Five teachers take early retirement incentive

Administrators to get pay hikes

Five Steel Valley teachers have accepted a beefed-up early retirement incentive package, the district said.

The board in February approved a package that would give teachers who agreed to retire by March 31 $30,000 a year for five years, or $150,000.

After the deadline, the early retirement incentive returned to what is in the current teachers contract, which gives teachers $12,000 per year for 10 years, or $120,000.

Teachers can take the early retirement offer if they are 55 or older and have a minimum of 15 years of service.

The school board March 30 approved a new administrators’ compensation agreement for 2015-16 through 2020-21 that will give district administrators who earn less than $96,550 per year a raise of 4 percent each year, and administrators who earn more than $96,550 per year a raise of 2.7 percent each year, superintendent Ed Wehrer said.

During the meeting, Shawn McCallister, president of the teachers union, said he had heard secondhand rep o r t s that weapons other than guns and/or drugs had been brought into the middle school or high school at different times.

He told the the board that teachers and parents should be told when this happens.

District solicitor Donald Fetzko said after the meeting that he had not heard about the incidents and didn’t know whether they had occurred.

In an email sent this week, Mr. Wehrer responded:

“We have robust security in place during school hours, and we infrequently have found prohibited items such as a pocket knife or a controlled substance. Stern, appropriate discipline results for those violations. Whenever something is found, we examine each unique situation to determine what needs to be communicated to whom.”