Districts Support Hiring Retirees When Needed

School districts collaborating on teacher recruitment and retention

Door County school officials are looking at multiple ways to deal with teacher shortages. One of those is a bill to allow schools and governments to hire back retirees and to allow those retirees to continue receiving retirement and pension payments.

The bill has the backing of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards and the Sevastopol School Board. Last month, the Sevastopol School board asked board member Susan Todey to contact state legislators to voice support in making it easier for retirees to come back to work to fill open positions.

Currently, when retirees fill openings or work as substitute teachers, they have to pause their retirement payments or quit working when they reach 880 hours, said Sevastopol schools superintendent Kyle Luedtke.

Todey said for years, governments and schools had concerns that retirees would take away jobs for recent graduates and younger workers. But there are times, like now, when it’s hard to fill positions. And requiring retirees to skip retirement payments often is a disincentive, Todey said. 

In December, Southern Door school board approved the hiring of retiree Glen Vander Velden, who was the 2019 Southern Door Teacher of the Year, and who retired that same year after 36 years.

Vander Velden replaced Seth Wilson, an outstanding teacher who resigned effective in January, said interim superintendent Tony Klaubauf. 

Kitchens Co-authors Hiring Bill

State Rep. Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay) hopes to make it easier for retirees with expertise to come back to work for a few more years. 

Kitchens co-authored the new bill led by Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Racine) and state Sen. Knodl (R-Germantown), that Kitchens said he believes stands a chance of passing. He expects the House speaker to assign a bill number to the legislation (LRB 2040/5421) in January. 

Kitchens believes it has a good chance of approval because it has safeguards to protect the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). 

The proposed bill calls for a minimum 75-day waiting period before a hireback. It  would require the employer to make full WRS contributions for retired annuitants and it sets up a maximum of 60 months that an annuitant can return to work. 

Wisconsin Association of School Boards pledges support of the bill to remove impediments to hiring retired teachers and staff. More information is at http://tinyurl.com/5n8tpxbp

Kitchens said some legislators still recall “double-dipping” scandals, such as one discovered in 2011. A University of Wisconsin-Green Bay administrator drew up a rehiring contract prior to a retirement, allowing a vice chancellor to receive a $130,000 salary and a little bit less than half that much in retirement payments.

Kitchens said it’s better to allow schools, when there’s a lengthy teacher absence or an emergency hiring need, to bring in a retiree with expertise rather than to have a substitute who simply manages a classroom.

“We have these retired teachers who would be willing to come back,” Kitchens said, noting that an employer could negotiate and possibly hire back the retiree at a lesser salary. “We’re trying to find a way to do it without damaging our retirement system.”

Districts Collaborate on Recruiting, Retaining Educators

In the meantime, school leaders are working to recruit and retain teachers and staff members who still have long careers in front of them. 

In the wake of teachers leaving and taking other jobs in late-summer and during the school year, Door County principals have been meeting and looking for solutions.

Southern Door High School Principal Steve Bousley said he and his peers have met twice and they decided to focus on recruitment first.

“It’s really trying to look outside the box because we need people that are applying for the positions,” Bousley said. “That’s half of the puzzle – the half of the puzzle I have control over, rather than salaries.”

Another piece of the puzzle comes from an increase in teacher turnover statewide. Wisconsin Policy Forum reported last month that while an average of 11.5% of the state’s teachers changed jobs or districts each year from 2009-2023, that rate rose to 15.8% in 2022-23.

Bousley said the principals discussed contacting Destination Door County and other resources for possible assistance, such as advertising or promotion methods that would reach potential teachers and staff who might not be actively looking at school-job posts.

“We have the advantage of having thousands of people coming into our county every weekend, and many of them have no idea that we have vacancies,” Bousley said, adding that many of those people who visit probably are saying, “Wow, wouldn’t this be a great place to live and work?”

Sturgeon Bay schools superintendent Dan Tjernagel said his district did not have midyear openings like Southern Door did, but high school principal Keith Nerby is collaborating with neighboring districts. Tjernagel said he’s also open to districts sharing personnel in high-demand positions, and he would welcome help from Destination Door County, Destination Sturgeon Bay and Door County Economic Development for recruitment.

The Southern Door School board received recommendations from teachers in October – and again in December from a student representative to the board – for retaining teachers, such as investing in higher salaries and providing retention bonuses at intervals.

Southern Door board President Penny Price thanked high school junior Ben Grota for the composition he read and said obviously he has had good English teachers.

“I know we’d love to pay teachers more,” Price said. “I just don’t know where we’ll get the money.”