Rebel Media: Will we see a mass teacher exodus in Quincy?

Rebel Media: Will we see a mass teacher exodus in Quincy?

7 months, 4 weeks ago by Bob Gough

With the Quincy School Board voting Wednesday night to end the retirement incentives they have been offering teachers and administrators for years, that means the District could see a large exodus of retiring teachers over the next three years.

Assistant Superintendent Trish Sullivan-Viniard was already in the process of preparing for her retirement as the Board was determining their action.

Viniard’s previous contract was to expire at the end of the 2014 school year. With the retirement process under way, that extends to the end of the 2015 school year with 6 percent added to her $120,984 salary of last year and then another 6 percent in each of the two following years.

School Board members voted to give a window to those employees who, if they qualify, can file for the same benefit other employees have been receiving for decades.

Board members Jeff Mays, Scott Stone, Steve Krause and Stephanie Erwin voted to end the program for the administrators. The practice is listed as a memorandum of understanding in the collective bargaining process, so those four, and Bill Daniels and Tom Dickerson, voted to bring the issue up as a discussion point with the Quincy Federation of Teachers.

Melvin “Bud” Niekamp abstained from all votes on the evening.

Two Board office administrators are retiring at the end of this school year: Assistant Superintendent Christie Dickens and Jody Cooper, director of Title 1, Testing and Technology.  Cooper’s position will not be filled as a way to save funds per the deficit reduction plan the District is currently following.

Here are the administrative salaries from last year. 

Also listed in the administrative salaries is the $6,700 paid to former superintendent Lonny Lemon in unused vacation and sick time upon his departure. I guess the days he spent looking for jobs during the last school year weren't put down as vacation days.

Here are the teacher salaries from last year.

With this retirement spiff having been in place for so long, many teachers and administrators have already taken advantage of it.

But it's hard to picture any eligible employee who is on the fence not taking it before the window closes.