HARRISBURG – The number of teachers who retired in Pennsylvania during the first eight days of September has skyrocketed.
From 2020, 252 teachers retired in the Commonwealth, as reported by the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS). This represents an increase of more than 183 percent compared that same week the previous year.
In 2018, 49 teachers retired during this same eight-day period, equivalent to a decrease of 414 percent compared to the first eight days of this September.
“I have to caution that Pennsylvania law and PSERS policy do not require public school employees to provide a reason for their retirement,” said Steve Esack, press secretary for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System on Tuesday. “So we can’t draw definitive conclusions from the numbers.”
He said that the numbers reflect retirement applications received and then entered into the PSERS system.
“They do not reflect the actual month someone officially retired from their job,” Esack said.
In Downingtown, 11 teachers retired at the end of the 2019-20 academic year, according to Kimberlee Gardner, assistant human resources director for the Downingtown Area School District.
“To our knowledge, none of those retirements were related to COVID,” Gardner said on Monday.
She said the district requires teachers to provide 60 days notice for retirement. She noted PSERS determines their retirement benefits dependent upon age and their years of service within the state.
“At the end of the school year, our retirement numbers were actually low. We have had some unexpected retirements at the start of the school year and we continue to get inquiries. We have also seen more inquiries on working virtually,” Gardner said.
“While the pandemic has changed the mode of how we deliver instruction, it hasn’t changed our goals. Our goals are to foster our students’ learning and growth and to keep them safe. In this online model, we are doing just that,” said Jennifer Shealy, director of communications for the Downingtown Area School District.
There are 989 teachers at Downingtown schools, home to 12,958 enrolled students, as of press time, according to the district.
“Our students are logging online every day, learning new material, and finding their personal successes,” Shealy said. “While we are all looking forward to the time when we can be back in our buildings, we need to make sure we are taking measured, deliberate steps in order to keep our students and staff safe.”
There are approximately 121,000 teachers in Pennsylvania, said Eric Levis, press secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, on Monday.
In both private and public schools, Levis said the Commonwealth is home to about 1.7 million students.
“As of now, approximately 25 percent of schools – traditional public, charters, career and technical education centers – that have submitted health and safety plans are planning full in-person instruction; 44 percent are planning blended/hybrid; and 31 percent are planning full remote.”
He added, “Keep in mind that these plans will change as conditions change in the communities.”
As for the impact of the pandemic on education in Pennsylvania, Levis praised the state’s educators.
“Schools across the state did an outstanding job of serving their students during the unprecedented school closures in the 2019-20 school year,” Levis said.
He said the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf began issuing guidance to school districts on June 3, to help school leaders prepare for the upcoming school year. As the school year approached, the Departments of Education and Health issued more detailed guidance focused on specific aspects of school, including health and safety, social and emotional learning, and providing academic opportunities to students in-person, virtually, and through a hybrid approach.
“All of our education communities remain focused on the health and safety of students, while offering educational opportunity,” Levis said. “We expect that we will be dealing with COVID for at least some part of the upcoming school year. PDE will continue to help schools navigate those challenges and help schools safely provide instruction to students as they progress.”
“What we have found is that educators are going above and beyond for their students, whether they are teaching in person or remotely,” said Chris Lilienthal, assistant director of communications for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, on Sept. 15. “The pandemic has taken a toll on all of us, and educators are making special efforts to check in with students and their families, to make sure they are OK. The mental health of students is incredibly important.”
Lilienthal said educators “do feel stretched thin. It is important to make sure that they have adequate time to prepare lessons and collaborate with each other. In many ways, they have had to reinvent classes they taught in-person for years for it to make sense in a remote setting.”
Lilienthal said a top priority is to keep students, staff, and their families safe and healthy. “We’re focused on it every day – and we have been from the beginning.”
Wolf ordered all schools in Pennsylvania to close statewide on March 13, the same day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in wake of COVID-19 arriving in America from Asia and whilst novel coronavirus began killing elderly people in Italy at a rapid pace.
Since then, Lilienthal said that Pennsylvania’s teachers “have upped their online game, finding innovative ways to connect with and teach students.”
He said educators worked very hard over the summer to prep new types of lessons, to improve their online and remote classes, and to think through the challenges of teaching amid a pandemic.
“The pandemic has impacted all of us but especially Pennsylvania’s educators and students,” Lilienthal stated. “The vast majority of school districts are offering students some type of virtual schooling option, whether it’s all-virtual, a hybrid program, or an optional virtual program.”
“Educators do want to be in the classroom with students,” Lilienthal said. “They understand the value of learning hands-on in a collaborative classroom setting.”
