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Early retirement lures educators through window
Sunday, June 06, 1999 By Eleanor Chute and Michael Logan, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
After 33 years of teaching in Penn Hills, Linton Middle School teacher and coach Joe Tuminella has had enough.
He's retiring Wednesday at the age of 54 under a state early retirement window that provides full retirement benefits to teachers with 30 years of service, regardless of age.
The Public School Employees Retirement System is expecting up to 10,000 school employees, including administrators, teachers, custodians and bus drivers, to retire by the end of June.
This has the potential to be the biggest retirement year since the summer of 1992-93, when 12,258 school employees retired under a more attractive retirement incentive.
Tuminella had once figured he'd retire at the end of the next school year, but he decided to move the date up a year.
"I've had a very full career," he said. "It's time. There are other things out there, other places to go," he said.
"The kids have changed over the past few years. Some of these kids have taken the fun out of it."
Students' behavior was cited by some teachers who will be retiring in the coming days, but it's typically only one of many reasons educators are choosing to leave. There are many reasons teachers choose to retire.
Some, such as Joe Frank, a teacher at Ingomar Middle School in North Allegheny, aren't tempted by the early retirement incentives. Frank, 62, is retiring after 40 years, which provides full retirement benefits, window or no window. He's watched lots of incentives pass him by over the years. Now he figures age and health are catching up to him.
"I've turned down a few windows and doors because I really love my job. I love working with kids," Frank said.
Without a special window, teachers can receive full retirement benefits if they have 35 years of service or if they are 60 years old and have 30 years of service or if they are 62 and have at least one year of service.
In addition to the early retirement window, some districts offer extra incentives, including cash bonuses and paid medical insurance.
Al Fondy, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, expects about 200 of the city's 3,200 teachers, counselors and other professionals to retire this month. "The retirements are due to demographics and due to the retirement window expiring at the end of June," he said. "Those are the two big factors."
Still, the new level of violence in schools has had an impact on some educators. Butch Santicola, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association's Southwestern region, said he thought school violence was a "contributing factor" to the high number of retirements, though not the only factor.
"There's a lot of stress in schools right now," Santicola said. "If you're on the bubble, that may push you to the other side."
Pat Parra, president of the Ambridge Area Education, said that while a majority of today's students are well-behaved, she had noticed a greater number have been more inclined to act out than in previous years.
"So many students just don't have the coping skills," she said. "They don't have the skills to deal with their frustrations, so they become violent."
While none of the Ambridge teachers said they were leaving due to increased safety concerns, Parra said a disproportionate number of the retirees teach at the district's junior or senior high school -- the age where most of the school violence and the ensuing copycat incidents have occurred.
Sixteen of the district's 20 retirees are secondary teachers, while four are elementary teachers. Parra said an equal number of elementary and secondary teachers qualified for retirement, which provided teachers with a $20,000 incentive available only this year.
Like many of his counterparts, Edward Bartosh, 56, an Ambridge Area High School guidance counselor, said he was ready for a change, perhaps managing a clinic or helping other teachers invest their money.
Bartosh, a 35-year veteran, said the rise of the two-working-parent family had been accompanied by unsupervised children who are less disciplined and more violence prone. "The bonding isn't there," he said. "The instillation of morality isn't taking place. If morality is not instilled in the child, you have something very dangerous."
Bartosh estimates that roughly 13 of his former students have committed murder in the past decade. But he hasn't been any more concerned for his safety today than when he started in 1964.
During his first year, "I had a kid who threatened to assassinate me," Bartosh said. "He wasn't thinking straight. That was the first and last threat against my life." The student later set fire to a local grocery store, Bartosh said.
Jim Klugh, a history teacher at Hempfield Area High School, said, "I retired because the system is different than it was when I started."
"The thing that bothers me the most is the fact that students today don't seem to have a sense of responsibility for their actions that they had before," he said. "The attitude is pervasive that the student doesn't have to achieve and that the system will put the student through."
Robert Matchett, 58, a music instructor in the Seneca Valley School District, said he had noticed the quality of students has gotten better over the years, not worse. "Every year I graduate a terrific crop of young people," he said. "My expectations of students are very high."
Whatever the reason for retirement, some districts have seen considerable staff turnover in the past few years. In Penn Hills, 41 teachers and one administrator are retiring this year, business manager Gary Koser said. The district has 446 employees under the teacher contract.
The district has had its own incentive since 1992, including paying medical benefits to age 65, or up to 10 years and a cash bonus of up to $1,000 a month for 36 months.
"We've had a ton of people go out," Koser said. "Well over half the staff has gone since 1992."
From a financial standpoint, Koser said, "It's a way to go and keep your costs relatively controlled."
In Hempfield Area, spokesman Wayne Johnson said the district would save $672,000 in one year because of the 36 teachers or counselors who are retiring. Last year, the district had five teacher retirements, and the year before the figure was 41.
"There are some great, great teachers who are retiring. It had nothing to do with trying to get young blood," Johnson said.
Here's a look at other retirements in the district:
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Jean Toner, director of human resources in the Upper St. Clair School District, said 13 had signed up for retirement, which features a $15,000 retirement bonus from the district. The sign-up period ends June 24.