Shoreline Unified School District will not have to lay off teachers at the end of this school year thanks to the acceptance by five teachers of a retirement incentives package. The move, part of the district’s effort to dodge insolvency, will save several of the district’s newest, youngest hires from receiving pink slips in May. 

“I’m very grateful for the service they’ve put in,” said Chris Eckert, who began a post as the sixth-grade teacher at West Marin School last fall. “I’m sure that’s a hard decision to make, especially if you love teaching. I’m not sure where we’d be without their commitment today.”

The five teachers who accepted the package by a Jan. 31 deadline are Sue Gonzalez, a reading intervention teacher at Inverness and West Marin Schools since 1997; Sandy Kaplan, a literacy intervention teacher at Tomales Elementary since 1997; Randy Wilson, a language development teacher at Tomales High since 1996; Loretta Smith, a kindergarten through third grade teacher at Bodega Bay since 1989; and Joe Nokes, a music teacher at Tomales Elementary and Bodega Bay since 2006. They will retire this spring and receive an additional two years of benefits under the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Adopted last month by the district’s board of trustees, the teachers’ retirement incentives package is one of two incentives packages administrators are banking on to forgo layoffs this year through attrition. Last August the Marin County Office of Education required Shoreline to pass a resolution identifying necessary expenditure reductions to correct its structural budget imbalance—much of which was caused by the district’s hiring of new teachers and staff in June. In September, Shoreline passed a resolution aimed at reducing expenditures by eliminating the equivalent of six teacher positions and a similar number of staff by the end of this school year.

According to the district’s chief business officer, Bruce Abbott, the costs saved through the retirements will exceed those that would have been achieved through layoffs. The updated figures will be factored into the second interim report Mr. Abbott will deliver next month, and should give the district hope that Shoreline is less in the red than previously estimated.

A second retirement incentives package is being hashed out for “classified” staff, or maintenance, transportation and administrative posts. Shoreline administrators and the staff’s union are still writing the details of that package, and a resolution to approve it will face a vote at the March board meeting.

Failure to address the budget imbalance by reducing staff expenditures could result in the county’s demotion of Shoreline from a “positive” to a “qualified” certification after an updated budget is submitted in June. If the district falls to “qualified,” the county could send in a fiscal expert who would make budget recommendations.

On Thursday, board trustee Jane Healy breathed a sigh of relief. Ms. Healy’s recent tenure as president saw much criticism, as well as the dawning of the district’s budget crisis. “It was very painful to be board president and have to pass [the layoff resolution],” Ms. Healy said. “Right now, I’m very pleased.”

Teachers were also pleased that their younger colleagues would not be fired, and were grateful for the sacrifices made by those who decided to retire. They and others within the Shoreline community have often butted heads with administrators and the board at previous meetings, and on Thursday the board was congratulated for its work.

“We met our goal,” said Lynn Armstrong, a first-grade teacher at Inverness School. “I hope the spirit of collaboration continues over the next few years because we do have a tough job ahead of us.”

Ms. Kaplan, the longtime literacy intervention teacher at Tomales Elementary who will retire this spring, hopes the district will keep literacy and reading intervention programs staffed after this year. She and Ms. Gonzalez at West Marin and Inverness Schools have accumulated 10 years of assessment data that shows a steady improvement in literacy and reading skills among Shoreline’s elementary and middle school students.

For her, the retirement package signifies a passing of the baton onto younger teachers at Shoreline. “We have some fantastic new staff that’s been hired in the last few years,” she said. “They’re the future for our students.”

Another plan

Even with teacher and staff retirements factored into budget estimates, the district still faces a deficit budget in the neighborhood of $500,000. Other options for closing the gap were discussed on Thursday, in particular a change to Shoreline’s inter-district transfer policy that would generate revenue from incoming transfers.

For the second consecutive month, Shoreline’s board has discussed whether the district should become a “district of choice,” a designation that any California school district can adopt through a board resolution. Since Shoreline is a basic aid district—meaning the vast majority of its revenue comes from property taxes—adopting the district of choice designation would, per each incoming transfer, bring to Shoreline 70 percent of the state funding that was given to the transfers’ original districts, according to state education code.

If Shoreline had been a district of choice this year, it would have received $225,000 in additional revenue from the state, Mr. Abbott said.

But state law also prohibits a district of choice from denying a transfer who might bring additional costs that would exceed what added revenue the state gives, such as special education students or students with behavioral issues. 

On Thursday, Tomales High Principal Adam Jennings and board members struggled to reach a consensus on whether the financial benefits of switching designations would outweigh the risks.

“One bad apple can really change the whole experience [for students],” trustee Kegan Stedwell said, referring to transfer students that may bring behavioral problems into the district. “I think it’s important to do some more research.”

Since the 2012-13 school year, only six transfers have been denied admittance to the Shoreline’s elementary schools. The high school has not submitted transfer-denial records to the district office, but Mr. Jennings said he recalled denying around two transfer applications so far this school year. (He did not specify why.)

Ultimately, trustees elected to postpone a decision until next month. Several other items on Thursday’s agenda were tabled, including a resolution that would reinstate former Tomales Elementary and Bodega Bay School Principal Jane Realon as an elementary school teacher.

The board also announced that four trustee seats will be up for election in November. District residents interested in running for a seat on the board may pick up a candidate’s application at the Marin County Elections Office starting in June and will have until Aug. 7 to submit it.

The board’s next monthly meeting is scheduled for March 12 at Bodega Bay School.