Some members reported to the MTA office that their most recent NYSTRS Benefit Profile contained incorrect information in the area of salary earned for the 2005 – 2006 school year (July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2006). MTA Officers, Executive Board members and Retirement Delegates have been working to track down the reason for the incorrect information and how members can secure the correct amount that should have been listed as salary earned.

What has been uncovered is that during the past school year TRS instituted new methods of reporting salaries. Instead of reporting on a quarterly basis, all employers are now required to report on a monthly basis. This created a problem with the final payroll in June 2006. While most members had the correct salary reported, there was a problem with the information transmitted for about 200 teachers. It appears that most of the approximately 200 teachers were those who were on the 21 paycheck option and that none of their last paycheck amounts were transmitted to TRS. The district’s Business Department discovered the errors and has said that corrected info was transmitted to TRS. However, that info didn’t seem to make its way into the Benefit Profile.

The MTA contacted TRS board member Sheila Salenger for assistance. She forwarded the MTA’s concerns to Sheila Gardella, Director of Member Relations at TRS. Ms. Gardella said that TRS is working with the district’s payroll department to correct the problem and that TRS will re-evaluate and update all member records. She strongly urges members use the Secure Member Area of the TRS web site (www.nystrs.org) to track and see the change of salary for the past school year. If you are looking at retirement this year, the MTA thinks that you would probably be best served by making personal contact with a TRS representative to get the corrections made as soon as possible.

Locally, Sheila Esposito requested that a memo be sent from the district’s Business Department to all teachers who had corrected information sent to TRS. The MTA was told that the memo will be forthcoming.

After seeing what has occurred, all members should check their Benefit Profiles on an annual basis, not just as you are nearing your retirement years. It’s your pension, be sure it is correct.