Board approves pushing back early retirement

The Shawano School Board on Feb. 15 approved pushing back the deadline for staff members to apply for early retirement by six weeks, but some language in existing policy prompted a discussion about trusting staff members.

Part of the benefit for employees to retire early is to get paid for any unused sick leave. Under existing policy, employees get $40 for every unused sick day up to 210 if they submit a request for retirement by Feb. 1. If they request retirement by April 1, that drops to $35 per day.

Board president Tyler Schmidt noted that the deadline for staff this year was originally Feb. 15, extended from Feb. 1, but some employees were reporting delays in getting meetings with the Wisconsin Retirement System that are required for early retirement.

“They were told it’s not going to happen until mid- to late March,” Schmidt said. “The response to that is to push the date back to April 1.”

Superintendent Randi Anderson pointed out that this shift in policy is for the current school year only, due to state delays.

“This keeps the sick leave payout at $40 instead of dropping it to $35,” Anderson said.

Board member Mart Grams objected to what he thought was a change in language in the district’s sick leave policy that had been included with the informational materials the board gets. He focused on a sentence under the sick leave policy for support staff, which reads: “The District may require a doctor’s excuse to verify a sick leave request. Any employee obtaining sick leave benefits by fraud, deceit, or falsified statement shall be subject to disciplinary action.”

Anderson said that the language had been approved by the board before, to which Grams replied: “No, no, no. We did not. We did not put anything that says anybody who lies will be disciplined. It doesn’t sound like a positive and trusting aspect. That bothered me a lot when I saw it at first.”

The language is in the policy for support staff but not for teachers or administrators, Grams pointed out. He feels the language should be pulled out completely.

“Why isn’t that in the teacher one if it’s so good?” Grams said. “The administrators should have it as well. When I saw that, I thought, ‘Oh, my God. It contradicts everything in the positive column of trusting relationships.’ We did not approve that, because I would have seen that.”

Board member Mike Musolff said it seemed to be common sense that the caveat would apply to all employees, whether it’s written for all staff or not, but Grams said he could see a good attorney using the omission as a way to wiggle out of any penalties or discipline.

“I don’t think it should be in there at all,” Grams said. “That just kind of defeats the whole purpose of wanting our staff to trust us, etc.”

Schmidt disagreed, indicating the language should be consistent for employees across the board.

“From my viewpoint, I think it’s just fine, and I think it should be in all spots, because that’s just common in every contract,” Schmidt said. “I don’t care where you work at. That language is in there.”

Anderson said the district’s attorney, Geoff Lacey, would be asked to look over the language and offer recommendations for changes at a later date. She expressed appreciation to Grams for pointing out the inconsistency.

“I know that language is not something we’ve addressed in my short tenure here,” said Anderson, who was hired as superintendent in summer 2019. “It’s language that’s been in the (employee) handbook, but I can take it back to legal.”

Despite the issue with the current handbook language, Grams said he supported pushing back the deadline for early retirement to April 1 for this year.