A new law allowing educators to return to classrooms 90 days after retiring is thrilling to some who spent many years teaching in the state’s public schools.
But while Evelyn Leger is grateful for the opportunity, she said she wishes the new rule had kicked in sooner as schools around New Mexico scramble to fill job openings.
Under the bill passed this year by the Legislature, retired teachers, college faculty and other public school employees receiving pension benefits can return to work for three more years within a New Mexico public school district, college or a university without prior their retirement benefits.
Advocates hope the measure will quell major staff shortages in schools across the state. The new rule applies to any educator who has retired and paid into the state’s public education retirement system — including jobs beyond teaching, like school nutrition workers and secretaries.
Leger, a former student success advisor, most recently at Milagro Middle School, said she’d retired at the end of the 2020-21 school year after nearly 28 years in public education — including seven in Santa Fe Public Schools.
Throughout the year, she had been biding her time waiting to return to public education under an existing 12-month wait period for retirees to come back to work. Her reasons for wanting to work again are twofold: She loved her job, and, “How is one supposed to live off of retirement?”
She said she’s struggling to pay more than $400 monthly out of her retirement pension for health insurance.
It’s one reason she wishes the new law had kicked in sooner.
According to a report from the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, the average annual pension paid to retired public school employees was $24,454 in June 2021.
Board director David Archuleta said that figure encompasses an average of all public school employees, not just teachers and professors. Those who receive pensions often rely upon Social Security to get by.
Before the passage of the bill, retired educators hoping to return to school could do so immediately or after 90 days, but not without restrictions on hours and salary.
Educators also could wait 12 months and return to work without hours or income limitations, as Leger decided to do. But that rule is sunsetting in 2024, according to the retirement board.
The new regulations, with their 90-day wait period and three-year limit on returning to work, are puzzling to some advocates, including National Education Association Santa Fe President Grace Mayer, who said the wait is likely to conflict with the school year.
Many Santa Fe teachers, Mayer noted, are contracted August through May. Under the new rule, many wouldn’t be able to return until the school year is already in full swing.
However, Mayer said she is hopeful a better return-to-work policy will help alleviate the burden on teachers still in the system.
“The good thing is, everyone is working on all kinds of solutions, but I do think the particulars really do need to be discussed with the people affected by this,” Mayer said Wednesday.
Rep. Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque, a sponsor of House Bill 73, which created the new return-to-work policy, said the waiting period was largely created to allow retired educators some time to decide if they really want to come back.
Those who would like to return for more than three years may still do so—if they stick to the original 12-month waiting period.
“It’s another option,” Garratt said. “For some people, [the coronavirus pandemic] has been pretty intense. This gives them a tool to come back at any time, in less than a year.”
Garratt said the pandemic may have sparked retirements among some educators who actually weren’t ready to leave. Now that classes are largely back in person, she said they may want to return.
Santa Fe Public Schools counted 122 departures between January and June, and Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez estimates about 40 of those were retirements.
It’s a smaller number than the district has seen in recent years, thanks in part to local and state initiatives, Chavez said. But he said he is hopeful of some who left this year may want to come back.
In September, New Mexico State University researchers identified 1,727 educator vacancies in the state’s K-12 schools, including 1,048 open spots for teachers. It was a significant spike over previous years, according to researchers.
In the past, Chavez said, schools have lost out on retirees during the original 12-month waiting period as they sought other employment or decided to permanently retire. But while a shorter wait period is helpful, he is worried about the three-year limit.
“We don’t really have a pipeline into education for all job areas,” Chavez said. “Not only is it a short-term solution we’re very grateful for, but we have to look at the long term.”
Chavez said because of the 90-day waiting period, the district likely will hire long-term substitutes in anticipation of retirees coming back later in the fall. But he added it’s not an ideal solution.
“That puts the students in a difficult position,” he said.
Terri Tewart, a dean at Santa Fe Community College, said she hopes the new law will allow her to hire retired public school employees into higher education roles.
She said she has had several retirements in different subjects in recent years, from math to respiratory therapy.
“Literally every department has had somebody retire,” Tewart said Wednesday. “Faculty that have been retiring aren’t looking to return.”
Tewart said the COVID-19 era of teaching remotely is partially to blame for the retirement wave, with some complaining of burnout.
That has prompted her to look at retiring K-12 employees to fill the gap.
“If there was a retired school nurse, I could use her to teach my certified nursing assistant classes,” she said. “I think this is an amazing initiative opening those doors, and I think we need more.”
University of New Mexico Dean of Education and Human Sciences Hansel Burley said the new law puts a finishing touch on a pipeline the state is attempting to create amid the uncertainty in recruiting and retaining staff.
“Essentially, the idea is to get more in, do what you can to keep what you’ve got, then bring back as many as possible,” he wrote in an email, pointing to pay increases and an ongoing reevaluation of teacher license requirements as other new initiatives.
He added even as the state tries to improve a thin educator workforce, demographic waves, current events and other labor market opportunities could be to blame for some of the retention issues.
“The state should follow this effort’s impact closely and leave room to tweak different factors as needed,” Burley wrote.
Evelyn Leger, who supports the new law, has spent her 12 months away from schools volunteering. But she is itching to return to the places where she specialized in helping students who struggled with truancy and attendance.
“That was my love, and that’s what I did. Our students and families needed a lot of support,” she said. “That’s what I want to go back to do.”
She hasn’t sought a new job with the district yet but said it’s her plan.
“I would have probably done everything that I could to return to work sooner,” she said.
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