The Edmonton Public School division has introduced an incentive for eligible staff to retire as it continues to deal with budget cuts.

Last week, the school division introduced a Retirement Transition Program for the 2019-2020 school year.

The program provides permanent employees from any staff group the opportunity to retire and access their pension, while receiving their salary under temporary contract which would extend to the end of the current school year.

The division’s chief human resources officer said while the RTP is not in “direct reaction” to their budget, it is related.

“The RTP will give our division a sense of how many retirements to expect this year, which increases our ability to plan our staffing complement for the upcoming school year,” Angela Anderson said in a statement.

“This knowledge is important as our division and schools prepare, while navigating challenging reductions to education funding.”

To be eligible for the RTP, staff must:

• Be actively working
• Be at least 55 years old
• Be an active participant in the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund or Local Authorities Pension Plan and not currently in receipt of pension
• Qualify for an unreduced or reduced pension by an applicable retirement effective date

Anderson would not say how much this program might save the division.

Edmonton Public Schools continues to search for cost-cutting measures following the provincial budget last fall.

In the province’s October budget, the government maintained education funding at $8.223 billion. But it also eliminated three grants – the fee replacement, classroom improvement and class-size initiative funds.

One option the board is exploring includes adding more time to the school day in order to reduce the number of instructional days in the school year.

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