Fewer Teachers Retiring in Yakima County

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Story Published: Jun 4, 2009 at 4:50 PM PST

By Melissa Wagner

YAKIMA VALLEY - A lot of teachers planned to retire this year, after giving 30 years to their students and districts. But plans have changed. They're now facing a huge cut in retirement, and very few jobs available on the outside. Rick Doehle, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources with the Yakima School District says, "Afraid. Afraid to give up a job. When you have a secure job why would you give that up during these times?

On average, 20 to 30 teachers retire every year from the Yakima School District. This year that number is down to 9. Fourteen others resigned. Those positions will be filled internally.
The district promised "no layoffs", and they're sticking to it. "Three or four years ago we hired about 95 new teachers," said Doehle.

Those jobs are secure. At least in this district. Over in East Valley, budget cuts forced them to lay off 12 teachers. Five were brought back to fill open slots. They have just one opening now. And only 1 teacher retired from this district.

It may seem like a good idea to have more seasoned teachers on hand, but district administrators say it's the exact opposite. Doehle said, " Many of them will stay until they're 65 which is a difficult task to do because you start getting an age gap between you and the children and that's a challenge."

A challenge that will also hit West Valley. Just 3 teachers are retiring, and they have no openings. One teacher was hired, and 6 other jobs lost through attrition. The district may hire a special ed teacher later this year, but they're still working that out.

The good news: fewer veteran teachers in the unemployment line. The bad news: those fresh out of college may not land the job they've worked so hard for. At least not this year.

In Sunnyside, it looks like they have 6 teachers retiring, 28 teachers in all leaving the district.
They'll fill 17 of those positions and plan on creating at least 4 new jobs to handle classroom overload. So there are opportunities there for new teachers

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