Feb. 17--The Jamestown Public School Board voted to table a decision regarding paying a denied early retirement request at its regular meeting Monday.

Doug Benson, who worked in the district as a guidance counselor for more than 25 years, applied for early retirement in 2006 and 2007. Both times, he was denied because the district hadn't budgeted early retirement money those years, said Bob Toso, school superintendent.

Early retirement is a lump sum the district gives educators who retire early. The district makes up the money by hiring a newer teacher at a lower salary. The educator who chooses to retire early doesn't lose the financial benefits of full retirement.

At the Jan. 19 School Board meeting, the board approved early retirement in the amount of about $30,000 for a teacher at the Child and Adolescent Unit at the North Dakota State Hospital. The funds, which were unbudgeted, came out of the Child and Adolescent Unit's budget which is paid for by the state but managed by Jamestown Public Schools. Because the board approved that unbudgeted early retirement, Benson asked the board to review his early retirement requests from 2006 and 2007.

Benson said the district's practice is inconsistent and unfair. The board approved an unbudgeted early retirement for a CAS teacher, so it should have approved his early retirement requests because they too were unbudgeted, he said.

"What's fair for one person should be fair for another person," he said.

But the CAS teacher's early retirement request was paid for with funds from a separate budget, Toso said. If the five JPS teachers who applied for early retirement this year had to split the funds six ways to include the CAS teacher, the JPS teachers would have been upset, he said.

Rosemary McDougall, member, agreed.

"I guess I don't see the problem. I don't see that anyone got hurt," she said.

Tanya Ostlie, member, said that wasn't the point. The point is the board should make rules and stick to them.

"We need to be more consistent with how we do this," she said.

But consistency wasn't the board's only issue.

Approving Benson's request, which would cost about $28,000, would allow other teachers who'd been denied to reapply for their early retirement requests. To pay those requests would cost the district more than $300,000, Toso said.

Board member Gail Martin moved to deny Benson's request, because at the times his requests were made, the district was deficit spending and had no money for early retirement. To approve his request would open the door to all the teachers who also were denied, she said.

"I cannot in good conscience give it to Mr. Benson," she said.

Member Greg Allen said the board's decision could affect other teachers and so the district should consult legal counsel before making a decision.

The board tabled the decision in a unanimous vote.

In other business, the board unanimously approved allowing the district to establish an E-funds program which would allow parents to pay for school lunch online. If successful, the district could allow parents to use the program to pay for other expenses like busing and students fees, said Sally Ost, business manager.

The program would be free to the district and about $1 per transaction to each family, she said.

Also, the board scheduled a community forum for the public to address questions and concerns about the district for 5:15 p.m. Feb. 23.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board is March 2 at 5:15 p.m.

Sun reporter Katie Ryan can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by e-mail at kryan@jamestownsun.com

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