Teachers weigh risk vs. need for pay
Christy Karwatt teaches social studies, but she has been thinking more like a math teacher the last few days.
The Sarasota High teacher is over 60 and is entering her 27th year in Florida’s retirement system, and she loves her job. She had planned on teaching three more years to maximize her retirement payment.
But as COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the state and the country, officials are pouring on pressure to reopen schools full time this fall.
On Monday, Florida’s education commissioner ordered the state’s schools to open full time in August. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos on Tuesday criticized plans to offer in-person instruction only a few days a week. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reworking its guidance on reopening schools after President Donald Trump thought the guidelines were too tough.
In the meantime, Karwatt has begun crunching the numbers on just how much money she would sacrifice if she retired early.
“I’m at an age where I am scared for my life,” she said. “What good is money if you are sick or dead?”
But other questions nag at Karwatt. What if she opts to retire early, but then schools are closed, and she would have been teaching from the safety of her own home? What if she returns, only to catch COVID-19, and has to retire early anyway, or worse?
As directives shift, teachers like Karwatt are desperately trying to figure out what the next school year will look like and if it is worth returning to potentially dangerous classrooms or if they should walk away from a job that many view as a calling.
“I will probably wait until the last minute to make a decision,” Karwatt said. “I think that is how everybody is.”
“Am I going to look at my students,” asked Sarasota High teacher Mary
Dearment, 59, “as if they are potentially going to kill me,” or even kill her 92year-old mother? “I hate that,” she said Tuesday.
Only a third of U.S. principals, in fact, feel confident in their school’s chance to “preserve the health of staff and students” when schools reopen in the fall, according to a poll released Wednesday by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Sarasota County School District officials still do not know how many teachers will opt not to return this year. Chief Academic Officer Laura Kingsley said on Tuesday that it is a work in progress.
She said the district wants to keep its most vulnerable teachers safe, but remote teaching assignments will be determined largely by the certifications a teacher holds and which students want remote instruction.
Although the risks are apparent, many teachers said they are looking at the fiscal realities as closely as they are considering the health risks. After meeting with her financial planner on Tuesday, Dearment had her answer.
“I cannot afford either retirement or leave of absence,” she said in a text message. “I will be returning to school in August. May invest in a hazmat suit.”
Contributing: Susan Page, Maureen Groppe and Erin Richards