Roanoke City Public Schools employees who retire after next year will have to shoulder their own health insurance. The school board voted Wednesday to stop subsidizing the health care costs of retirees who leave the district after the 2010-11 school year. That could mean hundreds of dollars annually in additional health insurance costs for retirees. It also will give school officials an additional $1.8 million to spend, according to Deputy Superintendent Curt Baker.

School officials already have warned that they will probably not be able to afford an early retirement option to employees beyond this year, which means that employees who want to take advantage of the option need to retire this year.

Since the board's decision on health insurance rates is likely to affect some employees' retirement decisions, Superintendent Rita Bishop said the district would extend the deadline to file for early retirement until March 13, to give employees time to digest the new health insurance rates.

Under the early retirement option, employees can work 20 days a years for five years and earn 20 percent of their salary.

"We are going to have to lay this out with utter transparency to our employees," she said.