MARSHALL — After voters turned down a $675 per student operating levy in this month’s elections, Marshall Public Schools has started talking about possible ways to reduce costs. One option school board members approved on Monday was to offer an early retirement incentive to Marshall principals.

“We’ve run the numbers, and there would be a cost savings to the district,” MPS Superintendent Jeremy Williams said.

Williams and school board member Aaron Ziemer said the option for early retirement was something the Marshall Principals’ Association had brought forward earlier. Ziemer said the MPS finance committee had also talked about the possibility last week.

“This is something that I think was actually brought to the board during negotiations earlier in the year,” Ziemer said. “With the referendum having failed, the board is obviously looking for an opportunity to find potential cost savings. That was one of the reasons that we have decided to maybe go back and offer this proposal for voluntary early retirement for the principals’ association.”

There are currently 10 members of the Marshall Principals’ Association, Williams told the Independent earlier on Monday. The association includes all school administrators who currently work under that master agreement, he said. They include the principal and assistant principal at each of MPS’s school sites, including MATEC, as well as coordinator of special projects Mary Kay Thomas, Williams said.

Ziemer said the early retirement incentive would be offered to Principals’ Association members age 55 and up. Members opting to take the early retirement incentive would need to notify the board by Jan. 1. Their retirement would need to be effective no later than August 2023, he said.

The resolution included in the agenda packet for Monday’s school board meeting said the maximum amount of the early retirement incentive would not exceed $17,500.

“There are only two people who would qualify, and only one is applying, correct?” school board member Bill Swope asked at Monday’s school board meeting.

“We haven’t sent it to them yet, so I’m not sure how many would apply,” Williams said.

Board members voted in favor of offering the early retirement incentive.