Some Retirement News

Hi MLEA members,

A couple of things to think about this month, both related to retirement:

1) As per Article V Section 11 of the current contract, if you notify the District in advance of your intent to retire at the end of the current school year you'll receive a Notification Stipend to be added on to your base contract amount. Given the fiscal mess that we're faced with it's a real blessing to know what the staffing for the next year will look like as early as possible; to that end, the District has agreed to both raise the amount offered from $1,000 to $1,500, and keep the amount level until March--under the current language, it would step down a couple hundred dollars per month.

If you have any questions about this part of the contract, please give me a call!

2) For those of us on Plan 3, this is the month where you can change your contribution option either up or down. There's a form that you'd have to turn in to Lynn Paul in the payroll office; you can find it, and more information, here:

http://www.icmarc.org/xp/plan3/trs/contributionrateflexibility.xml

Happy New Year!

--Ryan--

I Hope You Had a Great Holiday!

It started earlier than it was supposed to, with the two snow days wiping out last Thursday and Friday (and the Christmas parties that were supposed to go along with them), but it's nice seeing that we have a week in front of us now to recharge, travel, and enjoy.

A couple of things that I'd like to share here as we go into the new year:

• A belated but enthusiastic congratulations to Courtney Strozyk and Linda Sexton, who received their National Board Certification when the scores were announced earlier this month. I'm glad that the hard work paid off for them!
  
  
• There were about 30 teachers who attended the informational session about the National Boards last month at the High School. I'm getting some blog posts ready to go about that process; you can look for them to roll out in early January.
  
  
• I know one of the concerns expresed at the meeting, and it's a legitimate one, is that the $5,000 bonus for achieving the Certification could go away given our state budget crisis. When Governor Gregoire released her draft budget last week there was no mention of touching the program, which I think is a pretty good signal. Things could still happen in the legislative session, but right now I'm feeling pretty optimistic about that piece.
  
  
• The weather prevented a lot of us from attending his retirement party, but all of us in the MLEA give our best regards to Bruce Ottmar as he begins this next chapter in his life. Thank you for all your years of service to the Medical Lake School District, Bruce!
  
  
• There will be another WEAPAC drive coming your way soon, because even though the Governor's budget protects the NBPTS bonus it goes after the I-728 money for class size reduction and (even more importantly) the levy equalization money (LEA), which for us is several hundred thousand dollars a year.
  
  Dr. Veltri and I are planning some joint communications to talk about what the proposed cuts could mean for the MLSD, which I'll post here on the blog. It's a critical time for our schools, and I'll pass on any information as soon as it comes my way.

Thank you for visiting, and here's to a great 2009!

--Ryan, for the MLEA Exec Board--

First Retirement Notification Incentive Date Coming Up

In the most recent Bargain we negotiated language regarding an additional stipend for teachers who announce their retirement early on; the exact language is on page 25, lines 24-27:

Employees who plan to retire at the end of the school year will be given an extended contract if they announce their retirement early. If the employee notifies the District with a letter of resignation by January 31st, the extended contract shall be worth $1,000; by February 28th, $800; by March 31st, $600; and by April 30th, $400.

Should you have any questions please contact an Exec Board member, or your building Bargaining Team representative.

Thanks!

--Ryan--

One more thing on retirement....

Have you checked out the retirement calculators that are available on-line? They're either interesting or scary, depending on how close to the happy occasion you are, but they are a thoughtful guide to how you're doing and where you're going.

To look up your plan you'll need to go to the Department of Retirement Systems website, here. If you follow the "Defined Benefit Account Access" link at the top of the page you can get access to the information for your own account; you'll need to register, but it's worth the time. If you'd rather not bother with the on-line calculator you can download one of the "self-estimate worksheets" and follow the directions.

For those of us on TRS 3 with a defined contribution portion to their plan, you'll also need to make a visit to ICMA Retirement, the company that manages all of the plan 3 accounts for the state. Again, you'll need to register if you want to look up your personal information, but if you have a ballpark figure of how much is currently in your account you can use the calculator here to get an estimate of what your monthly payout would be, how much you'll have at retirement, and the other big numbers that are important for planning.

It's also worth noting that the DRS does a great job of presenting workshops around the state to teach us about retirement issues; you can find a list of upcoming workshops here.