By CHRIS COLLINS

Baker City Herald

Jerry Peacock, Baker High School principal for the past 16 years, has announced his retirement.

But that doesn’t mean he’ll be out of his office when a new school year begins.

Peacock, who turns 53 on Monday, will continue his work for the Baker School District under a yearly contract. He will join the ranks of seven other school district employees who have retired under the state Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), but who have continued their employment with the district.

In his letter of resignation to Superintendent Don Ulrey, Peacock said he decided to retire in the best interest of himself and his family.

andquot;However I believe I have several good years left to contribute to the educational process of the youth in our community,andquot; he wrote. andquot;As such, I would like to continue on as principal of Baker High with the understanding that my status and performance will be reviewed by the board on an annual basis.

andquot;I have thoroughly enjoyed my 25-year career with Baker School District 5J and look forward to more,andquot; he concluded. andquot;I am excited about the direction I believe we are going and think I still have much to offer in assisting the district to meet its education goals.andquot;

Because the district is no longer required to pay into the retirement fund for retired employees, it reaps a substantial savings, Superintendent Don Ulrey told the school board Monday night. In Peacock’s case, the district will save about $20,000 per year.

The total savings, from all the retired employees, is more than $200,000 annually, said Ulrey, who is among the retirees. The superintendent retired from the La Grande School District before being hired in Baker in 2001 as the district’s director of curriculum and personnel. He was named superintendent in 2002.

Other retired employees who are rehired on an annual basis are Beth Bigelow, Keating principal and the district’s director of instruction and federal programs; Karen Zimmer, South Baker reading specialist; Sue Irby, Baker Middle School special education teacher; Joanne Crutcher, who teaches preschool and kindergarten at Haines; Arron Moxon, who is employed two days a week as a counselor at the Baker Middle School; and Greg Mahoney, a retired Baker City Police officer who is employed as a bus driver for the district.

Diana Smith, who has worked as a substitute teacher for the district and retired from the Burnt River School District at Unity, also is among the PERS retired employees working for the district. Smith has been hired to teach sixth grade at South Baker for the coming year. Because she is a new employee in the district, she will not be considered a contract employee hired on a yearly basis, said Norma Nemec, executive secretary to the board and superintendent.

Employees licensed through the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission who are employed in counties of fewer than 35,000 residents may work an unlimited number of hours per year, said Ed Hayhurst, the district’s business manager. Unlicensed employees, such as Mahoney, are restricted to 1,039 hours per calendar year, he said.

Also Monday night, the school board approved these personnel changes:

nAndrea Belding, who comes to Baker City from the Redmond School District, will teach kindergarten at North Baker in 2008-09.

nKaty Collier of the Cascade School District will fill a half-time kindergarten position.

nMaure Albert, a former Nyssa School District employee, will serve as half-time reading teacher at Baker Middle School and half-time BHS language arts teacher.

nBrandon Young of North Powder, former Powder Valley head wrestling coach, as BHS assistant wrestling coach and Anthony Washington as BHS boys soccer coach.

nMike Long, Baker Middle School science teacher, has resigned to accept a position with Young Life, a nondenominational Christian youth ministry. The science position will be filled by Becky Mitchell and the district has begun advertising for a language arts teacher at the middle school.

Principals from each of the in-town elementary schools explained their plans for four-week summer school program. Fifteen limited-English-proficient students in kindergarten through Grade 4 also will attend summer school in late July and the first three weeks of August, Bigelow said.

The board also approved resolutions setting the district’s permanent tax rate at $4.6051 per $1,000 of assessed value and adopting the $23,564,163 budget for 2008-09.