The deadline was extended for veteran teachers in the San Diego Unified School District to take a financial buyout plan in exchange for retiring early.
The San Diego school board voted to give them two more weeks yesterday.
The district is looking to reach its target of 633 veteran teachers to take the deal. Currently about 600 teachers have signed-up.
Despite the shortfall, district officials say they’re still moving forward with the offer because they have already secured enough cost savings.
The district's Sam Wong says that’s because the teachers who did take the offer are at the very top-end of the pay-scale.
"The majority of the teachers, not all, but the majority of the teachers that I saw earned around $80,000 a year," Wong said. "And that's without benefits. So we saw the very, very experienced teacher, having gotten their masters (take the deal)."
Wong says 600 teachers retiring early translate into six million dollars in savings. He says teachers who decide to take the deal in the next two weeks will add to any cost savings. San Diego Unified is using the early retirement incentives to plug a $147 million budget deficit for next school year.
