Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : School District May Shelve Its Retirement Incentive Plan : Santa Clarita: An administrator says that offering the program every year has made it a predictable bonus rather than an enticement.

A local school district may try to make its early retirement incentive more attractive by taking it away.

California’s Golden Handshake program improves the formula used to determine an employee’s pension in exchange for their retiring by a certain date. William S. Hart Union High School District has offered the program for the past eight years, prompting some to question if it has become a predictable bonus rather than true enticement to retire early.

“It’s our feeling that the savings are questionable when it’s offered every year,” said Bill Maddigan, director of business and fiscal services for the district. “If it would be known that it’s going to be there every year, in advance, it isn’t really an incentive.”

Board members Wednesday will consider a proposal to shelve the program for 1994.

In any given year, five to 14 certified employees take advantage of the Golden Handshake, according to Michael von Buelow, director of personnel for the district. For most, the program boosts their pension by thousands of dollars per year.

The Hart district paid $259,985 for teachers who retired via Golden Handshake in June, 1992, and $302,561 for those who left in June, 1991. Revenue is theoretically recouped when retiring personnel are replaced with less-experienced and lower-paid employees.

“The word savings, when used with the Golden Handshake program, should be put in quotations,” said Maddigan, a district official who questions whether the district is saving revenue or just giving outgoing employees a bonus when they already were planning to leave.

Upon retirement, the amount of an employee’s pension is figured by multiplying an average of his or her highest salary for three years by the number of years of service. The employee is given a percentage based upon age. Those who qualify under Golden Handshake have two years added to their service time.

Golden Handshake was originally created to encourage early retirement and was unavailable to employees 60 or older. But the courts ruled in the late 1980s that the restriction was a form of age discrimination and illegal. Critics say removing the age cap and offering the program repeatedly doesn’t encourage early retirement.

The Hart District Teachers Assn., which represents certified employees--teachers, counselors, administrators and librarians--is negotiating contracts with the district and has asked that the Golden Handshake program continue for 1993.

Jim Seely, chief negotiator for the association, said the program is good for both retiring employees and the district, but said the teachers group will pursue other retirement incentives for 1994 as a concession.

“The district has told us repeatedly they wanted to break the cycle of offering it over and over again,” Seely said.

Von Buelow said state legislation that created the program is scheduled to expire in December, but may be extended by the Legislature.