Retiree obligations have stranglehold on LTUSD
Source: LTUSD
By Kathryn Reed
Skyrocketing retirement costs are impacting Lake Tahoe Unified School District.
“It’s a half million-dollar hit. We will not be able to keep it going,” Superintendent Jim Tarwater said of the shift in CalSTRS and CalPERS allocations.
Certificated employees pay into the California State Teachers Retirement System, while classified staff are part of the California Public Employment Retirement System.
Billy Wessell, chief business and operations officer for LTUSD, gave a presentation last week to the board about what the governor’s budget proposal will mean locally.
“He really didn’t help us out in his budget,” Wessell said of Gov. Jerry Brown. He called the PERS/STRS situation “scary.”
LTUSD is contributing 12.58 percent to STRS this fiscal year. It’s proposed to go up to 14.43 percent for 2017-18. Today the PERS contribution is 13.888 percent. Next year it is projected to be 15.8 percent.
These percentages are of an employee’s salary that local taxpayers put into the worker’s retirement account. Those workers get a defined amount of money for life when they retire and have stopped contributing in any way to the district.
When investments by PERS and STRS don’t keep up with what those agencies have to pay retirees it is then up to member agencies via the taxpayers in those jurisdictions to come up with the shortfall.
Five years of increases for retiree benefits through 2020-21 is expected to cost LTUSD an additional $2,751,443.
How did the school board let this happen?
Remember Diane Sheerhorn and that bunch?
Don’t believe teachers when they cry poor. Check out these salaries below from the LTSUD website. It goes from $40,000 to $98,000 a year. They only work 180 days a year compared to the 261 the rest of us work. They don’t have to work any holiday like the rest of us. Then when they are done working we keep paying them. They are raping the taxpayers and they don’t care. The school board approves these salaries and negotiations are going on now. Tell the school board what you think.
Lake Tahoe Unified School District salaries for 2015-2016
YEAR I II III IV V VI BA BA+15 BA+30 BA+45 BA+60 BA+75
1 $46,082
$40,321
2 $46,085
$40,783
3 $46,086
$41,293
4 $46,087
$43,229
5 $46,088
$45,627
6 $50,302
7 $52,822
8 9
10
11
12
$46,085
$40,783
$46,086
$41,293
$46,087
$43,229
$46,088
$45,627
$50,302 $52,822 $55,338 $57,849 $60,364
$46,086
$41,293
$46,087
$43,229
$46,088
$45,627
$50,302 $52,822 $55,338 $57,849 $60,364 $62,881 $65,398 $67,911
$46,087
$43,229
$46,088
$45,627
$50,302
$52,822
$55,338
$57,849
$60,364
$62,881
$65,398
$67,911
$70,426
$72,944
$46,088
$45,627
$50,302 $52,822 $55,338 $57,849 $60,364 $62,881 $65,398 $67,911 $70,426 $72,944 $75,459
$77,929 $80,398
$50,302 $52,822 $55,338 $57,849 $60,364 $62,881 $65,398 $67,911 $70,426 $72,944 $75,459 $77,979
$80,448 $82,918 $85,386 $87,855
$93,000 $98,145
An additional $2,469.16 per year will be granted for Professional Teacher Increment 15 $75,413
21 24 26
An additional $5,144.65 per year for two consecutive years will be granted for longevity in years 28 and 29 28
29
Years 28 and 29 adjusted to reflect increase of 4.5% per settlement agreement (pending Board approval) An additional $1,680 per year will be granted for every Master’s and/or Doctorate degree awarded
from an accredited college or university.
For a complete picture the value of the benefits received should be added to reflect the total compensation received. That being said I feel the “days worked” comparison is not totally realistic. Our son and daughter in law are both 3rd grade teachers in Sacramento. Believe me their workload is not limited to 180 days, 8 hours per day. It is way beyond that as it is for many, if not most, teachers. An addition to their compensation is that they have the great pleasure of being ill with one thing or another brought to school daily by the students, one of the extra benefits of being an elementary teacher yet each year they go back for more. Kids are fortunate to have that level of dedication provided by most teachers.