By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Opposition from the St. Louis Teachers Union has temporarily blocked an early retirement package the district wants to offer senior teaching staff.
The incentive is a $45,000 optional buy-out gradually paid out over five years.
But the St. Louis Teachers Union claims the deal has several flaws, and that the district should have sought union input before drafting any severance arrangement.
"This affects the employees we represent and this should have been negotiated at the table," said union president Mary Armstrong.
"What happened was that this was thrown down our throat you accept it and we're going to go through with this."
District administrators claim that next year's enrollment will decrease by about 4,000 students,to around 28,000.
Faced with that reality, the district says it needs to make budgetary adjustments, and the buyout offering would help by encouraging senior staff to transition off the payroll.
District Superintendent Diana Bourisaw said the choices are between early retirement or layoffs.
"We'd rather have staff choose the [buyout] option and get some additional compensation to transition to another job or choose retirement," Bourisaw said
The school board has tabled the proposal on two separate occasions. At a special meeting on Monday the board asked the teachers union and the district to go back to the negotiation table before they vote on the measure Friday.