Veteran Teachers Seek Exit Before Benefit Sunset

Barb LeBlanc and Harriett Alfred both wanted to teach in New Haven public schools for at least another two years.

Instead, they’ve put in their retirement papers — in advance of a contract change that will see longtime local educators like themselves lose a portion of their city-covered healthcare benefits.

LeBlanc, a preschool teacher at Beecher School, and Alfred, a music instructor at Co-Op, have both taught in the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district for more than 25 years. (LeBlanc has taught for a total of 33 years; Alfred for 38.)

That means they are eligible to benefit from a provision in the teachers union contract that requires the city to pay for the full cost of their health insurance premiums after they retire and before they turn 65 or sooner qualify for the federal health insurance program Medicare. 

After June 30, however, that contract-guaranteed benefit is partly going away. 

Teachers who retire after June 30 and who have more than 25 years of NHPS experience and who are too young for Medicare will have to pay for half — rather than none — of the ​“employee cost share” of their health insurance benefits. That ​“cost share” refers to the amount active employees contribute each month toward the health insurance premium paid by the city. 

“[T]he support for these retirees is still there — it just won’t be as great as it has been,” NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent.

“This change was something that was agreed to by the union during the collective bargaining process. Its implementation has been delayed for two years, and it’s time to move forward with this component of the agreement,” Mayor Justin Elicker said in a separate comment. ​“We want to provide the very best salaries and benefits we can, while at the same time we also need to balance the city’s ability to pay for them.”

Nevertheless, LeBlanc and Alfred and other veteran New Haven educators are heading to the doors to retire in time so they can still benefit from the full post-retirement health insurance benefit before it sunsets on June 30, until they are eligible for Medicare.

“I had always planned to work 35 years, but retiring after 33 makes sense financially with the health benefit going away,” LeBlanc told the Independent. ​“I would have two more years in the classroom ahead of me if it weren’t for this change.”

Alfred agreed. She had hoped to reach 40 years with NHPS, but ​“this stopped that in its tracks.”

“What’s going to be taken next?” she found herself asking. That ultimately helped her make the decision to retire this year.

“As veteran teachers, it’s like our work is not valued,” Alfred said. ​“This shows how the teachers are not as revered as they should be.”

The teachers union told the Independent that, between March 1 and June 1, a total of 45 NHPS teachers submitted for retirement. That’s up from 25 teachers who submitted for retirement during that same time period last year.

The teachers union also shared with the Independent a survey they conducted last spring that found a total of 118 union members who were under the age of 65 and who were slated to complete their 25th year or more of service at NHPS by June 2025. 

Around 35 of 48 teachers who responded to the union’s survey said that they plan to retire in 2025 to gain access to the full post-retirement health insurance benefit before it sunsets. Roughly 30 told the union that they would continue working at NHPS if the benefit was extended. 

Harmon, NHPS’ spokesperson, said that this particular health-insurance contract provision was originally set to expire on June 30, 2023, but was extended for two years. ​“We also were negotiating large increases in teachers’ salaries, so the expiration may have seemed like less of a disincentive at the time,” Harmon proposed. ​“We are trying very hard to retain our teachers and will want the new contract to support that goal.”

“It is not sustainable for the city to continue to pay retirees’ full healthcare premiums in perpetuity,” Mayor Elicker added. ​“Previously, there was no cost to retirees. Now, retirees have to pay half of what an active employee has to pay, bringing this benefit into closer alignment with what is provided to other municipal employees. Most other municipal employees (depending on which union they are in), pay either what an active employee has to pay or the same amount they were paying while they were an active employee prior to their retirement.”

He noted that the recent teachers union contract increased teacher salaries by 15 percent over three years. He added that teacher retiree costs for healthcare benefits and premiums are actually the lowest of all of the city’s municipal bargaining units.

"Teaching Is Very Hard Work"

In an interview Monday, LeBlanc, who has been teaching in New Haven for 33 years, said that she hoped to hit at least 35 years in her NHPS career, which she began at 22 years old. 

She has spent the past decades as a classroom teacher, interventionist, and literacy coach. For the past seven years, she’s been teaching preschool at L.W. Beecher School.

She described having mixed feelings about leaving earlier than she hoped, as this has been her dream job since she was 16 years old. 

She said, ​“I always wanted to work in an urban setting. Teaching is who I am. Part of me will always belong to the kids of New Haven, and I’m very grateful for everything I’ve learned while working at NHPS, as well as for relationships with amazing people.”

