HB 224-REEMPLOYMENT OF RETIRED TEACHERS & ADMIN    3:23:20 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 224, "An Act relating to reemployment of persons who retire under the teachers' retirement system." 3:23:45 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS opened public testimony on HB 224. 3:24:16 PM PETER HOEPFNER, Cordova School Board, testified that schools throughout Alaska have positions that they are unable to fill, particularly the hard-to-fill teaching positions in special education and high school mathematics and science. He said that this is true both in urban and rural Alaska. He stated that the number of teachers attending the Alaska Teacher Placement (ATP) Job Fair has dropped dramatically. In 2014, there were 250 candidates; in 2017, there were only 211 candidates with 850-900 open positions, including janitors and nurses. MR. HOEPFNER relayed that the main reason teachers come to Alaska is for an "Alaskan experience." Salaries are not high; there are no retirement benefits; and there is a nationwide shortage of teachers. He reported that the Texas teacher salary starts at $56,000 for someone with a bachelor's degree and no experience. Most Alaska districts cannot offer that level of pay. MR. HOEPFNER offered that the proposed legislation is not a "silver bullet" to filling teacher positions but one more tool in the toolbox to put a teacher in front of students in every classroom. He maintained that the proposed amendments - requiring districts to try to fill positions with [permanent] teachers and allowing a contract for only one year - are amenable to school districts. Teachers are contracted currently for only one year. MR. HOEPFNER relayed that HB 224 is supported by the Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB) resolution 4.5, entitled "Addressing the Teacher, Specialist and Administrator Shortage," adopted in 1999 and resolution 4.10, entitled "Urging the State of Alaska to Reinstate the Retire-Rehire Program," adopted in 2008. MR. HOEPFNER added that the revised fiscal note for HB 224 shows minimal [financial] impact to the state. 3:27:08 PM REPRESENTATIVE TUCK asked whether there is a possibility that more teachers would choose to come to Alaska, if salaries and retirement benefits improved. MR. HOEPFNER responded that the changes in the retirement system, the salaries, and flat funding for education over the years has resulted in Alaska being unable to compete with other states. He mentioned that moving to a rural area can be a sacrifice for someone. He maintained that improving salaries and retirement benefits would be one way to increase recruitment to Alaska. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK asked about the practice of "pink slipping" teachers year after year; last year the state budget was not passed until June 22. He asked how that affected the Cordova School District (CSD). MR. HOEPFNER answered that the district hires teachers and pays to bring them to the community; giving a teacher a pink slip puts the teacher in a terrible position; and when the teacher does not know if he/she will have a job in the fall, it takes a toll on the individual. He said that it is a big issue and that he appreciates both SB 131 and HB 287 to ensure funding for schools. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK asked Mr. Hoepfner whether his district lost teachers from the pink slip issue alone. MR. HOEPFNER replied that CSD has not. He said that 82 percent of its staff are at the top of the pay scale, but there has been a large turnover of younger teachers. He maintained that the district tries to hire with long-term sustainability of a position in mind. 3:30:07 PM SHAWN ARNOLD, Superintendent, Nome Public Schools (NPS), testified that he is in strong support of HB 224; it is a tool that will help school districts at a time when they need help in attracting effective educators. He offered what he called a "boots on the ground" perspective: The rural districts struggle more and more with the fewer applicants for teaching positions; the proposed legislation would help particularly in filling specialist positions - special education teachers and counselors. As an example, NPS had three positions with no applicants prior to the school year; for a district with only 54 teachers, that had an enormous impact. He stated that two of the positions - special education teacher and junior high school counselor - remained unfilled throughout the year. MR. ARNOLD relayed that Nome is a great community; many educators stay there after retiring; however, they are unwilling to return to the school district to provide services, because doing so might compromise their retirement benefits. He mentioned that even having them come back part time would help the district. MR. ARNOLD asserted that the proposed legislation would not solve all the problems with the teacher shortage crisis but would help in the rural areas. 3:33:02 PM REPRESENTATIVE TUCK asked for the average age of the NPS teacher workforce. MR. ARNOLD replied that the average age about four years ago was about 50; the average tenure of teachers was about 13 years. He said that there has been a trend towards lower ages and lower tenures. He relayed that NPS has more teachers under Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS); without an incentive to stay 20 or 25 years, there is an increasing number of teachers who stay for a while to get experience then take their experience to a Lower 48 teaching position. He said that within a few short years, the average age has decreased to about 40. