Recruiting retirees proposed for savings
BY JESSICA SMITH
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE - Plans are in the works to help fund the proposed full-day kindergarten program.

Matt Sulikowski, chairman of the Board of Education's Strategic Planning Committee, on Tuesday shared ideas that include bringing back retired teachers in order to create a sizable savings for the school district.

A retired teacher himself, Sulikowski proposed recruiting retirees to fill in gaps left behind by the 50 to 60 teachers who retire midyear in the district each year. Since the retirees already collect pensions, he said, there would be a significant savings on benefits packages and other perks enjoyed by the average teacher.

"[It] is a big savings to the community," Sulikowski said. "I don't want to burden the taxpayers anymore."

The retirees would not get paid for holidays or sick days, and would be paid on a per-day basis similar to substitute teachers.

Sulikowski noted that he recently finished a 20-week, or half-year contract teaching industrial arts in Monroe Township. The contracts in Old Bridge would be for the same time period, and Sulikowski said it is a good way for retirees to stay active.

There are approximately 800 teachers and close to 1,000 employees in the district, according to Sulikowski. If 10 percent of the employees are retirees, he said, there would be a savings of close to $2 million on benefits alone. A normal teacher's medical benefits package costs about $17,000 per year.

Another plus involved with hiring retirees would be their breadth of experience, Sulikowski said. The retirees could share their knowledge and serve as mentors for the new, younger teachers, he said.

"When you climb the rope, the retired teacher basically knows every strand and every knot on that rope, so there will be less disciplinary problems," Sulikowski said. "They've climbed that rope many times. They've been there."

A referendum for the full-day kindergarten could be held in November. Costs were estimated at $1.75 million for a projected enrollment of a little over 700 youngsters.

At the committee's January meeting, Sulikowski and Superintendent of Schools Simon Bosco touted the benefits of full-day kindergarten and presented research findings regarding the logistics of the proposed program.

"The more education we throw at a youngster when they're 4 or 5 years old, the better off they're going to be," Sulikowski said.

Savings in other areas

Part of Sulikowski's plan involves creating 20-week courses for high school seniors. Instead of 45-minute class periods, they would be extended to an hour and 30 minutes. This way, the students could fulfill requirements in the first half of their senior year, thus opening up time to get a jump-start on college courses.

"This is a transition from the senior year in high school to college," Sulikowski said.

It would also create another avenue for retirees to take 20-week contracts to teach the courses.

Another savings plan presented by Sulikowski involves offering monetary incentives for employees to drop their benefits plans if their spouses have benefits through their jobs. The program would operate on a yearly basis, so that if an employee's situation was to change, they could always opt back into their benefits package. Each employee willing to drop their benefits for a year would represent a savings of $12,000, according to Sulikowski.

"You're talking a tremendous amount of money there, also," Sulikowski said.

If Sulikowski's plans are adopted, he said, the savings will not only help to offset the full-day kindergarten costs, but also possibly help to get the district's budget passed in April.