Request By:
Mrs. Hughlyne P. Wilson
Assistant Superintendent
Division of Personnel Services
Jefferson County Public Schools
P.O. Box 18325
Louisville, Ky. 40218Mr. Martin L. Bell
Executive Director
Jefferson County Teachers Association
P.O. Box 18325
Louisville, Ky. 40218
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Patrick B. Kimberlin, III, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your recent letter to this office wherein you ask our opinion with respect to the following question:
"Can the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System credit for retirement purposes effective July 1, 1981 additional compensation provided to qualified certificated employes who elect to retire effective July 1, as a result of the Jefferson County Board of Education's Early Retirement Benefit policy?"
As you are aware, the 1980 session of the Kentucky General Assembly amended KRS 161.155, insofar as is here pertinent, by adding a new section to that statute which reads as follows:
(5) After July 1, 1981, a district board of education may compensate, at the time of retirement, a teacher for each unused sick leave day. The rate of compensation for each unused sick leave day shall be based on a percentage of the teacher's last annual salary, not to exceed thirty per cent (30%). Payment for unused sick leave days shall be incorporated into the annual salary of the final year of service. The accumulation of such days includes unused sick leave days held by the teacher at the time of implementation of such a program. (Emphasis ours).
You indicate in your letter that the Jefferson County Board of Education adopted an early retirement benefit schedule for certified employes which provides that the Board will pay those who qualify an additional amount to be added to their last year's salary effective no later than July 15, 1981. 1 The schedule requires this additional amount to be added to the last year's salary not later than July 15, 1981. You point out that it was the Board's intent to allow certified employes in Jefferson County to retire at the end of 1980-81 school year to take advantage of the benefits made permissible for local school boards pursuant to KRS 161.155(5).
The problem which arises now is that the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System (KTRS), due to the underscored language, has interpreted KRS 161.155(5) to be applicable only to those certificated employes whose retirement is effective no sooner than August 1, 1981 rather than the normal retirement date of July 1, 1981. 2 The effect of the KTRS interpretation is that certificated employes in Jefferson County will be denied one month of retirement annuity for life by being forced to take their retirement one month later if they wish to avail themselves of the sick leave policy created pursuant to KRS 161.155(5).
In our opinion the interpretation placed upon KRS 161.155(5) by the KTRS is incorrect. As a general principle, pension and retirement statutes should be given a liberal construction. Mayberry v. Coyne, Ky., 312 S.W.2d 455 (1958). Furthermore, retirement and pension statutes are entitled to a non-technical interpretation and every effort should be made to ascertain the ordinary common sense meaning of their terms in order to make effective the general plan of retirement contemplated by the law making body. 60 Am.Jur.2d, Pensions and Retirement Funds, Section 4, page 881. Finally, it should be kept in mind, that no statute, regardless of its subject, should or will be construed to reach an unreasonable result or one that is absurd and would circumvent legislative intent. Valla v. Preston Street Road Water District No. 1 of Jefferson County, Ky., 395 S.W.2d 772 (1965); George v. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, Ky., 421 S.W.2d 569 (1967).
It is our opinion that the General Assembly, in amending KRS 161.155 by adding Section 5, did not intend to place those certificated employes of the local school board in the position of having to forfeit one month of their retirement annuity if they were to take advantage of that statutory amendment. To interpret this legislation in such a manner would indeed lead to an absurd result which we do not believe is permissible under these circumstances. Here, we believe that the "problem" may easily be resolved by simple bookkeeping measures taken by the local school board in conjunction with the KTRS. Those certificated employes of the Jefferson County School Board who give notice on or before June 1 of their retirement, to be effective July 1, 1981, may take advantage of the sick leave crediting provisions of KRS 161.155(5) providing that the additional amount to be added to their last year of final salary (due to accumulated unused sick days) be determined not later than July 15, 1981. We do not believe that the underscored language in KRS 161.155(5) prohibits crediting of such credit to those certificated employes otherwise eligible who retire prior to July 1, 1981.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 Effective not later than July 15, 1981, certificated employees with eight (8) years or more seniority upon retirement from the Jefferson County Public Schools shall have an additional amount not exceeding statutory limits added to their last year's salary as defined by the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System. This amount shall be calculated as a percentage (%age) of the value of each unused accumulated sick leave day computed from the Salary Schedule and the scheduled longevity increments. Those certificated employees who retire in FY81 will be treated for purposes of this benefit as if they are retiring during their first eligible year.
2 In passing, we note that 102 KAR 1:070 Section 2 provides that applications for retirement for service, in order to be effective at the beginning of the next fiscal year, must be filed on or before June 1. However, we do not believe that this regulation is relevant to the issue at hand since it has no direct application to the crediting of unused sick days under KRS 161.155(5).