Former D-181 Official Gets $315K Pension

HINSDALE, IL — There must have been something about Mary — Mary Curley, that is. In her final two years before retiring, the former Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills elementary schools superintendent received two 20 percent raises and left the school system with a salary of $385,378, up from $267,624 two years before. That's more than $100,000 in increases.

From 1999 to 2007, Curley led Community Consolidated School District 181, which serves kindergarten through eighth grade. While Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills taxpayers bore the brunt of the salary then, the impact was much a larger and long-term for the state's taxpayers. That's because the final years of educators' pay are a big factor in calculating pension amounts in the Teachers Retirement System.

Curley retired at 55 after 34 years of service. She began with a pension of $226,644, but that amount was guaranteed to go up 3 percent a year no matter what. So her annual pension is now $315,336. That is considerably more than the salary of the current superintendent, Hector Garcia, who makes $249,832.

In 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled that the terms of a person's pension can never be changed from the very first day of employment. That is the court's reading of a state constitutional provision that bars any diminishing of benefits.

In Illinois, the state government pays the employer's share of teachers' pensions for every school district but Chicago's. So a district avoids the long-term costs of big raises because the expense is spread out among all the state's taxpayers.

If Curley's pension had increased with the rate of inflation since 2007, her pension would now be $279,153 — still above Garcia's salary but well below her current amount.

Even now, Curley's final salary of $315,336 may seem large for a district with 3,400 students. But it's actually much larger when inflation is taken into account. In today's dollars, her final salary would amount to $477,277, more than the $400,000 salary for the U.S. president.

For years, many districts granted superintendents and teachers two 20 percent raises in their last two years. More than a decade ago, because of taxpayers' mounting frustration with such increases, the state legislature passed a law limiting end-of-career spiking to 6 percent annually in the last four years. Districts would assume the long-term pension liabilities that result from raises of more than 6 percent.

Before the new law, school districts had the choice whether to give large increases to superintendents and teachers. However, two former District 181 members said they were under the impression that state law required them to give such increases. They were on the board that approved the hikes.

Former member Dan Rizzardini said the 20 percent bumps "automatically happened for everyone" because it was "state-mandated."

"We had no control over that," Rizzardini said. "As a citizen, I find it to be terrible policy. I'm upset our state pension plans are totally underfunded. Taxes are going up left and right because of it."

Another former member, Bill Moucka, said if educators announced their retirements in those days, they would get two 20 percent raises. He said the board was simply following the rules of the Teachers Retirement System.

When told it was not a requirement, Moucka said, "I don't remember the nuances or the options at the time. TRS allowed the two 20 percent bumps."

Former member Mary Beth Tamm, who was elected in 2005, said she arrived after the board decided Curley's salary amounts. She said she recalled it was hard to even obtain Curley's contract at the time.

"I'm glad they are done with the 20 percent bumps," she said in an interview. "Those are massive increases for people at the end of their careers."

Curley's situation is a perfect example of the problems with the state's pension system, said Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, a nonprofit research group that focuses on Illinois' economy and government. District 181, Dabrowski said, only had to cover the cost of the increases for the two years.

"The pension she'll get the rest of her life isn't paid by Hinsdale taxpayers. It's paid by people in Carbondale, Palos Heights, Rockford. That's what makes this pension system so ludicrous. It forces taxpayers to support rich pensioners in the suburbs," Dabrowski said.

He also said Illinois needs to stop paying the employer share of pensions. Local school districts, he said, should be held accountable for their salary decisions.

Curley is 68 now, according to state pension records. Dabrowski said the life expectancy for a 68-year-old member of the teachers pension system is about 85. If Curley lives to that age, her pension will amount to $521,202 at that time.

And if the past is any guide, her increases will exceed the inflation rate. In 2019, the national inflation rate was 2.3 percent, higher than most recent years. Curley, like every other public pensioner in Illinois, got a 3 percent hike.

"The 3 percent increases are why pensions have become so expensive," Dabrowski said.

Curley couldn't be reached for comment.