junior High School Principal Frank Harwood, the board’s chief negotiator, said the proposal was only the first set of language to hit the table.

“I think we’re at the beginning stages of trying to take this philosophical thing that we’ve been talking about and putting it into practice,” he said.

LEA President Adela Solis said the group’s negotiators are working to maximize benefits for teachers. Many of the details still need to be worked out, she said.

“Obviously that’s a piece of it that LEA does not find tenable, and it’s something that needs to be resolved,” Solis said.

Looking toward the future

An Emporia schools administrator says her district’s new 403(b) plan has worked well for both sides. The district recently made a switch to pay monthly or annual contributions for employees who can choose an investment track for their accounts. It’s aimed at keeping teachers in the district for more than five years so their accounts become vested.

In the current Lawrence school board proposal, Harwood has modeled the language for the 403(b) accounts after Emporia’s system.

“It becomes a benefit to those retiring but also to those that have long-term involvement in the school district,” said Susan Hernandez, the assistant superintendent of business for Emporia schools.

Dicker, of Sunset Hill School, said it’s important to offer different benefits to teachers to keep them in the profession.

“I think that goes without question. If you look at the young individuals who are going into business, they have incentives to work for,” she said.

She also served on the Baldwin school board in the 1980s. She says board members face the challenge to provide the best incentives while battling cost issues.

“I feel like for the future we must offer teachers something,” Dicker said. “I think it’s going to make or break our profession.”