...AND SWEETER THAN OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS'

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993                   TAG: 9303260094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
...AND SWEETER THAN OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS'
For educators who plan to retire early, the Roanoke Valley is the place to do it.
Especially if you're Roanoke School Superintendent Frank Tota, whose contract promises him $35,000 annually for the first seven years off the job.
An informal survey of similar school districts across the state turned up no other deals like Tota's, and few that compare to the early retirement packages usually offered to valley teachers.
Only about one-third of the state's school districts offer early retirement benefits to teachers and administrators, according to the Virginia Education Association. While no information exists that compares those programs, state education leaders say they believe many have been one-shot deals offered during tight budget years, much like a one-time, early-out deal offered to state employees two years ago.
But those who work for the school systems in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem can depend on policies that offer them from 15 to 30 percent of their salaries for five to seven years if they choose to retire early. In return, teachers and administrators are asked to work on a part-time basis - as substitutes, in clerical positions or as consultants.
Tota will be paid 35 percent of his $100,000 salary for seven years, while he takes a new superintendent's position in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. School Board members are debating what work, if any, Tota will be called upon to perform in return.
A survey of Virginia cities with school systems roughly the same size as Roanoke's - Lynchburg, Hampton, Portsmouth, Charlottesville and Fairfax - shows none of their superintendents receive early retirement deals as lucrative as Tota's. Lynchburg and Portsmouth offer no early retirement plans at all.
Roanoke County and Salem do not offer early retirement deals for their superintendents that go beyond the plans offered to other school employees.
Charlottesville offers a one-time $2,000 cash bonus to anyone in the school system who chooses to retire early, while the cities of Fairfax and Hampton offer benefits that supplement the state retirement system. Those programs are available to all school employees equally and are based upon a percentage of an employee's regular retirement pay and number of years of service.
Some localities - such as Lynchburg - said they did offer their own early retirement packages at one time, but now rely solely on the Virginia Retirement System.
"It was getting to be a very expensive benefit," said Dave Terry, finance director for the Lynchburg schools.
But Gary Waldo, director of Commonwealth Uniserv, the local branch of the Virginia Education Association, called the programs "a win-win situation."
The programs give valley teachers a chance to leave a stressful job at age 55 and continue to earn a percentage of their pay while they wait to become eligible for state retirement benefits, he said. At the same time, the localities save money by replacing them with teachers much further down the pay scale.
"It's a way of saving money," Roanoke School Board Chairman Finn Pincus said. "Also, it brings in new blood. You ought to have a balanced staff."
Berkley Lucas, director of teacher personnel for Roanoke County schools, where about a dozen teachers retire each year, said it was also a cheap way of hiring substitutes.
The county developed its program in 1983, when Salem became an independent school district, because it feared having to lay off teachers, he said.
The county kept the program because "it proved to be cost-effective," Lucas said.
George May, a former School Board member who helped Roanoke develop its program in the early 1980s, said retired teachers acting as substitutes also bring more experience to the job than young teachers.
"They're known to the students; they know the policies and the procedures," he said.
Roanoke's program was created in response to a request from teachers who wanted early relief from a stressful career, May said.
The program has continued, he said, because "it's what they want and what we can afford."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB