Buyout

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. said Wednesday that it will cut 500 jobs at a Linthicum-based division, blaming a drop in business caused by "delays and uncertainty" in both domestic and international contracts. The company said the "vast majority" of the cuts to the Electronic Systems sector would hit the division's Baltimore-area locations, with the rest spread among its other facilities in Illinois, Virginia, Connecticut, Florida and Alabama. Northrop Grumman is offering a buyout to employees but will conduct layoffs by the end of May if too few leave voluntarily, said spokesman Jack Martin Jr. "This work force reduction action is regrettable, but unavoidable," Martin said by e-mail.

Wizards Bibby receives buyout, hopes to play for contender The Washington Wizards reached a buyout agreement Monday with Mike Bibby , freeing the veteran guard to attempt to join an NBA contender. The terms were not disclosed, but a person with knowledge of the situation said Bibby sacrificed a "substantial" amount of money for his freedom. The Portland Trail Blazers, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and possibly Denver Nuggets are believed to have interest in Bibby, 32, whom the Wizards acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in a trade involving Kirk Hinrich . Mustafa Shakur , who recently completed his second 10-day contract, will be signed for the rest of the season to replace Bibby.

Former University of Miami coach Randy Shannon has declined an offer to become Maryland's defensive coordinator, according to a source with knowledge of the talks. Shannon had been offered the job last week, and had returned to his home and talked with representatives of his old school. When he got back in touch with Maryland, he told the school that he stood to lose about $1.5 million in Miami buyout money if he signed on with Maryland, the source said. Miami signed Shannon to a new four-year contract on May 12, 2010.

Baltimore City and the entire state face severe budget cuts to education. Those cuts will no doubt affect the classroom teaching no matter how the cuts are delivered. The Sun's editorial ( "Alonso's buyout plan: putting the best teachers in the classroom," Feb. 15) expresses that the buyout for Baltimore City teachers will not impact the classroom, but the loss of teachers, any school's most valuable resource, will adversely effect teaching and learning. That is why we need to oppose budget cuts to public education.

Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso's is offering early-retirement buyouts to as many as 750 teachers at the same time that he is proposing yet another reorganization of the school system's central office. Both initiatives aim to build on the progress city schools have made during the last four years. But the real test remains whether the changes produce tangible improvements in student achievement and in the quality of classroom instruction. Tinkering with the mechanics of the organizational chart is only a means to that end, not the end in itself.

Parents of Baltimore City students expressed concern Monday about the district's plan to buy out up to 750 of its most experienced teachers to mitigate budget shortfalls, saying that the school system could lose valuable expertise and classroom experience. "I'm a little angry about it because there was no mention about how the educators taking the buyout is going to affect the students," said T.Y. Powell, parent of a sophomore at Polytechnic Institute. "I understand that they are making a business decision, but city school students have suffered long enough because of strictly business decisions.

Baltimore city school officials are encouraging as many as 750 of the city's most experienced teachers to retire by April — a measure that school officials say will help mitigate budget shortfalls and prevent potential layoffs as the system girds for an expected reduction in teaching positions next year. In a letter sent Friday to 3,200 eligible teachers, the school system outlined details of an early-retirement buyout program that would allow between 350 and 750 teachers with more than 10 years' experience to leave the system and receive 75 percent of their current annual salary over a five-year period.

Of the more than 80 scholarship football players who will be impacted by a coaching change at Maryland, none will be more immediately affected than redshirt freshman quarterback Danny O'Brien. Recently named the Atlantic Coast Conference's Rookie of the Year after leading the Terps to an 8-4 record and late-season contention for a division title, O'Brien now faces the prospect of continuing his career in College Park without the two coaches most responsible for him being there — coach Ralph Friedgen and offensive coordinator James Franklin.

As a soon-to-be 40-year state employee, I and many of my public safety peers are wondering about the fairness of Gov. Martin O'Malley's buyout offer, since virtually all of us — parole and probation agents and supervisors, state police officers and correctional officers, for example — are on the long exclusion list. However other employees of the same and other agencies who are in very limited or unique job classifications and who may have relatively limited experience apparently are not excluded.

A lump sum of $15,000 plus $200 for every year of employment may not sound like much of an enticement for someone to leave a secure job, particularly in this economy, but Gov. Martin O'Malley's buyout offer for state workers may well be enough to persuade some civil servants to retire sooner rather than later, or to pursue another career, or go back to school. And even if it accomplishes nothing more than getting the administration to the reduction of 500 positions mandated by the legislature this year, the savings in the long term could prove substantial — so long as the state holds itself to a requirement to permanently abolish the positions of those who take the deal.