GUILDERLAND — The school board here led the way in proposing that the New York State School Boards Association lobby for state-wide changes in retirement benefits for teachers and other school employees.

A task force was formed, which met June 1 with top retirement-system officials and national experts. The next day, representatives from school boards across the state, including Linda Bakst, vice president of Guilderland’s board, drafted four resolutions to be voted on at the association’s fall convention.
"We really played a leadership role in getting the task force formed," said Superintendent Gregory Aidala at last Tuesday’s school board meeting. "This is the next logical step."

Setting aside its usual protocol of not voting on a resolution at the same meeting when it is first proposed, the Guilderland board voted in support of three of the four resolutions; the other resolution was defeated in a split vote, 4 to 5.

The state and federal constitutions prohibit reducing any benefits for current members, Bakst explained. The retirement systems — one for teachers and another for other school employees — have been well managed in New York State, she said.

The model for teachers was set up with the expectation that the employer, that is the school district, would contribute 12 percent; the system for other employees was set up with the district contributing 10 percent, Bakst said.

The percentage actually contributed by school districts has fluctuated with the health of the stock market. In recent years, until the market downturn in 2001, the amount districts contributed was often close to zero.
"There’s no opportunity to tinker with the system to smooth fluctuations," said Bakst. "There doesn’t appear to be any room for that."

Passing three resolutions, defeating one

The first resolution passed by the Guilderland board is that the state association seek legislation based on principles of portability, predictability, affordability, flexibility, and acceptable risk.
The principles, state the resolution, are "to strike a balance between providing local taxpayers and educational programs with a degree of protection from increasing and varying costs of employer retirement contributions, as well as to strengthen and broaden the existing benefit structure of retirement systems that are currently well managed and funded, yet do not fully meet the needs of a new generation of public employees."
Board member Richard Weisz, who first proposed looking at retirement benefits, termed the resolutions "vanilla" and "apple pie."

Weisz raised concerns, though, about the second resolution — supporting the establishment of pension contribution reserve funds for all employees, authorizing boards to deposit surplus monies into such funds.
Weisz, who has long urged that the Guilderland School District spend more of its fund balance to ease the tax burden, said, "I’m not so thrilled about that solution but I understand why they did it."
Aidala said that being able to establish such a fund would give the district "flexibility."
"That allows us to do long-range planning," he said.
"Bureaucracies tend to use the money they get," said board member Peter Golden, who argued against the resolution.
"To me," said Weisz, "the real issue is: Will the legislature address the property-tax problems, or not""
He also said, "We want the citizens to rise up to the legislature," saying it’s not the school-districts’ fault; the tax system needs to be revamped.
"In a perfect world," responded Aidala, "that sounds great."
"The only alternative," said Weisz, "is to have fewer teachers and less programs for the kids."
"In less than 20 years," said board member Barbara Fraterrigo, "we’re going to be paying more in benefits than in salaries."

Ultimately, board members Bakst, Fraterrigo, Thomas Nachod, and Colleen O’Connell voted for the resolution, supporting pension conribution reserve funds, and Catherine Barber, President Gene Danese, John Dornbush, Golden, and Weisz voted against it.

The other two resolutions passed unanimously. One is to have the association support legislation creating a new pension plan for future employees which would require employee contributions for the entire period of service.

The other is to have the association seek legislation to allow all employees to exercise an option of selecting enrollment in either an existing defined benefit retirement system or a defined contribution retirement plan currently offered to employees of the State University of New York land the City University of New York.

That resolution’s rationale states that many in the new generation of employees leave school service and the current retirement systems before vesting and then receive nothing other than their own contributions.
"Just as importantly," it says, "taxpayers require transparency and predictability in retirement system costs. Defined contribution retirement plans...provide benefits that address both the additional benefits needed to attract, retain and meet the financial needs of the new generation of school district employees, as well as the financial certainty of a constant employer contribution rate."