LeBlanc said she thinks the clause expiration will affect teachers and the district going forward because ​“teaching is very hard work and the benefits we receive are a huge plus, especially since salaries are not always competitive.” While she said she’s not sure it will discourage new hires, she does predict retention issues will arise if other districts have better long-term benefits.

A Wilbur Cross history teacher who wished to remain anonymous said in a Tuesday interview that they are frustrated with the clause expiration as they’ve been an educator since 1998, starting in Bridgeport Public Schools and moving to New Haven in 2005. 

They therefore miss the 25-year cutoff and as a result are now weighing how much longer they’ll be able to keep up with teaching. They said they also want to make sure their kids have health coverage for the next five years at least.

“Now it looks like I’m going to have to at least do another five years to at least hit 60 with healthcare, then pay 50 percent,” they said. ​“I don’t know that I can afford to do that and that might force me to do another five years, and so I don’t know if I can do that either.” 

Co-Op High School music teacher Harriett Alfred has also submitted her retirement papers this year after 38 years teaching in New Haven’s elementary and high schools. 

“When I first heard about it, it hit me because I had not decided to retire,” she said, recalling the moment she learned about the approaching contractual change last school year from teachers union President Leslie Blatteau.

She described feeling pushed out as a veteran educator who brings decades of teaching experience, a benefit for students and fellow teachers alike. 

She made the decision to retire because she’s aware ​“healthcare is not cheap” and this is a benefit she’s worked for that wasn’t awarded to past educators like her mother, who retired without any health care benefits she said.

Alfred described preparing for her departure as bittersweet and said she’s grateful she will retire with her full pension after 38 years. 

She added that teaching during the Covid pandemic was the hardest time of teaching in her almost four decades. In recent times she’s also had to deal with managing students’ behaviors sometimes more often than teaching music. But she pushed through in order to try to meet her goal of 40 years. 

She worries this change will be just another thing that makes New Haven Public Schools less ​“complementary” and shows the district and city are cutting corners by not investing in experienced educators and instead are focusing on bringing in lower-paid brand new teachers. 

In her interview with the Independent, teacher union president Leslie Blatteau sounded a similar note. She asked, ​“What other profession sees that level of experience as a liability?”

Teachers Union Prez: "A Lot Of People Don't Want To Leave Yet"

Teachers union President Leslie Blatteau said that the contract change was fairly negotiated, but she still worries about its longterm impact on NHPS. She said that last August the union attempted to advocate for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city that would extend the benefit for those who are already eligible, because they have 25 years of experience in NHPS and are under 65 years old. That would have allowed teachers like Alfred and LeBlanc to remain teaching without rushing to retire before June 30 to hold on to the full health-insurance benefit. That MOU never came to be.

Blatteau said that NHPS used to offer significant benefits to retain teachers despite their less competitive wages. 

“I’m not aware of any other districts and unions that have this. And I believe it’s an example of a time when New Haven acknowledged that they want people to stay and make a career in New Haven,” Blatteau said.

She now questions what the district is offering that will make educators want to stay and dedicate a quarter-century of their careers to New Haven. She suggested NHPS look past the June 30 sunset and recognize that ​“there’s a lot we can do to retain educators,” like offering salaries and benefits comparable to those in nearby cities and towns. She also called for teachers to be included in district-wide decision-making processes, for a transparent NHPS budget, and for more teacher voices to be heard when it comes to school-building spending and policy implementation. 

“Trust is essential to any organization,” she said, ​“and retention and wellbeing are connected.” 

When asked what she’s heard from educators over the last year as the sunset date approaches, Blatteau said that ​“a lot of people don’t want to leave yet” and ​“some are not ready to leave, but felt it is the best choice for their family.” 

She also suggested the district collect data and use it to do a deep dive into buildings with high turnover rates to identify what supports are needed in all buildings for all educators.

While saving costs is important, Blatteau said the ​“churn of the in and out” of new educators is also costly. ​“Every new onboard is another expense.” 

Blatteau also noted that for educators in Connecticut to receive their full pension, they must work 37.5 years on the job. She called for more conversations to be had about teachers’ pensions and how ageism and sexism contribute to the profession’s current retention rates. ​“It takes people who start in New Haven and stay in New Haven a long time as a teacher to get what should be a starting salary,” she said.