Few opt to retire early

So far, about two dozen (or 15 percent) of eligible employees have taken advantage of the new voluntary incentive retirement program offered by Culpeper County Public Schools, according to information presented at Monday’s school board budget work session.

The board voted 7-0 to approve the program, which covers employees 50 and older who have at least three years of service with CCPS and 10 years overall.

In all, 161 CCPS employees are eligible for early retirement. CCPS employs upward of 1,000 employees, including teachers, administrative staff and other personnel.

The deadline to apply for early retirement is March 31.

“All of the employees have been notified,” Superintendent Bobbi Johnson told the board.

At this point, the 24 to 30 participants would save CCPS about $60,000, if the positions were refilled with less experienced employees, according to School Board Chairman George Dasher. He added that another option would be to save more funds by leaving the positions frozen.

The move comes at a time when the school division is trying to close a shortfall of $5 million to $7 million for next year’s operating budget. CCPS, which currently operates on $72.6 million annually, will have a more concrete estimate once the General Assembly passes the state budget.

The school division is looking at a possible $2.3 million shortfall from the county and a deficit between $3.6 million to $4.4 million from the state.

“We’re trying to hit a moving target,” Dasher said.

Johnson’s budget proposal has called for eliminating about 80 positions.

At Monday’s meeting, board members continued to discuss other cost-saving options as well.

Bob Beard asked the finance staff how much a 1 percent cut across the board in salary and benefits would save the school division.

Lauren Thomas, budget analyst for CCPS, said $575,000, as CCPS pays about $57 million in salary and benefits.

Rusty Jenkins said he recently went over the budget with CCPS Finance Director Jeff Shomo and found a number of areas that could be cut without harming instruction, including seeding the football fields. “There are things that you can cut that may be dear to somebody’s heart that doesn’t cut personnel,” Jenkins said.

He also suggested eliminating the salaries for school board members, who earn $7,000 annually; the chairman makes slightly more.

“I’m fundamentally against that,” Dasher responded. “Not that it’s a lot of money to me. It’s just that if we take that out we’ll never get that back in.

During Monday’s meeting, the board agreed to save all 35 paraeducator positions and to avoid reducing 12-month employees to 11-month, and 11-month employees to 10-month. That move would have saved about $1 million.

But to find those savings elsewhere, the board discussed possibly cutting additional positions in core subjects at the high school level that would potentially increase class sizes and net $500,000 in savings.

The board will adopt its fiscal year 2011 budget March 15 at 7 p.m. in the county administration building. Then, it goes to the board of supervisors for approval.