LORAIN — The Lorain school board approved a buyout package for its teachers that it hopes will save the district more than $500,000 over the next three years.

The offer would be a one-time payment of $40,000 as incentive to retire early for teachers with 20 or more years of service and at least 10 years of consecutive service in the Lorain school district. The payment would be in addition to the benefits already received by retiring teachers.

The buyouts are intended to get teachers who have earned large salaries over several years to retire a little earlier than they intended, so that less-experienced teachers aren’t paid as much can replace them.

Board President Jim Smith said he voted for the buyout based on a projection from the administration that 23 teachers would take the offer.

If that many teachers do accept the buyout, projected savings for this year alone would be $173,259, followed by $168,221 in the next school year, $142,221 in the 2009-10 school year and $112,221 for the 2010-11 school year.

Even with the savings, Smith said he was unsure about the offer because he didn’t want students to have to say goodbye to a teacher they loved and force them to get used to a new teacher for the last 64 days of this year.

“I straddled the fence on this one,” he said.

In addition to saving the district money, having such a buyout package on the books shows the Ohio Board of Education that the school system was being proactive in trying to dig out of its financial hole. The move could be looked upon favorably by the state when grants are distributed, Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson said.

The district’s finances have been strained ever since former Treasurer Ryan Ghizzoni noticed a $5 million debt last summer that was expected to grow to more than $15 million this year if drastic cuts weren’t made. More than 240 teachers were laid off as a result, but about 100 of them have been recalled.

Ghizzoni projected financial shortfalls of $2.6 million at the end of fiscal year 2010, $10.7 million at the end of fiscal year 2011 and more than $22.3 million at the end of fiscal year 2012 without an infusion of new money.

Raul Ramos, the only board member to vote against the package, said he did so because he doesn’t believe in giving money to people who are going to retire soon anyway.

Contact Adam Wright at 329-7151 or awright@chroniclet.com.

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