When the Leslie School District closed for the summer Friday, 14 teachers and three support staff left for good.

"It's a little more than we anticipated," Superintendent Corey Netzley said.

Netzley said the district offered its own retirement package in conjunction with the state's and that might have swayed a few people.

"We've been spending a lot of time putting together a staffing plan," she said. "We know how many positions we have to fill."

The bottom line: thanks to those retirements, the district won't have to cut any positions this year. The same can be said in the Jackson School District.

"We took 46 retirements to the board and they approved it," A'lynne Robinson said.

Robinson said the district was considering 44 layoffs this year to help balance the budget, but not anymore.

"It's a wonderful place to be to not be starring in the face of massive layoffs," Robinson said.

It's not the be-all end-all answer to the Jackson School District's worries though. They still face an multi-million dollar budget hole, but Robinson said, this early retirement plan helped.

"It doesn't come with the answer of one silver bullet that solves the problem," she said.

Netzley said the real savings from the plan will be seen in two or three years down the road, money that will be funneled back into the classroom.

"I can't say what programs it's going to save," she said, "but it is going to help with that, you bet it will."

It is bittersweet Netzley said because nearly 350 years of experience walked out the door Friday.

"We gain financially, but we lose in experience," she said.

Because of retirements, some districts are actually going to be hiring.
The Holt school district will likely hire 10-17 people. In East Lansing, there could be 20 positions available.