By Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News
In September, 274 county and city school employees retired, up from 135 in September of 2019 and 145 in September 2018, according to the Retirement Systems of Alabama.
August saw similar increases — 232 this year compared to 152 in August 2019 and 181 in August 2018.
Some school leaders earlier this year said high on their lists of concerns about this school year is how to find enough teachers and staff to cover the expected COVID-19-related leaves and retirements.
But despite the recent upticks, there’s been no significant increase in retirements at local schools, according to RSA, because numbers were down earlier in the spring and summer.
Between May and September, 2,264 local school employees retired, compared to 2,302 and 2,234 in the same time periods in 2019 and 2018.
For the entire Teachers’ Retirement System, which includes community colleges, universities and other education-related agencies in the state, there were 3,013 retirements between May and September this year, compared to 2,985 in 2019 and 2,951 in 2018, according to RSA.
All Teachers Retirement Systems Retirements for May-September the past three years
| Month | Retirements |
|---|---|
| May 2018 | 137 |
| June 2018 | 1664 |
| July 2018 | 540 |
| August 2018 | 328 |
| September 2018 | 282 |
| May 2019 | 152 |
| June 2019 | 1731 |
| July 2019 | 557 |
| August 2019 | 289 |
| September 2019 | 256 |
| May 2020 | 109 |
| June 2020 | 1557 |
| July 2020 | 482 |
| August 2020 | 410 |
| September 2020 | 455 |