By Emily Richmond

Wed, May 7, 2008 (2 a.m.)

After months of haggling, the Clark County School District and the teachers union have a tentative agreement to offer health insurance to the district’s retired educators.

The plan is designed to encourage experienced teachers to stay on the job and to reassure rookies that they will have insurance when their retirement dates arrive. Subsidized health insurance for retirees also would be a useful lure in the district’s recruiting tackle box.

The Teachers Health Trust phased out its retiree coverage in 2003. The district’s teachers were sent instead to the state’s health insurance plan. In an effort to prevent the state plan from being swamped by retirees’ medical care costs, the 2007 Legislature changed the rules, and one result of those changes was that Clark County teachers who retire after Sept. 1 will no longer be eligible for state health insurance.

The change had the district fearing that many of its most experienced teachers would opt to retire early to qualify for the subsidized coverage. A mass exodus was expected in the coming months because summer is when teacher retirements typically spike.

The district has long struggled to retain its veteran teachers. Roughly half of the district’s teachers have fewer than five years’ experience, and 50 percent of new hires typically leave within five years.

The teachers who are “here for a career, not a pit stop ... need to reap those benefits when they leave,” said John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association.

Members of the association are to vote on the proposed agreement May 21.

The proposal isn’t without problems. A key issue is its lack of “portability,” said Judith Hamblin, president of the Clark County Retired Education Association. Like the Teachers Health Trust insurance for active employees, the retiree plan is limited to Southern Nevada providers.

“What happens if you want to retire to Utah, or your health fails and you need to move in with a relative back East?” Hamblin said. “You’re up a creek.”

Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes and Jasonek both said they are aware of the plan’s geographic limitations, and there is an effort under way to offer retirees an out-of-state option.

Some younger teachers might balk at deductions from their pay for the program. Under the proposal, active teachers would see an additional $15 deducted from each paycheck — $360 annually from each teacher — to help offset the cost.

Donald Backner, who is one of the district’s five New Teachers of the Year for 2007-08, said he would have to see the specifics of the proposal before deciding whether or not he would support it.

For many younger teachers, “retirement is so far away,” said Backner, who teaches fifth grade at Dusty Dickens Elementary School. “I’m just thinking about the kids I have right now, not about health care.”

Under the proposed plan retired teachers with a minimum of 10 years on the job would have the same health benefits as their active colleagues. The monthly premiums would depend on the individual’s years of service. A teacher who works 25 years would have 53 percent of the premium’s cost subsidized. At 30 years, the subsidy would jump to 68 percent.

With that tiering, “there’s not much incentive to leave at 29 years,” Rulffes said. “With that kind of dramatic increase (in the subsidy), we’re hopeful people will want to keep working.”

Additionally, some state and district funding allocated to the Teachers’ Health Trust — which operates independent of the union — will be redirected toward the new retiree plan.

Based on that formula, the plan has a “conservative shelf life” of 10 years without needing an additional funding source, Jasonek said.

The projected “real cost” of the monthly premium is $1,169, Jasonek said. The goal is that retirees will pay less than $500 a month. A retired teacher with 30 years’ tenure and 450 unused sick days would have a 75 percent subsidy. That would make the individual’s monthly cost $292.