District 200 board boosts benefits for administrators

Retirement just got more appealing for six of the highest paid administrators in Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200.

The school board approved a new retirement benefit for Superintendent Richard Drury and five other administrators Wednesday night. It allows them to set aside twice the amount most people are allowed by law.

All district employees can set aside $15,500 for retirement under the current plan. But by adding another type of annuity, similar to a 401K, the district is allowing its top administrators to put away a maximum of $31,000 in pre-tax money per year, and even more if they're close to retirement.

District 200 Comptroller Maureen Zyburt explained teachers weren't included because most district staff don't participate in the current retirement plan. Still, staff said teachers may be included at some point.

Zyburt said the new retirement option most benefits those employees who are closer to retirement and at the upper end of the pay scale. That's because they can afford to set aside the additional income, she said.

Zyburt said the new retirement plan is being added "mainly to retain employees and as an additional benefit."

The employee who may see the most benefit is Drury, because the additional money set aside in the plan can be transferred to Illinois' pension plan.

The school board hired Drury in February with a three-year contract at a base salary of $200,000. Before that, he spent 37 years in the education systems of Michigan and Wisconsin.

Drury can use the piggybacking retirement plans and years of service in other states to buy additional years of service in Illinois, boosting his pension. Pension payouts are calculated using both the amount of money paid into pension and the total amount of years served in the state's system. So buying more service years boosts his pension checks.

There's one more possible catch for taxpayers.

At least for now, only District 200 employees will fund the retirement plans. The district will not make contributions beyond their salary. However, the language in the plan does allow the district to make contributions.

That could become an issue for taxpayers if any of the employee's salaries increase from one year to the next by 6 percent or more, including the retirement benefits. If that happened, the district would have to send more to the retirement system to help pay for those pensions.

The state changed the pension laws to scale back annual pay raises to 6 percent from the previously allowed 20 percent. The idea was to do away with "golden parachutes" for retiring teachers.

The new retirement option plan will take employee contributions starting in January.