New contract, rules lead to teacher retirements

Almost 60 new teachers at Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 took to the chalkboards this week after a flurry of retirements in June.

A change in retirement rules and the end of the district's contract prompted more than 40 seasoned teachers and administrators to retire, so the district had to hire heavily this year. The district has about 600 teachers and administrators.

The retirement wave is hitting other districts in the Northwest suburbs, though the timing has varied depending on provisions in teacher contracts.

According to the state's Teachers' Retirement System, which handles educators' pensions in Illinois, there has been an increase in the number of retirements recently.

In the average retirement season, about 4,000 teachers and administrators leave statewide, but this summer, more than 5,000 members retired.

At Northwest Suburban High School District 214, the wave is occurring over two years, with the brunt probably coming in June.

The contract expired this year, but it had stipulated educators could have one more year to reap retirement benefits under the previous rules, said Randy Hawley, associate superintendent for human resources.

Last June, 65 educators retired. But at the end of this school year, as many as 80 may retire, with more than half already having announced their plans.

In 2009, the district only expects 15 to 20 teachers to retire, Hawley said.

"We expect huge spikes in these two years," he said.

However, not every district will see a surge in retirees.

At Palatine-Schaumburg School District 211, a wave of retirements occurred in 2000, so there hasn't been a noticeable increase, district spokesman Tom Petersen said.

Last June, 45 teachers retired, but the number was much higher seven to eight years ago, he said.

Another piece of the puzzle is local demographics.

For instance, in District 59, enrollment in the late 1960s was more than 11,000 and schools were busting at the seams, said Kelley Zerfahs, District 59's continuous improvement and motivation facilitator, who's mentoring the new crop of teachers.

Now, the district has closed schools and the student body population is about 6,000. Many teachers hired in the boom years have reached retirement age.

But the major reason for the upsurge has to do with changes in what kinds of benefits retiring educators can collect, said Tom Luedloff, assistant superintendent for human resources.

Last school year was the final year District 59 teachers could take advantage of a retirement package based on the previous contract, he said.

In 2005, the retirement rules changes, increasing the minimum years of service to get a full pension by one to 35 if they aren't at least 60 years old, he said. Otherwise, it's called early retirement and educators must pay a penalty.

But the District 59 contract had not expired at the time the changes came down in 2005. So the old rules still applied until a new contract was in place, which began this school year.

This likely is true of other districts, depending on when contracts expire, he said.

"(The spike in retirements) is a combination of everything happening at one time," Luedloff said.