In response to a buyout offer negotiated as part of the new contract, 115 teachers and other school staff in the Absent Teacher Reserve accepted incentives of up 10 weeks’ severance pay in return for retiring or resigning by the end of July, the Department of Education reported on Aug. 6.

The voluntary buyout was offered to all ATRs in the pool, a little over 1,100 staffers in total as of this spring. Those who accepted the offer had average salaries of $93,000, the DOE said, indicating they were mainly senior teachers. The severance payments will cost the DOE $1.8 million.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said the union agreed to buyouts for those teachers who were ready to leave but is putting most of its efforts into permanent placements for educators in the ATR pool.

“Most teachers are in the ATR pool because their school closed or their program was phased out,” he said. “We want every teacher who should be in the classroom to land a permanent classroom assignment. And for teachers who decided teaching was no longer for them, the buyout process was a way to leave the system.”

The new contract ratified by members in June ensured that no ATRs would be summarily fired. Along with the voluntary buyout, union negotiators were able to win the city’s agreement to give ATRs improved access to job placements. The DOE is obliged after Oct. 15 to send those teachers in the ATR pool to any school in the district/borough with a vacancy in the teacher’s license area. The principal retains the discretion to keep the teacher or return him or her to the ATR pool.