The Mandan School Board denied 19 teachers their early retirement requests Monday.

"This is hard. We've never denied before," board member Donna Fishbeck said.

The board would have put the 2006-07 budget into deficit about $700,000, if all the requests were approved. After the teachers' requests were denied, the board approved two early retirement requests from food service workers. Soon after, a row of teachers stormed out of the meeting.

The current early retirement policy applies to employees under 65 years old. Employees have a choice of a cash payment or staying on the district health insurance plan.

The board is in the process of eliminating its early retirement policy in favor of a retirement policy. Pending a third reading of the policy, no more employees would be able to request early retirement after July 1.

If the teachers' retirement requests were approved, it would have put the district $127,000 to $366,000 in the hole. On top of that, the district would pay about $200,000 in health insurance premiums and $205,000 in sick leave buyout. Business Manager Joe Lukach said property valuation is anticipated to go up 3 percent instead of the 6 percent, on which he normally builds a budget for the following year.

Even though the board denied the teachers' early retirement requests, it would have to pay the sick leave buyout of any of the teachers who choose to leave. This is because it is part of the teacher's negotiated agreement with the district.

In other board news, it gave the go-ahead to pay $6,200 for installing security cameras and the equipment used to monitor with the cameras at Mandan Senior High. The 10 cameras were donated through the Mandan Police Department for the cost of installation and ancillary equipment to make the system work.

The board will ask voters in June whether it should continue taxing agricultural land at a lower ratio than residential land.

Mandan is one of two school districts in the state to do this.

Applications are available for the three seats up for election in June. The seats that are up are John Gerding, Warren Geiger and Elmer Madler, who is the rural representative. Their terms expire July 1. Deadline to file is April 18, and candidates file with the business manager, Lukach.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)