The Knoxville School Board approved voluntary early retirement packages for seven employees at their last meeting.

To be eligible for early retirement, employees had to be at least 55, a full time employee, and have been with the district for ten consecutive years. The employees who were approved for early retirement will retire at the end of the 2025-2026 school year and the list includes Melissa Hermsen, Jim Uitermarkt, Teri Hardman, Sudan Leedom, Cindy Foster, Doug Hatch, and Brian McNeil. School Business Manager Craig Mobley says the district is thankful for the service of all of those who will be retiring and he says the early retirements help the district out in saving resources.

“The real advantages of our early retirement plan is that any incentive that is paid out through that can come out of the management fund, and then it provides an opportunity to have a little bit of savings in the general fund just through veteran staff retiring and bringing in new younger staff.”

Those who applied for early retirement had the option to retire at the end of this school year or next.