Retired educators rehired by Atlanta Public Schools to work well-paid central office jobs will be fired by the district in a cost-cutting move intended to weed out wasteful positions.
Superintendent Erroll Davis ordered the firing of about 70 retirees, some who earn handsome hourly wages out-of-step with the district's salary scale. Contracts for the retirees will be terminated Oct. 31 and could amount to $1.7 million in annual savings, the equivalent of one furlough day.
Almost half of the targeted positions fall under the office of former Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Kathy Augustine, a key figure in the state's test-cheating scandal, and some worked as assistants to major players in the investigation. Critics say some positions are evidence of the district's culture of cronyism.
“Returning will not be a reward for having worked here,” Davis said.
According to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request, educators who retired as principals returned to the district in ill-defined central office jobs such as "administrator" earning $33 an hour. With the exception of classroom teachers, most retired district employees can only come back part-time and at the rate the position would normally pay.
It is not uncommon for school districts to rehire employees after they retire. A 2011 state audit found about 15 percent of Teacher Retirement System pensioners are back working for schools systems, colleges or other government entities. Most are working part-time while drawing a pension, and about three-fourths work in local school systems, with Atlanta being a top employer behind Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Most retirees -- 73 percent -- return as classroom or substitute teachers. Advocates of bringing retirees back to classroom say they bring a wealth of job experience and help fill high-need areas. Atlanta, which employed 714 retirees in 2009, isn't looking to fire workers in teaching positions. Instead, the focus is on those working in central or regional office jobs in the 4,5000-employee district.
Some positions will be replaced with lower-wage workers, Davis said, but department heads have to make a case to keep a retired employee on the payroll.
"We can get a full-time person for what we’re paying a half-time person, in some instances," Davis said. "This system is under financial stress, and that’s something that hasn’t been effectively communicated. We’re spending our way into the poor house and it is time to arrest that spending."
The highest paid APS retirees were on track to earn a part-time wage of almost $60,000 a year, in addition to their pension. Georgia retirement benefits are based on a sliding scale that takes into account the number of years worked and a person's highest two-consecutive years of salary. For example, a top-earning elementary principal with a doctorate degree could earn $125,374 a year in APS. If that principal put in 30 years of service, he or she could expect to collect about $75,000 a year in benefits, according to the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia formula.
APS has not yet responded to a request for job descriptions of the targeted positions, making duties hard to determine, but Davis said some administrative assistants were earning $30 an hour, which equals about $30,000 annually for a part-time employee. A job description posted on the district's website showed an entry-level full-time administrative assistant earns $32,000 annually.
A retired principal who was rehired as an hourly administrator and paid $33.43 an hour said her job was to assist an APS area superintendent named in the cheating investigation in "whatever was needed," such as fielding calls from principals or parents. The principal, whose name is being withheld, said she left the district about a month ago.
Of the 69 retirees targeted for termination, 49 earned $30 or more an hour. They include people who work in jobs ranging from clerical to educational specialists.
Charles Carey, president Atlanta Association of Classified Employees, a group with about 250 members, said under the old APS leadership, aging employees were pressured into retirement so the district could make room for retirees who were "favorites."
"They would bring back [favorites] and let them work no matter if they had a bad record when they left," he said. "People who retired with good records, if they didn’t like them, they wouldn’t let them come back."
A district spokesman declined to respond to accusations made about a previous administration.
Cynthia Terry retired as director of the district's fine arts program in March and returned as an hourly "coordinator" until September. Terry said she understands the decision to fire retirees because of the district's financial woes, but believes she's an example of how rehired educators can help the system. In her retired role, she helped transition the program into new hands.
"There needs to be a transition piece built in. When I retired, there should have been a new person ... so the transition could have been smoother," she said. "The knowledge base [of retirees] is so vital for continuity of the program and in order to service students."
Terry said she believes cronyism was going on in APS, but never saw it firsthand. She said she was too busy with her job to stay cued in to other areas, but added the district did have a lot of hourly employees.
As for her for post-retirement retirement plans?
"Whatever it is it will be with children and in the arts," she said.
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