The Greene County School Board recently approved the first round of staff that applied for the voluntary early retirement policy.

The Board approved six applications that totaled 175 years of educational experience. Those that were approved included Karen Murphy with 36 years, Teresa Skalla, Steve Sillyman and JoAnn Rasmussen each with 31 years; Pat Heinrichs with 28 years and Ruth Broman with 18 years. Superintendent Tim Christensen thanks those staff members and comments on the many years of experience between six individuals.

“It is amazing the number of years that people teach (and) work in a school district. It really says that they love their job and love where they are. To me that’s – not to get into a societal shift – but that’s the one thing that we see in today’s society compared to previous ones, people have the tendency not to stay at a job as long as they used to in the past. This is a good example of this generation of people that’ve really been dedicated, love their jobs and stay there for a long time.”

The total incentives the Board approved at their regular meeting earlier this month was $174,000. While the Board capped the amount of $200,000 from the management fund for this policy, Christensen says, they can amend it to include additional funds. The deadline to apply for the voluntary early retirement program is January 13th.