The Pella School Board approved changes to their early retirement policy at their meeting this week.

Superintendent Greg Ebeling tells KNIA/KRLS News the board added some extra incentives to qualifying employees in the district as a cost-cutting measure.

“The general operating is what pays for all the different costs in the district: salaries, insurance, all of those things,” Ebeling says. “If we actually offer a retirement policy, we can pay it out of management, and that’s a different fund that we actually have a balance in.”

“So we’ll use management to pay for the retirement, which will free up dollars in our general fund, and that fund is the one that’s really squeezed.”

The new, one-year policy states that outgoing certified teachers will receive a set percentage of their salary and the option of paid health insurance for three years. Employees who have been with the district at least ten years and are at least 55 years old qualify.

He says the purpose is to motivate additional staff to consider retirement, due to an anticipated budget shortfall of approximately $750,000 next fiscal year. Ebeling says nearly a dozen teachers have already expressed interest.