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elected to come within the provisions of this Act as provided for in section 15. Each teacher shall be furnished a statement by such board showing the amount deducted from the salary of said teacher.

§ 13. All persons who shall be employed to teach in the public schools of the State, coming under the provisions of this Act, shall, after this Act takes effect, be entitled to the benefits of the fund upon complying with the provisions of this Act, and for the purposes of this Act such persons shall be divided into the following classes:

First-Those who have taught ten years or fewer than ten years. Second-Those who have taught more than ten years and not more than fifteen years.

Third-Those who have taught more than fifteen years.

After this Act shall take effect there shall be set apart from the salaries of all such persons so employed as teachers in the public schools of this State, coming under the provisions of this Act, $1.00 per month for the first five months taught after July first of each year by such teacher while he or she remains in the first class; $2.00 per month for the first five months taught after July first of each year by such teacher while he or she remains in the second class; $6.00 per month for the first five months taught after July first of each year by such teacher for the first ten years while he or she remains in the third class, which amount shall be deducted by the managing body of the school taught by such teacher from the salary of such teacher at the regular time for the payment thereof, and the same shall be paid into and constitute a part of the said Teachers' Retirement Fund. The total amount paid into said fund by each teacher shall be based upon twenty-five years of service as teacher as provided in this section: Provided, that such total amount shall not be less than the full amount of the annuity to which such teacher shall be entitled for the first year. Said assessments shall cease after 25 years of service.

All teachers becoming contributors to said Teachers' Pension of [and] Retirement Fund for the first time shall submit to the managing body of the school taught by them evidence which has been approved and accepted by the board of trustees of said fund, attesting and proving service rendered in public schools, and such evidence shall be the basis for placing such teachers in the proper class of the classes provided in this section.

§ 14. Any person becoming a teacher in the public schools of this State coming under the provisions of this Act, after this Act takes effect, shall be conclusively deemed to undertake and agree to pay such amounts and have such amounts deducted from his or her salary as herein provided.

§ 15. Any person employed as a teacher in the public schools of this State, coming under the provisions of this Act, when this Act takes effect, or who has previously taught in the public schools of this State and resumes teaching, may at any time before the first day of September, 1920, elect to come within the provisions of this Act by notifying in writing the board of trustees of the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund.

At the time of giving said notice to the board of trustees, as herein provided, such teachers shall notify in writing the local school board or

managing body of the school taught of his or her election to come within the provisions of this Act; and said notice shall authorize said school board or managing body to deduct from the payments of salary due him or her a sum equal to the amount to be deducted from the salary of such teacher, as provided in section 13.

16. The board of directors, board of education, or other governing body of public schools in each school district of the State, coming under the provisions of this Act, shall each year within seven days after the thirtieth day of June, forward to the State Treasurer a statement, verified by the secretary or clerk thereof, of the moneys so retained in accordance with the provisions of this Act, together with said moneys so retained.

§ 17. Said statement shall include the following: Name and monthly salary of each teacher; number of months of school taught by each teacher in said public schools of the district, village or city, over which said school board or said managing body of such school has jurisdiction during the school year for which the statement is made; the number of months constituting a school year in such district, village or city; the total salary of each teacher; the total amount withheld from the salary of each teacher in accordance with the provisions of this Act; the total amount so withheld from the salaries of said teachers for the school year next preceding, and the total number of years each teacher has taught in the public schools of the State.

§ 18. Said school board or managing body shall at the same time send a copy of said statement to the county superintendent of schools of the county in which is located the school house in which is taught the school under the control of such school board or managing body.

§19. If no teacher in such city, village or school district comes under the provisions of this Act, the school board, or other managing body of such city, village or school district shall state this fact under the oath of the secretary or clerk thereof to the State Treasurer, and shall at the same time forward a copy of said statement to the county superintendent of said county.

$20. Each county superintendent shall each year on or before the first day of August report under oath to said board of trustees. Said report shall contain an itemized account of the statements received by him from the school boards and a statement of the total amounts so withheld from the salaries of all of said teachers in said report.

$ 21. The following shal! keep complete and uniform records of the data contained in said report in such form and in such manner as shall be formulated and described by the board of trustees of said retirement fund: Each county superintendent, each school district board, each high school district board, and all other managing bodies, in cities and districts coming under the provisions of this Act.

$ 22. The State Treasurer shall credit all moneys received under the provisions of this Act to the fund designated as the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund.

$ 23. There shall be set aside annually by the Auditor of Public Accounts from the common school fund of this State and paid into the State Treasury for the maintenance and administration of the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund an amount sufficient to

meet all the demands made upon said pension and retirement fund, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, which amount, until otherwise provided by law, shall be equal to one-tenth of one mill upon each dollar of the assessed valuation of all the taxable property of the State, exclusive of cities and school districts not coming under the provisions of this Act: Provided, that that portion of the common school fund apportioned to cities or school districts not coming under the provisions of this Act, shall not be diminished or affected by the provisions of this section.

