Area school districts are seeing a spike in retirements and resignations, which many attribute to changes being made at the state level — including potential changes in public employee pension plans — the climate at local districts and the number of teachers eligible for retirement.

“I’m as busy as I’ve ever been in a spring,” said Dan Tarpey, Centerville City Schools human resources director, whose district had an 86 percent increase in voluntary departures this year.

These losses at multiple districts — including Centerville, Beavercreek, Vandalia-Butler, Xenia and Mad River — are on the heels of other districts’ escalated rates of retirements and resignations last year.

“We don’t ask our members why (they retire or resign), but until the (pension) legislation passes, there’s a certain amount of uncertainty,” said Nick Treneff, spokesman for the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. “We also have a lot of teachers at that baby boomer age.”

These retirements and resignations are a cost-saving measure for many districts, some of whom also offered incentives for early retirement.

For example, Springboro offered buyouts last year and adopted a practice of hiring in all teachers at step zero. That step pays $34,000, as compared to the top step, which pays more than $64,000.

Many districts are factoring this attrition into their budget cuts and are not hiring to fill all of these positions.

State’s influence

The state is proposing changes to the State Teachers Retirement System and the Schools Employees Retirement System that may result in more contributions and less take-home pay for educators, and could push the retirement eligibility age back at least five years for many teachers.

Kathy Dunn, who is retiring this year after 40 years teaching at Vandalia-Butler City Schools, said potential alterations to cost-of-living adjustments at the state level caused her to take a hard look at when she should leave education.

“I wanted to get things locked in before any more changes,” Dunn said. “They never used to mess with teachers’ retirement.”

Last year, there was fear regarding the changes Senate Bill 5 could bring, according to Tipp City Superintendent John Kronour. Tipp City had 17 resignations and retirements last year, compared to seven so far this year.

“I think the whole uncertainty with what could happen with severance pay and other things being way out of whack were just a concern,” Kronour said.

Debbie Baker, Northmont’s curriculum director, said there also are state-mandated instructional changes looming for the 2014-15 school year, which are causing some teachers to exit early.

“Knowing there will be so much change, with the common core and new standards, as well as the assessments, people just don’t want to deal with it,” Baker said.

Generational factors

Jane Gorman, a baby boomer who is retiring from Mad River Local Schools this spring after more than 20 years, said it was a good time for her to retire.

“I wanted to leave on a really good note, and I feel really good about what I’ve done,” said Gorman, who has worked as a classroom teacher and an intervention specialist.

A study done in 2010 by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s future noted that the oldest baby boomers, who flooded the teaching ranks in the 1960s and ’70s, hit age 60 in 2006.

The study remarked, “We can expect to lose as many as a million and a half veteran teachers to retirement during the next eight years.”

For some teachers, their ability to retire and their consideration for younger teachers played a role in their decision to leave.

“Last year, we were making so many cuts that a lot of people who really wanted to stay left because they knew they were saving somebody else’s job,” Baker said.

Impact on classroom

“Anytime changes are being made and people are not in control of the change, it can put more stress on teachers,” said Dunn, adding that class sizes likely will increase if these positions are not filled. “Instead of being able to concentrate fully on the students and what’s going on in the classroom, their attention is divided. It impacts the students in some way.”

Kronour said there is definite history and knowledge lost with veteran teachers, but there are positives to younger staff members also.

“It can be a career that can wear on you and needs high-energy people,” Kronour said.

Gene Lolli, Springboro superintendent, added: “Right now, the teaching field is saturated with great candidates.”

Gorman said she is confident that the younger staff will excel amid this loss of veteran teachers.

“When I look at them, it reminds me of me when I started,” she said. “They’re enthusiastic and ready. They’re innovative, creative and work together. It just makes me feel so comfortable walking out the door.”