Ever since its opening in 1996, Granite Bay High School has been home to hundreds of teachers, all who have devoted their time to educating their many students. 

For the past few years, there has been a $5,000 retirement incentive for teachers willing to commit to retiring at the end of that school year, as long as they made their decision by mid-February. 

Last fall, the Roseville Joint Union High School District, put an additional $20,000 early retirement incentive on the table, and three GBHS teachers decided to take it – Advanced Placement micro/ macroeconomics and journalism teacher  Karl Grubuagh, photography and art teacher Amelie Rider, and health teacher John MacLeane.

In order to receive this additional $20,000, the staff members were required to make their decision by Dec. 6.

“A retirement incentive is an additional sum of money that can be offered to employees to encourage them to consider retiring now to open up some vacancies in our system for hiring other staff members,” district superintendent Denise Herrmann explained.

Although many school districts offer retirement incentives as a cost saver due to veteran teachers earning more money than new teachers, the reasoning behind RJUHSD’s new retirement incentive was because of the opening of a new high school, West Park, in West Roseville in August.

As the district prepares for the opening of the new school, the new positions opened up because of retirements will allow for a more smooth transition for students, staff members and faculty across the district. 

“We didn’t want teachers to have involuntary transfers, so our intention was to create openings across the district so that if we had any school that was overstaffed, there would be openings from retired people, so that (teachers) would have a choice,” Herrmann said. “Rather than people having to (transfer) to West Park or having to go to another school, it allows a little more space. Our goal was to try and make this process of transition as comfortable as possible for teachers.”

On average, there are between seven and 15 retirees district-wide each school year. This year, there are 21.

“Our goal was to have somewhere between 10 and 20 (retirees), so we met the top end of our target,” Herrmann said.

According to Grubaugh, in addition to the $25,000, there is also an additional incentive of a maximum of $20,000, depending on how long that teacher has been in the district.

MacLeane’s decision to retire became easier once the incentive was offered.

“I was going to retire this year or next year anyway,” Macleane said. “I really thought I was going to wait until next year, but that extra incentive was enough to (retire).”

Rider said the extra incentive also made her decision to retire after 14 years much easier.

“I feel like the (teaching environment) has changed a little bit,” she said. “The $20,000 made it easier for me to say, ‘This is the year.’ ”