The deadline is fast approaching for Palisades Charter High School employees to decide whether to return to the Los Angeles School District. More than a third of the current teachers were granted a five-year leave of absence from LAUSD to work at the charter school, and they must decide by April 30 where they plan to work this fall. A major factor influencing the 92 employees’ decision is whether they will receive their lifetime retirement benefits from the district if they choose to stay, said Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held. The district has promised employees they will have the same access to dental, vision and medical benefits they receive now in retirement. LAUSD representatives, however, have not indicated whether Palisades High employees will be eligible for those benefits after this spring. In 2003, Palisades High separated from the district as a fiscally independent charter school and began receiving funding directly from the state instead of through LAUSD. The school, however, gives the district more than $700,000 annually or about $3,900 per working employee for retirement benefits and that money is placed in a pool and used for current retirees, Dresser-Held said. Pali officials don’t know if they can continue to purchase retirement benefits through the district, she said. ‘We’re hopeful that at a minimum we will have a one-year extension, so we can talk about how to deal with this in the long-run,’ Dresser-Held said. Along with Palisades High, employees from three other conversion charter schools, including Granada Hills Charter High School, can return to LAUSD and are also waiting for a response about retirement benefits. In the meantime, PaliHi’s board of directors has set aside $1.5 million for lifetime retirement benefits in a trust fund. ‘We’ve taken a proactive approach to prepare,’ Dresser-Held said. ‘For those folks close to retirement, this is a hard decision and a tense time. Pali has committed to covering folks, and we don’t want lifetime benefits to be the sole determinant.’ School officials are also considering buying health insurance for their 186 eligible employees separate from the district. The school currently gives LAUSD $1.6 million or approximately $8,600 per eligible employee for health insurance. If the school purchases its own healthcare benefits, it will cost about $180,000 more per year but the benefits packages would be similar, said Chief Business Officer Gregory Wood. ‘It’s more expensive on our own than through the district because we are a smaller organization with not as much purchasing power,’ Dresser-Held said. Human Resources Director Colleen McCarthy said she distributed a survey asking employees to indicate their plans. Fifty-five employees returned surveys, and four indicated that they might leave. ‘We understand they must do what’s best for them and their families,’ Dresser-Held said. ‘My general impression is most want to stay. It will be a relatively small group who will leave.’ To prepare for any turnover, McCarthy has attended 10 job fairs and collected 145 resumes across every department. ‘They are all qualified, credentialed teachers or will be credentialed this June,’ she said. ‘It’s a really nice mix of experienced and new teachers who are excited to have their own classes.’ English teacher Dennis Danziger, who has been the most vocal employee about leaving Pali, wrote in a letter to his colleagues and the Palisadian-Post that he feels sad to leave the school, where he loves to teach, but is concerned about his lifetime retirement benefits. Danziger’s mother-in-law, a former public school teacher, was stricken with Alzheimer’s 16 years ago and without her retirement benefits couldn’t afford her care. ‘I’m not going to roll the dice with PaliHi,’ Danziger wrote. ‘I’m not going to convince myself that earning a few thousand extra dollars a year while I teach here is more valuable or precious than a decent medical benefit package that LAUSD provides.’
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