La Cañada school district extends early retirement deadline
La Cañada Unified School District Supt. Wendy Sinnette announced Tuesday the district has extended the deadline for the 35 eligible teachers who may still be interested in enrolling in its Supplementary Retirement Plan.
The original deadline for a decision was May 30, but Sinnette said Tuesday only 11 teachers had enrolled — just shy of the 16-teacher threshold required for the program to be financially feasible. The new deadline is June 20.
The superintendent said she was hopeful the extension would accommodate people who may have been interested in opting in but had run out of time. Due to the financial dynamics of the offering, the district will not be able to make a similar offer for at least another six years, Sinnette added.
In a May meeting of the LCUSD Governing Board, the district considered offering an early retirement incentive through the state’s Public Agency Retirement Services for teachers wishing to retire a few years earlier.
The district must approve the offerings soon, so that it may fill the newly vacated positions in the 2014-15 school year.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, Sinnette requested the district honor the deal for those teachers who’d signed up, regardless of the final enrollment numbers.
“We need to honor the program and honor their service,” she said of the teachers who’d already enrolled. “It’s not the 16 we required, but the plan proves to be cost-neutral.”
--Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Follow on Twitter: @SaraCardine.
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