Posted by don at
OKLAHOMA CITY – The state Board of Education adopted a policy change Thursday in an effort to address a growing number of severance requests from employees in consolidated school districts.
With one week remaining before the application deadline, the Oklahoma State Department of Education has already received 22 applications for severance from employees from four districts.
Although affected employees can apply for severance of up to 80 percent of their annual salary, officials said applying directly to the state should be a last resort.
“We believe statute is clear that districts should be taking severance into consideration,” Lisa Endres, general counsel for the Education Department, told the board members at a morning meeting. “At the rate we are going, we could pay $700,000 out of the fund for severance this year.”
She was referring to the School Consolidation Assistance Fund, from which $2.5 million has already been paid this year and which has a remaining balance of $5.29 million.
Financial difficulties have forced more and more small districts to consolidate with a neighboring district or two over the last couple of years.
Receiving school districts can get a one-time allocation of $400,000 to $1 million, based on the student membership of the consolidated district, to cover costs for new textbooks, classroom furnishings, transportation equipment and even renovations, when necessary.
The funds can also be used for assistance, including severance for administrators, teachers and support personnel who will not be employed at the annexing district.
Vivian Baber, administrative assistant in the annexations and consolidations office, said after Thursday’s meeting that several struggling school districts have already made inquiries about the consolidation process, although she knows of none that have actually begun.
She explained that the state board of education’s emergency action Thursday will allow for eligibility guidelines to be used for employee severance applications that are still coming in and can continue to do so through Sept. 2.
“We received more today,” Baber said. “We are trying to be able to bring in some kind of form to make it (severance payments) fair based on years of service. Maybe a teacher has been there three months and another one has been there 20 years.”
The four consolidated districts whose former employees have applied for severance so far are Pickett-Center, Boynton-Moton, Wakita and Plainview.
Pleasant Grove was also consolidated, but as of Thursday, no employee severance applications from that district had been received, Baber said.
