Manchester schools are facing a looming challenge.
Over one hundred and fifteen teachers are expected to retire when school ends in June.
That's more than 2 times the number that typically leave in a given year.
From Manchester, NHPR correspondent Brian Early reports,
Will Lloyd teaches English and American Literature at Central High School.
He’s taught for thirty years here and feels he could go longer.
But this year, Manchester is renegotiating its contract with the city's teachers.
And many aging teachers, like Will, worry that they will lose benefits if they don’t retire now.
(Will) The teacher's contract expires June 30, and I have idea what the new contract will be.
Now, Manchester teachers are paid up to ninety days – or half a school year – for unused sick days they have accrued in their career.
(Will) What they are going to do with that I don't know. We are told, that it won’t be touched. But I can’t take that gamble.
To receive these benefits, teachers must have declared their intention to retire by December thirty-first -- long before the details of the new contract are known.
But there are other pressures to retire sooner not later.
The state offers heath care benefits to retired teachers.
And many fear that fund is going to dry up in about five years.
With increasing cost of heath care, many teachers want a piece of that fund.
But to be eligible, teachers must retire and sign-up by July 2008.
Then there are teachers who feel constrained by growing number of mandated guidelines in the classroom.
Many feel they are just teaching to a standardized test.
And that, Will Loyd says, leaves creativeness out of the classroom.
(Will) Is everything going to be dictated to us as what we are going to do, where if you go to Amherst, NH and you're supposed be on the same page as Manchester. I sense of freedom taken away when there all these state and federal mandates.
The burden to fill the increased number of teacher positions falls to the principles at Manchester’s twenty-three schools.
Mark Willis, principle at the Southside Middle School, is losing nine teachers this year.
He says he’s sure he’ll fill those spots, but it will take time.
(Mark) With core curriculum classes, math, science, language arts, those things, you’re probably going to interview six to eight people for each one of those positions. With something like a family and consumer science, I have interviewed sixteen people to find somebody qualified to teach that curriculum. That’s a lot of time spent in the summer considering that we have a lot of other things as far as student scheduling that we have to due at the same time.
Manchester’s Assistant Superintendent, Henry Aliberiti, is also not too concerned about the exodus.
(Henry) It's a wonderful opportunity for the district to look at teachers that are entering the profession that have a lot of energy. And we are going to maximize that, by hiring the brightest and the best.
However, filling high school positions, is becoming increasingly difficult.
So says Judith Fillion, at New Hampshire’s Department of Education.
(Judith) There's a fairly deep pool of elementary ed certified individuals in the state of New Hampshire. We don't have that pool for physics and chemistry and math. And we certainly been facing this crisis for a couple of years, and we have anticipated we are going to lose a lot in this group.
School officials expect a similar number of teachers will exit the Manchester district next year too.
And with the state legislators contemplating tweaking the public employee pension system, aging teachers are nervous that their retirement could be less than they expected.
And that could push even more teachers to take the plunge into retirement.
For NHPR News in Manchester, I’m Brian Early.