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK asked what the reduction in the average tenure has been? MR. ARNOLD responded that the average tenure in his district is now about 10 years. He said that NPS used to have 60 teachers and now has 54 teachers. He added that teachers used to stay 20-25 years, but now there is more movement and transition among teachers. 3:35:21 PM PATRICK MAYER, Superintendent, Wrangell Public Schools, testified that he is president-elect of the Alaska Superintendents Association (ASA). He stated that ASA is in strong support of HB 224; it is a mechanism that would help school districts at a time when they need immediate help to attract quality educators. He relayed that he is aware that the proposed legislation would not solve all the challenges facing school districts, but it can provide some relief. He said that HB 224 would allow for the reemployment of retired educators to help districts fill vacancies; it is a necessary tool to meet school district personnel needs in both urban and rural districts. MR. MAYER relayed that the proposed legislation is vital, because Alaska has a critical shortage of educators, principals, and superintendents, and is experiencing high turnover rates. He stated that the ASA members make hiring decisions in each district and deal directly with the challenges of a diminished applicant pool. He said that the [2018] Joint Position Statements drafted by the Alaska Council of School Administrators (ACSA), included in the committee packet, identified retire rehire as its top priority; superintendents and principals to varying degrees manage to find themselves in the position of having to provide a near-term hire. He stated that the flexibility provided by HB 224 would allow options that benefit students. He asked for support of HB 224. 3:37:36 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS closed public testimony on HB 224. 3:37:49 PM REPRESENTATIVE WOOL moved to adopt the committee substitute (CS) for HB 224, Version 30-LS0759\O, Wayne, 2/13/18, as the working document. There being no objection, Version O was before the committee. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK objected for the purpose of discussion. 3:38:31 PM LIZ REXFORD, Staff, Representative Jennifer Johnston, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of Representative Johnston, prime sponsor of HB 224, relayed that under Version 0, three changes were made to the original version of the proposed legislation. The first change is that a school district must advertise a position for ten business days and actively recruit to fill the position with someone other than a retired teacher, before considering a retired teacher. MS. REXFORD stated that the second change was the insertion of new language on page 2, lines 8-9, which read: "A contract for reemployment under (a) of this section may not exceed 12 consecutive months." MS. REXFORD related that a subsection was added on page 2, lines 13-14, which states that the proposed legislation does not apply to the rehire of a member who is eligible for restoration of tenure rights under AS 14.20.165. She added that AS 14.20.165 addresses the renewal of tenure for a member who is retired due to disability but has rehabilitated. 3:39:43 PM REPRESENTATIVE KNOPP referred to the ten-day advertising period and pointed out that the proposed legislation stipulates that a person cannot be hired within 90 days if 62 years of age. He asked the purpose of the first amendment considering a teacher must be retired for 90 days prior to rehire. He stated that his assumption is that the district would have advertised for the position already. MS. REXFORD answered that to be considered for rehire, the member must be retired for a certain number of days or months as stated in the proposed legislation; the minimum length of time the position must be advertised is ten days. 3:41:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE JENNIFER JOHNSTON, Alaska State Legislature, responded that the change clarifies that the position isn't one that would go directly to a retired teacher, but that the district has put due diligence into hiring available teachers. 3:41:35 PM REPRESENTATIVE TUCK referred to the 2/13/18 memorandum (memo) from Dan Wayne, Attorney, Legislative Legal and Research Services, included in the committee packet, regarding a potential conflict between section 1 of Version O and statute. The memo read in part as follows [original punctuation provided]: "To prohibit a reading of subsections (c) and (d) of the bill's sec. 14.20.136 as limitations on the rehire of a disabled teacher who has retired under AS 14.25.130 but is cleared to return to work under AS 14.20.165, we added a new subsection, (f), to sec. 14.20.136." He said his understanding is that someone who has been cleared to come back to work may do so even though he/she has retired. He added that he didn't understand what constitutes the conflict. MS. REXFORD answered that she coordinated with Legislative Legal and Research Services and the Division of Retirement and Benefits (DRB) to draft the language. She maintained that the intention is not to prohibit those who are retired and rehabilitated under a different statute from returning to work but to allow the rehire of the retired teacher under the retirement system. REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSTON relayed that there are two different statutes addressing two distinctly different rehire situations: one is for the rehire of retired teachers; the other is for rehire of disabled teachers who are now [rehabilitated]. