All Knox County Schools employees may be eligible for an early retirement incentive designed to further mitigate budget shortfalls in upcoming years.
The district first announced this summer it would offer the incentive for teachers after nearly $8 million in funding was cut from its budget. Both the Knox County Commission
and the state cut back after the district had its budget in place, forcing administrators to scramble.Incentives like these typically encourage experienced, higher-paid employees to retire. The voluntary retirement plan will create future budget flexibility, district leaders say.
This new offer applies to "classified" employees, which includes staff members who don't teach and aren't in the administration but they support daily
operations.
If an employee were to qualify and take the offer, they lose their salary when they leave but will receive about $470 per month for a 12-month period after they retire to use toward health insurance.
"We're doing this because it will create some budgetary flexibility and also offer something to our classified employees to show them appreciation," said Jennifer Hemmelgarn, an assistant superintendent in KCS.
Hemmelgarn said she does not anticipate this will produce as much in savings as the teacher retirement incentive, purely because there are more teachers employed by the district. KCS has about 9,000 employees, roughly half of which are teachers, Hemmelgarn said.
"Most of the remainder occupt a variety of different employee types," she explained. "Where the certified retirement incentive impacts largely one position, this would impact double-digit numbers of employee types."
Here's who is eligible, according to KCS, if the school board approves the plan:
- Those who earned service credit with the Knox County Retirement Board or the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System
- Those with at least five years of service with KCS, with the last five being consecutive
- Those with 30 years of service with KCRB or TCRS
- Those with 15 years of service with KCRB/TCRS service and age 55
- Those with five years of service with KCRB/TCRS service and age 60
This is the first time KCS has offered an early retirement incentive since 2018 when the district was similarly looking to save millions.
The school board is expected to vote on offering this new incentive in October. Hemmelgarn will provide the full plan in October as well. The tentative deadline for applications is mid-January, with the final day to rescind intent to retire in mid-February.
How to get involved
The school board will meet at 5 p.m. Sept. 10 at Summer Place, 500 W. Summit Hill Drive. To speak at the meeting, call 865-594-1623 or register with Vice Chair Anne Templeton prior to the start of the meeting.
Caitlyn Meisner is the K-12 education reporter for Knox News. Email tips and story ideas to caitlyn.meisner@knoxnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox County Schools wants to offer early retirement incentive to all workers
