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Chicago Public School Retirees Protest Checks Short $300 to $1,000 a month

Los Angeles has had and still has a similar problem.

by Rosalind Rossi

Former teacher Carolyn Barber originally figured she'd be enjoying her retirement on a beach in Hawaii by now.

Instead, she was marching in the cold Wednesday outside the Chicago Board of Education with about 50 other retired teachers who say their pension checks have been inaccurate for months.

"I gave 28 years of service,'' said Barber, who figures she has been shorted $1,000 a month since June. "This is a cheap shot.''

About 1,700 recently retired teachers, principals and administrators have had pension paycheck problems since the Chicago Public Schools converted to a PeopleSoft payroll system, which has been giving inaccurate salary and pension contribution information to the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund for months, Pension Fund officials say.

'A pox on both your houses'

After a series of unsuccessful fixes, CPS and Pension Fund officials were hoping Wednesday that a new CPS plan would fix the situation.

At Wednesday's School Board meeting, Chicago Principals Association President Clarice Berry wished CPS and the Pension Fund "a pox on both your houses'' if the mess is not fixed soon.

Chicago Teachers Union recording secretary Mary McGuire said the problem cropped up just as CPS faced its largest wave of retirements in years. She questioned why CPS didn't wait until after the June 30 retirements to introduce the PeopleSoft system.

Many teachers' pension checks are short $300 to $400 a month, McGuire said.

Barber said her son had to take out a student loan after she suddenly couldn't cover his tuition at the University of Missouri. Plus, she said, a Hawaiian vacation she had planned for this month was canceled. "I pray every time I write a check,'' Barber said.

— Rosalind Rossi
Chicago Sun-Times
2007-12-20


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