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK offered that on page 2, lines 13-14, subsection (f) has been added to clarify that issue. He relayed that the memo mentions a possible conflict, and to solve that conflict, subsection (f) has been added; therefore, the conflict is resolved. REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSTON concurred. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK removed his objection to the motion to adopt Version O as the working document. There being no further objection, Version O was before the committee. 3:45:18 PM REPRESENTATIVE TUCK stated that the proposed legislation is needed to ensure Alaska has qualified teachers in rural Alaska. He added that it is unfortunate that the legislature is not accomplishing this through methods known to work, that have worked in the past, and work for other states - viable retirement plans. He maintained, "That's how you lock them in; that's how you keep them there; that's how they are able to have lifelong careers with our districts." He expressed that he worries that Alaska's teacher personnel will become "top-heavy" again, due to hiring back retirees and not taking the effort to invest in new people coming into the industry for lifelong careers. He offered that this is a "band aid" approach, but possibly necessary because of the state's fiscal situation and lack of retirement benefits. REPRESENTATIVE TUCK relayed that the state relies on teachers' passion to teach more than on offering greater compensation. He expressed that it is alarming that in Texas, one can start out with only a bachelor's degree and no experience and begin teaching with a salary of $56,000. In Alaska, one needs a master's degree to teach. He maintained that Alaska is not honoring that teacher, who has worked so hard to obtain the degree and is sometimes put into difficult working and living conditions in rural Alaska. Alaska is not getting a return on its investment when after a few years of gaining experience, the teacher decides to move out of state to raise a family, because there are no defined retirement benefits or social security benefits upon retiring. He said, "That's really unfortunate." 3:47:42 PM REPRESENTATIVE KNOPP said that he agrees; it is a band aid approach, but a good one; it fills the gap temporarily. He mentioned previous testimony [2/8/18 House State Affairs Standing Committee meeting] pointing out that the ATP Job Fair has not drawn the number of teacher candidates as in the past. He stated that the proposed legislation is a "good fix." He offered that there are numerous reasons why teachers don't stay; benefit packet and pay may be part of the retention problem. He said that of the salary studies that he has reviewed, Alaska does not compare poorly with the rest of the country; it is not in the bottom 50th percentile, but closer to the top - 10-20th percentile. He conceded that the conditions in Alaska are substantially different [than in the Lower 48]. He recalled that there used to be a loan forgiveness program, and he expressed his belief that the school districts and state agencies will eventually address recruitment and retention in one form or another. 3:49:21 PM REPRESENTATIVE WOOL said that he agrees that the proposed legislation offers a temporary fix. He added that fortunately we have many good teachers who are retiring that Alaska may want to keep awhile longer. He stated that he learned about a friend of his in Fairbanks, who had been teaching in the public school for quite some time, moving to Las Vegas to teach, because the job offer was too good to turn down. He offered that salary is important and benefits are important. He stated that Alaska may not rank at the bottom of all the states in pay but ranks at the top for cost of living (COL). He said, "We have to start recognizing that." He added that University of Alaska (UA) is working hard to graduate more teachers and place quality teachers in all parts of Alaska. He maintained that Alaska needs to examine its entire educational system - kindergarten (K) through 12 and through the university; value it; and support it to keep it working. 3:50:54 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS stated that he agrees with comments expressed. He mentioned that the president of the UA Board of Regents has made this issue a priority, which might help "get to the root of the problem." 3:51:16 PM REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX moved to report CS for HB 224, Version 30- LS0759\O, Wayne, 2/13/18, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CDHB 224(STA) was reported from the House State Affairs Standing Committee.