The Shaker Heights City School District has offered buyouts to 280 qualified teachers for early retirement.

Buyouts are voluntary financial incentives offered by school districts interested in saving money by limiting the number of experienced teachers they employ. Experienced teachers earn higher salaries than less-experienced faculty. The deadline to declare acceptance of the Shaker Heights buyout is Feb. 27. 

Math teacher Walter Slovikovski, who has been teaching at the high school for 38 years, said the administration would need 40 teachers to accept the offer to make it worth the time and cost. He said he is considering the offer. 

The buyout offer was made to teachers who have worked in the district for 12 or more years. English teacher Dr. John L. Morris, who is president of the Shaker Heights Teachers’ Association, has worked in the district for 29 years. Morris said that any educator who works under the SHTA contract, has worked in the district for at least 12 years, and is eligible to retire with a State Teachers Retirement System or School Employees Retirement System pension is eligible for the district’s early retirement offer. 

Morris said that teachers who accept the offer will receive a payment of $65,000 over 60 payments for the next five years. Teachers who retire will also receive their severance payment from the district. A severance payment is an amount of money teachers are given based on how many sick days they have accumulated during their career. 

As SHTA president, Morris said that he consulted with Superintendent David Glasner about the parameters of the agreement to ensure that anyone who was interested or eligible would be able to take it.

This is the first time in Slovikovski’s 38 years of teaching that the district offered a buyout. He said that buyouts have grown increasingly common in school districts in the country.

Morris said the Lorain City School District recently extended a buyout offer to staff. “I know it’s becoming more common, especially with schools that are dealing with declining enrollment and also budgetary challenges,” he said. 

Morris said that he has received generally positive feedback from teachers about the buyout. “I think teachers who have been interested in a buyout have come to the teachers’ association previously to ask about potential or the possibility of a buyout, so those folks were pretty happy,” he said.

Said Morris, “It’s easier to take a buyout or to offer a buyout than it is to do what’s called a reduction in force, which is a layoff.”

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