State Tries to Keep Retired Teachers

DURHAM — State law imposes certain salary restrictions on teachers and state employees who retire and later return to government work. In a budget bill approved in late 1998, the General Assembly made special provision for retired public-school teachers who returned to work. Starting in 1999, some of these teachers would be exempt from the salary cap. The exemption applied to retirees filling in for other teachers, or retirees taking teaching jobs at underperforming schools or schools with a teacher shortage. Linda Suggs, legislative director of the State Board of Education, sees a need for the exemption.