The Carson City School Board on Jan. 14 approved a monetary incentive for employees to announce their intent to leave early.
The incentive program is capped at a total fiscal impact of $40,000 from vacancy savings.
Associate Superintendent of Human Resources Dan Sadler reported the program helps to reduce the time for onboarding in the hiring process. The district begins its school year with vacancies, and preliminary hiring before the summer gives a head start on filling positions, including classified roles, he said.
“By the time summer rolls around, it’s kind of slim pickings and education, just as an industry of employers, has struggled across the United States,” Sadler said. “We just don’t have enough people who are graduating from educational institutions majoring in education to fill teaching positions.”
Carson City has reduced its resignation and retirement numbers in the past three school years, down from 187 in 2021-22 to 112 in 2022-23 and 97 in 2023-24.
Sadler noted in January 2024 there was an increase in retirement announcements in February. It resulted in 17 total staff member retirements, which still was an overall decrease from previous years.
Two years ago in 2023, Sadler said after some research, there had been 38 vacant positions at the start of the school year, which went down to 28 vacant positions. Of those, 11 resulted in notifications received in July.
“It really did make a significant difference for us as far as just getting positions posted, communicated and then getting people hired,” Sadler said.
The program offers a $1,000 incentive per employee for staff members who must be full-time with benefits and have completed five years of employment. It must be their first resignation or retirement from the Carson City School District and they cannot be on critical needs. The employee must complete and submit a form to the district’s human resources office by March 1 and complete their last day of work or contract day by the end of the fiscal year. The incentive then would be paid on his or her final paycheck.
Trustee Mike Walker asked about differentiating the incentive amount based on tenure as a means of recognition and whether it would make an impact.
Sadler said the district recognizes employees through longevity pay in its employee agreements, and this had been increased in its last negotiations.
“The longer people work with us, then the more chance they have to earn that incentive and it is basically like a yearly bonus as far as the way they receive that money,” Sadler said.
The board approved the incentive program 7-0.