ROB CLAYTON

Warren County Public Schools Superintendent Rob Clayton said he “strongly” supports a pension reform proposal that educator groups announced Monday as an alternative to a plan Gov. Matt Bevin released in October.

The governor’s plan would eventually close the state’s beleaguered pension system and replace it with 401(k)-style plans, according to The Associated Press.

In an interview Monday before Clayton gave a presentation on issues affecting the school district, he described the alternative Shared Responsibility Plan as “an opportunity to have a defined benefit within the current pension system. …

“Individuals who spend a lifetime of service supporting our kids deserve some level of guaranteed retirement,” Clayton said.

He said the defined-pension benefits have helped attract and retain high-quality teachers and counterbalance the modest wages teachers earn throughout their careers.

Under the Shared Responsibility Plan, current teachers’ sick leave would be frozen as of June 30, 2018. New teachers who enter the system on or after July 1, 2018, would get a defined benefit and voluntary defined contribution. Employees would pay in 10 percent of their salaries under the defined benefit component and the state would kick in 6 percent of pay. The retirement threshold would follow the “rule of 85,” which is a combination of the member’s age and years of service that equal 85 years.

A member’s five highest salary years would be used to determine benefits. In contrast, Bevin’s plan recommends using the three highest for any member retiring before June 30, 2023. After that, the member’s “High 5” would be used.

Sick leave and other lump-sum payments would not be included for new hires. However, boards of education would still be allowed to pay for accrued sick leave, unlike in Bevin’s plan, which would allow school districts to pay for up to 30 percent of a retiring member’s sick leave up to July 1, 2023. After that date, “payments for sick leave will not be utilized for benefit calculations.”

Under a voluntary defined contribution plan, employees would also get to choose to participate in a 403(b) plan with contributions from employees and school districts being voluntary.

During Clayton’s presentation at Warren Central High School, he highlighted efforts to create a unified vision for the school district going forward, progress on the district’s new elementary school, state testing results and updates on pension reform and state budget cuts.

“We must maintain some level of defined benefit,” he said while describing pension reform and the alternative plan. Anything less, Clayton said, would be breaking a promise to teachers, hurting the lives of educators and therefore weakening K-12 education in the state.

Clayton said the pension system’s troubled status is the result of the Great Recession and “a failure by the legislators and previous governors to place the required amount into the pension fund to ensure that it stayed actuarially sound.”

He pushed back against lawmakers who’ve said they’ve repeatedly passed pension revenue streams through state budgets from the governor’s office.

“They, not the governor, determines what goes into the budget,” he said. “They merely just passed what was put in there by the governor’s office, without mentioning the fact that every one of them were made fully aware that there was not enough money being put into the pension system.”

Clayton shared several statistics about the system, including that the average retiree makes $36,000 annually from their pension and that the average retiree in 59 years old.

Clayton also discussed the impact of an immediate 17.4 percent cost reduction to all state agencies ordered by the Bevin administration. The cost amounts to an immediate $1.4 million for the district.

“We just put a spending freeze on many of our funds,” he said, adding the district suspended Extended School Services programming as a result.

Responding to Clayton’s presentation, GEO International High School teacher Will Spalding said he’s concerned pension reform efforts will impact teacher recruitment and retainment. He also said ending sick days for retirement benefits will persuade teachers to stay home more often.

He looked more favorably at the Shared Responsibility Plan.

“I think it has some good compromises,” he said.