Fresno Unified employees offered early retirement to cut costs

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – More than 1,900 eligible Fresno Unified employees are being offered early retirement in order to cut costs.

The retirement plan is being offered to all full-time employees over the age of 55 who have been with the district for at least five years.

The majority of the Fresno Unified Board of Trustees passed the motion for a Supplementary Retirement Plan at Wednesday night’s meeting.

“We’re obviously very pleased that we were able to get a positive reaction from the board,” said Patrick Jensen, Fresno Unified’s Chief Financial Officer.

Exactly 1,919 employees are eligible to receive 80% of their salary spread out over the next five years.

“We believe that it is a fair amount in comparison to other retirement incentives,” shared Manuel Bonilla, President of the Fresno Teachers Association.

This includes all staff, not just teachers.

“Food service workers, bus drivers, paraprofessionals,” Jensen said.

Jensen says due to the decline in enrollment, Fresno Unified is looking to reduce its budget by $25,000 a year over the next two years.

“Rehiring classroom teachers and support professionals that at the school site would be the first priority for rehire, and then we probably would be collapsing certain positions at the district office,” he said.

The district predicts that 459 employees are interested in taking the deal. That would save Fresno Unified $35 million over a five-year time frame.

But if there’s not enough interest, the deal won’t go through.

“We want to see if there’s enough participation in the program to make the program cost-efficient,” said Dennis Yu, Executive Director of the Public Agency Retirement Services.

If that’s the case, Jensen says they would have to look at laying people off.

“That’s an absolute alarmist position of the district and in some ways a little bit irresponsible,” Bonilla said.

Bonilla continues to say that the district has other areas it can trim first before having to cut staff.

“Things like consultants that they have, that it is to the tune of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. So, there’s a number of areas and we want folks to know that that’s a budgeting priority for the district, whether that be the superintendent or trustees,” he said.

The offers are being sent out this week. Employees have until Dec. 5 to accept the offer. The board will then make a final decision on Dec. 17 on whether they will move forward with the plan.