NASHUA — School board members took aim Wednesday night at the few dozen retirees employed part-time by the district, a group that has come under fire recently for collecting pensions and paychecks.

At a meeting of the board’s human resources committee, Board of Education Chairman Robert Hallowell said he struggled to grasp how some part-timers are paying zero in health care costs.

“That doesn’t sit well with me,” he said. “You’ve got retired employees that in addition to getting their pension are getting a better health care deal than anyone else in the district.”

Dana O’Gara, human resources director for the district, explained that with contributions from the district and the city, some retirees who fall under the state retirement benefit system pay little or nothing toward their health coverage.

“Legally we’re stuck with it because we can’t control what the New Hampshire Retirement System gives them for a benefit,” she said.

The district employs at least 22 individuals on a part-time basis, at a cost of $960,000 and an average salary of $36,874. Six additional ad-hoc positions receive no benefits.

Hallowell called for a policy to address the health care issue and to require a gap between retiring and being hired in Nashua.

“We need to get it down on paper and I think there’s some things we can tweak about it to make it a little more transparent,” he said.

Superintendent Mark Conrad agreed to return to the board with a draft policy

Conrad pointed out that of the 22 positions in question, most are in areas considered to be in “critical shortage” by the state. The group includes reading, science, hospitality, Spanish, special education, art, speech and language and vision disabilities instructors.

Conrad said the hospitality teacher recently hired after retirement was literally irreplaceable; not rehiring her would have forced the high school to end its hospitality program outright.

“We can’t find Spanish teachers and French teachers?” Hallowell said. “Latin I can imagine.”

O’Gara said part-time teaching positions are generally harder to fill.

“All the candidates out there would rather have full-time positions with full-time benefits and be enrolled in the pension system,” she said.

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Simon Rios may be reached at srios@newstote.com.