Retired D300 Supt. 18th Highest School Pension

From Reboot Illinois:

18. Norman Wetzel

• Title: District Superintendent
• Employer: CUSD 300
• Annual Pension: $246,521
• Employee Contributions: $179,203
• Age at Retirement: 55 (Retired June 2002)
• Pension Paid to Date: $2.50 million
• *Estimated Lifetime Pension Payout: $7.87 million
• Percentage of Lifetime Estimate Paid by Employee: 2.3%


Comments

Retired D300 Supt. 18th Highest School Pension — 15 Comments

  1. What is wrong in IL in a nutshell.

    I was out of state for a wedding and I spoke with a teacher in FL.

    She had a masters in education teaching elementary and never made more than 45k teaching in FL.

    No pension

  2. Harvard Il

    Retired superintendent Richard Crosby and his wife collect $369.000 per year along with a cola so they don’t slip behind…………..

    then they even name a school after him…………

  3. The Mrs: clearly this pension issue is a mess and the inflated pensions are wrong.

    But are you saying we should pay Master’s educated teachers low wages and deny them a pension?

    I don’t think that’s the way to go either.

  4. The way to go is the way doctors, nurses, lawyers, and everyone with advanced degrees goes.

    401k/IRA

    Defined contribution plans in control of owner, not defined benefit plans.

  5. Wise words, Susan.

    Dist 300 has always taken care of administrators, CFOs, “consultants” (retired tearchers), and did little for students, improving curriculuum, and preparing their graduates for employement opportunities when they graduate.

    Wetzel is prime example of where D300 has put their priorities for many years.

    You’ll find more generously funded adminstrative positions, e.g. Bumbales, and more for “busy work.”

  6. In a few years, it won’t matter what the Illinois Constition says.

    The TRS will be broke, and the Illinois Supreme Court does not have the power to either appropriate more money for it or force the General Assembly to do so.

  7. Curious, I don’t think that teachers,firemen, police, public works employees, anyone working at the courthouse or the county or state offices and especially elected officials should receive a pension.

    Pensions are a Ponzi scheme that stick the taxpayers with the bill.

    I do believe that gym teachers, even with a masters aren’t worth $120k.

    Are the local districts reimbursing teachers for furthering their educations?

  8. Most districts reimburse tuition for picking up a Master’s degree.

    Way back when I was in high school, we had teachers with multiple Master’s degrees all paid for by the taxpayers, and the teachers got a nice raise for each degree attained.

    It’s a racket, because a lot of the part time Master’s degree programs are pretty much bad jokes that are designed specifically for public employees who wish to punch their tickets with a minimal amount of work.

  9. In private industry, Masters degrees provide some value-added.

    (Masters nurses may gain more rich and recent knowledge in rapidly-changing field of medicine, and must serve as preceptors to new (lower hourly rate) nurses.

    Also, highly skilled and educated professionals may be expected to have productivity commensurate with their pay grade.

    In public schools, the value relative to additional cost is not clear.

    There doesn’t seem to be any requirement for teachers to serve as preceptors, OR be more productive ( teach more students-per-hour, or serve as tutors to students).

  10. Re: “The TRS will be broke, and the Illinois Supreme Court does not have the power to either appropriate more money for it or force the General Assembly to do so.”

    If we do not change who controls Springfield, the Legislature will simply vote to increase our taxes.

  11. Susan: 401K not a bad idea.

    But in the business world employers also contribute to the 401k.

    So if teachers have a 401k is it totally self funded?

    Shouldn’t they at least be offered a 457 so it’s pre-tax?

  12. Whatever is industry standard for post-grad educated professionals?

    Of course tax-benefit maximization should be a factor.

    Just as with nurses ( a similarly educated ‘compassion profession’) there could be employer matching contributions to defined-contribution retirement plans.

    Public employment seems the only occupation which doesn’t socially engineer economic behavior via tax incentives/penalties.

    Because the public employees’ benefits are provided without regard to unrealistically low contributions by individual employee (compare to purchase price of a similar annuity), there is no consciously realized benefit to public employee to alter personal economic household income allocation choices.

    Therefore public employees are insulated from and cannot relate to the ‘point of pain’ which is inflicted on non-public-employee taxpayers.
    (Oh, wait…maybe that IS a case of socially engineered economic behavior being manifested at the voting booth).

    But what can we do about it?

    Pray for rain during rainy season.

    Ask for something possible and probable.

    Here’s a start:

    Teachers!

    This collective action will lower YOUR property taxes, and will cost you NOTHING, and will reinforce your shaky claims of ‘concern for your community, and ‘the children”:

    “ANY SPRINGFIELD LEGISLATOR VOTING ‘YES’ FOR A TIF DISTRICT 12 YEAR EXTENSION GETS A BIG ‘NO’ VOTE FROM TEACHERS!”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *