Baltimore County school employees will be able to choose their retirement plan provider after the school board unanimously voted down a proposal to limit them to one company.

Hundreds of employees gathered outside the school board meeting Tuesday night to protest the retirement plan proposal and the board’s recent rejection of arbiters’ decision to give employees a 2 percent cost-of-living raise. Many employees waved signs — including one reading “No Teacher Left Behind” — and wore black to show that they felt shut out of the process.