Teachers: Is There Really A Supply Shortage?

School districts are faced with a similar problem to Corporate America: budget cuts, and retiring teachers/employees. The loss of experience in areas such as classroom management, critical teaching skills, specialty languages, higher level sciences, math, special education and more is hard-to-replace. Some states find it difficult to recruit qualified teachers as fast as school demographics change and seasoned teachers near retirement.

The 2000 Minnesota legislative amendments relative to a teacher’s retirement make it possible for school districts to rehire retired teachers who are drawing their full pensions. Is it an easy process? No, it is very laborious and expensive.

You need a teacher now! Why is it taking so much time to get one?

• Negotiations! Meeting after meeting and nothing seems to get resolved. Getting everyone to agree on money, contract obligations, tenure and other issues stall the process of getting the teacher you need immediately.

• Writing the actual contractual language takes the combined effort of an attorney, the union, teachers and school board. Getting to the table and agreeing to approve the changes can take months or longer.

Teachers On Call is here to help!
TOC eliminates the expense and length of time it takes to negotiate through the legal process of re-hiring a retired or new teacher.
TOC provides an alternative approach to hiring teachers while providing a unique service to meet the fiscal challenges of Minnesota school districts.

As spring changes into summer, many districts are being faced with questions about teacher staffing for the 2006-2007 school year. These questions include discussions about rehiring district (or other district) retirees. In order to help deal with the process of strategic planning for staffing your school, I have included a MSBA article (July 25, 2003). It is quite complex and it varies from district to district. Below are several points regarding the employment of retired teachers that MSBA and the Education Minnesota staff members believe to be true.

• Retirees who were tenured prior to retirement and who return to the same district are immediately tenured upon reemployment.

  When using TOC services you are not directly hiring the teacher. The teacher is TOC’s employee and you can avoid the tenure issue.

• Retirees who were tenured prior to retirement and who are subsequently hired in a different district are probationary teachers for one year in the new district (three years in cities of the first class).

  Using TOC services would eliminate tenure-probationary issues all together, teachers can be terminated if the district is not pleased with their teaching ability without legal recourse or hired into the district when budgets permit.

• Continuing contract rights for returning retirees cannot be unilaterally waived by the local union; however, returning retirees may waive those rights themselves.
  Returning teachers would be employees of TOC.

• Retirees who return to work have access to all of the collectively bargained benefits in the same way as other regular teachers, unless the parties have limited those benefits in the collectively bargained Master Agreement. However, individual returning retirees cannot individually agree to any lesser contractual benefits with a school district.
  TOC services would pay benefits for returning teachers and they would not qualify district or union benefits. Saving the district the cost of benefits.

• Returning retirees are considered to be “new teachers” for purposes of seniority (when a teacher terminates employment with a district, he/she loses seniority but not tenure).
  This rule is contradictory and confusing. You start out as a new teacher but you maintain your same salary? Returning teachers should be paid a fair wage for their education and teaching skills, but is their old rate a fair rate? Should you be paying for days not worked? TOC believes in benefits. That is why we pay for days worked, “accrued” vacations and holidays. School districts, using TOC services, do not pay extra for these benefits.

• Unless addressed in the collectively bargained Agreement, returning retirees will be placed on the salary schedule pursuant to the provisions of the Master Agreement for incoming teachers.
  TOC pays the salary, which is agreed upon with the school district based on the skills of the teacher. Service charges for TOC are a contractual % rate agreed upon by TOC and the school district. The contracted rate covers benefits, background checks, and all administrative costs.

• Returning retirees must join the union as active members or be required to pay the fair share fee.
  TOC can collect and pay union dues if required by the union. Unions usually have a stipulation on the length of time a contract employee can work before paying union fees.

Save Money, Hire A Retired Teacher Through TOC
Teachers On Call takes pride in finding a professional educator for each specific educational setting. We have a wide variety of educators with various backgrounds in our database. TOC screens and meets each teacher for specific educational requests including elementary, secondary, language skills, special educational requirements, adult education and more. Whether you need a short or long term substitute or direct-hire educator, we will do our best to find the right fit on the first try. TOC can also fill all requests for administrative and maintenance through ASI, our corporate office. All TOC and ASI candidates must pass a thorough background check before they are referred to any school. TOC is fully insured and bonded to work within the Minnesota school districts.

Districts who rehire a retired teacher through their own school district should protect themselves as much as possible by:

• Entering into a modified individual teacher’s contract

• Negotiating specific language addressing the issue into the Master Agreement

• Using TOC services

If districts cannot do both, they would be well advised to simply not rehire retired teachers. The individual’s teaching contract should be modified to include language that states:

• The retired teacher has had the opportunity to talk with his/her attorney relative to waiving his/her statutory rights to tenure

• The retired teacher understands his/her statutory rights to tenure

• The retired teacher willingly agrees to waive those statutory rights

Language addressing this issue should also be negotiated into the teachers’ Master Agreement. That language should specifically address how the particular district will deal with the following points:

• Placement on the salary schedule (preferred language would state that such placement will be as mutually agreed upon by a retired teacher and the school district)

• Insurance benefits (again, preferred language would state that a retired teacher would receive only those insurance benefits as mutually agreed upon by the teacher and the school district; however, the district should carefully review the provisions of the particular insurance policies in effect to make certain that such a teacher is even eligible for coverage)

• Retirement/severance benefits (preferred language would state that a retired teacher is not eligible for these benefits)

• Leaves of absence (the Agreement language should stipulate which negotiated leaves a retired teacher can access or which ones he/she cannot access. Also, districts may want to negotiate language which limits particular leaves)

• Tenure (preferred language would state that a retired teacher has willingly waived his/her rights to tenure and that the district reserves the right to terminate his/her employment at the end of any school year).

Districts should carefully consider whether they wish to rehire retired teachers or not, and if they choose to do so, they should negotiate specific Agreement language addressing how these teachers will be treated in addition to modifying the individual teaching contract to be used. If they cannot do both, districts would be well advised not to rehire.

If you wish to learn more about Teachers On Call please click here to send an email and someone will personally contact you!

For more information regarding retired teachers please click on the following links:
www.sreb.org/scripts/Focus/ Reports/FocusRetiredTeachers.asp
http://www.mnmsba.org