More than a third of the staff at Palisades Charter High School have the option to return to Los Angeles Unified School District this fall, but school leaders say they don’t think turnover will be that high. ‘I’m not worried,’ said Colleen McCarthy, the new human resources director. ‘I think people want to stay here. They love this school.’ LAUSD gives teachers, administrators and classified staff the option to take a five-year leave of absence to work at a charter school. At the end of the five years, they must decide whether to stay at the charter school or return to LAUSD. This is PaliHi’s fifth year as a fiscally independent charter school, meaning that the school receives funding directly from the state. Before that the school was a dependent charter school receiving funding from LAUSD. Until 2003, the school’s staff were considered employees of the district. Ninety-two of the school’s 235 employees were granted the five-year leave of absence to stay at the school. They will now have to decide by April 15 whether or not to return to LAUSD. A major concern among PaliHi’s 74 administrators and faculty and 18 classified employees is whether they will receive their lifetime retirement benefits from the district, McCarthy said. LAUSD has promised that after they retire, employees will have access to the same medical, dental and vision benefits they receive now. This health coverage is meant to supplement Medicare. LAUSD officials have yet to decide if they will give Pali employees lifetime retirement benefits after June 30, according to Amy Dresser-Held, the school’s executive director. LAUSD is reviewing the situation and will make a decision soon, said district spokeswoman Nadia Gonzalez. Because of the uncertainty, the PaliHi board of directors has set aside $1.5 million in a trust fund to offer lifetime retirement benefits to employees, said board chair Rene Rodman. ‘We want to ensure that they receive the benefits that they were promised,’ she said. ‘We’re managing the fund, and we know where the money is going.’ Obviously, the money is not enough, McCarthy said, but it’s a start for saving toward the future. Pali’s board currently purchases health benefits from the district and gives the district an additional $600,000 a year for retirement benefits. At this moment, the board does not know how the retirement money will be allocated to Pali employees. Dresser-Held said the district and PaliHi do not have a written agreement regarding the matter. School officials are working with the district to resolve this issue. As for the future, ‘Pali will either continue purchasing benefits through LAUSD if we have a clear agreement or will purchase them independently,’ Dresser-Held said. On February 26, the board will meet to discuss purchasing health benefits independently. The board will later vote whether to set aside the $600,000 for retirement in the newly created trust fund rather than giving it to LAUSD. Photography and yearbook teacher Rob Doucette, 61, said he had planned to retire in another year, but has chosen to retire this June while he is still considered an LAUSD employee. This will ensure that he receives his lifetime retirement benefits from the district. ‘It would have only been another year,’ Doucette said. ‘I don’t feel forced. It’s time.’ He has taught at Pali for 34 years and hopes to continue to work part-time at the school. McCarthy and Rodman said they understand why teachers who are close to retirement may decide to leave now rather than gamble with their retirement benefits. ‘It’s such a personal decision,’ Rodman said. ‘It depends on where they are in their career and their plans for the next three to five years. It’s hard to guess what will happen.’ Board vice chair James Paleno wonders whether LAUSD can even provide lifetime benefits because the district itself could be financially strapped in the future. McCarthy said she has heard that the money given to LAUSD for retirement, including the annual $600,000 from PaliHi, is being spent now for retirees. According to discussions she’s had with LAUSD, lifetime benefits are a $10-billion unfunded liability. The cost to fund those benefits is expected to increase from 4.1 percent to 20 percent of the district’s general fund annual budget in the next decade. ‘It’s a question of do you trust them?’ said Paleno, the boys basketball coach and special education teacher, who started working at the high school in 1981. He and Spanish teacher Ruth Mills, who taught at Pali from 1976 to 1982 and returned in 1996, plan to stay. They said they feel secure financially because the school board has set aside money for retirement benefits. They also agree with Pali’s educational mission. With fiscal independence, the school can directly spend money to improve the academic environment, Mills said. Officials have purchased more books, refurbished the library, hired additional counselors and installed bungalows for additional classroom space. If the school had remained financially attached to LAUSD, Mills doesn’t think those changes could have occurred. ‘I’ve been a big supporter of Pali going charter from the beginning,’ she said. Health teacher Susan Ackerman, who has taught at Pali for 10 years and is not close to retirement, has also chosen to stay. ‘To go where?’ she asked. ‘I can’t imagine why anyone would leave.’ Ackerman likes how the charter school gives teachers the opportunity to develop new educational programs. English teacher Dennis Danziger, however, is concerned about the vitality of the school and has decided to return to LAUSD. Pali has had three principals and two executive directors in the past five years, which is a sign of instability, he said. Danziger, who has taught at Pali for 12 years and is at least six years away from retirement, also thinks school leaders do not have a history of openness regarding the budget. He doesn’t trust them with his retirement benefits. In 2003-04 and 2004-05, Pali administrators failed to contribute money from employees’ checks to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System because of computer glitches. School officials put the money in a private bank account until the matter was resolved. Danziger said administrators did not inform teachers of this decision until a retiree asked why her contributions to CalSTRS were not made. Dresser-Held, who has headed the school for two years, said school leaders make decisions in a public forum and are always working to improve communication between teachers, parents and the community. Danziger and the other teachers who leave PaliHi will be assigned to a LAUSD school where there is an opening. Teachers can interview for open positions of their choice, but if a mutually agreeable spot is not found, the district will place the teacher, according to the United Teachers Los Angeles-LAUSD contact. In addition, the past five years teachers spent at Pali do not count toward their seniority status at LAUSD. Their seniority will be the same as when they left the district to work for the charter. This means they may have to teach a lower grade level. At this point, McCarthy hasn’t heard that many teachers are leaving. She estimates an eight to 15 percent turnover rate from this spring to next fall. In the U.S., schools typically have a 15 percent annual turnover rate, she said. Last year, Pali had a turnover rate of 10 percent for the entire staff. McCarthy plans to recruit at 15 job fairs and post openings on teacher employment Web sites. She hopes to hire experienced and new teachers. ‘I will be out early and be visible,’ she said.
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