§ 24. The moneys received under the provisions of this Act, together with any donations or legacies received therefor, or other moneys received from any legal source or increment, shall constitute a fund, to be known as the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund. § 25. Any person, who is a resident of Illinois, and who has complied with the provisions of this section may retire and receive the annuity provided for, in the following cases:

(a) After a period or periods aggregating twenty-five years of service as teacher in the public schools of the United States, of which fifteen years must have been spent in the public schools of this State, provided that the payments and deductions of his or her salary have been made and turned over to said fund as provided in sections 12 and 13. If said payments shall not have amounted to $400.00, the teacher shall pay into the fund the deficiency before receiving the annuity, with interest as provided by clause (b) of this section. No person while receiving a teacher's annuity from any other public school teachers' pension or retirement fund shall receive an annuity from the fund created under this Act. Nor shall any person under fifty years of age receive an annuity except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section.

(b) Teachers who elect to become contributors to and beneficiaries of the said Illinois State Teachers' [Pension] and Retirement Fund, under the provisions of this section may count past services in public schools as a part or the whole of the period of twenty-five years hereinafter specified, but no 'annuity shall be paid until said teacher shall have paid into the fund a sum equal to that which he or she would have contributed under the provisions of this section, had he or she been a regular contributor to said fund during said period of past service, together with simple interest thereon at the rate of four per cent. per annum from the time such payments would have been made, had such person during such time been a contributor to such fund, to the time such person shall bv making such payments become entitled to the benefits and credit of such past service.

(c) After fifteen years of service as teacher in the public schools. two-fifths of which may be outside of Illinois but within the United States, any teacher who shall have been declared by two competent physicians, who have made a physical examination of the teacher, at the request of the board of trustees, to be suffering from any disability such as to disqualify him or her for teaching, may during the continuance of uch disability retire, provided that the payments of said teacher to the fund shall have amounted to a sum, as provided in sections 12 and 13. If said payments shall not amount to $400.00, the teacher shall pay into the fund the deficiency before receiving the annuity. No person while receiving a teacher's annuity from any other public school teachers'

Pension or Retirement Fund shall receive an annuity from the fund. created under said sections.

(d) In computing the terms of service under clauses a, b, and c of this section, a year shall be a legal school year at the time and place where said service was rendered except that where the service was rendered in public schools not included in the provisions of this section, a time less than a legal school year in this State shall not be included as a year, but only such proportion of a year as the number of teaching. weeks in each such year bears to the number of weeks required at the time to constitute a legal year in the State.

(e) Any person who has complied with the provisions of this Act and desires to retire from active service in said public schools, shall apply in writing to the board of trustees of the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund.

(f) Any teacher coming from a public school not included within. the provisions of this section who may be employed to teach in the public. schools mentioned in this section may become a contributor to and beneficiary of said fund in like manner as provided in clause (b) of this section.

§ 26. Each teacher retiring from service of said public schools under the provisions of clauses a, b, c, d, and e of section 25 shall annually and for life be entitled to receive as annuity $16.00 for each year of service as teacher: Provided, that said annuity shall not exceed $400.00 in any one year, subject, however, to all of the provisions of this

section.

§ 27. Any teacher who is a contributor to said fund who shall cease to teach in said public schools before becoming a member of the third class as provided in section 13, shall, if application be made in writing to the board of trustees within six months after the date of his or her retirement, be entitled to the return of 50 per cent of the amount, without interest, which shall have been paid into the fund by such teacher. If such teacher shall again thereafter teach in the public. schools, he or she shall, within three years from the date of his or her return to the service of said public schools, return to said fund the amount so returned to such teacher, together with simple interest on said amount at 4 per cent per annum for the time such amount was withdrawn from the fund.

§ 28. Annuities payable under the provisions of this Act shall be paid quarterly on the first day of January, April, July and October of each year from the State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund, and the Auditor of Public Accounts is authorized and directed to issue his warrants on the State Treasurer, payable from said fund, upon the presentation of vouchers approved by the president and secretary of the board of trustees of said Pension and Retirement Fund.

§ 29. Payments from the fund shall be made from the income thereof, and when necessary from the principal of moneys received under the provisions of this Act.

§ 30. One year's leave of absence for professional preparation, granted by the proper authorities to any teacher under the provisions of this Act, shall be computed as a part of said twenty-five years of

service, provided that the payments to said fund shall be continued during said leave of absence at the same rate as if such person were in active service as such teacher. Such period or periods of absence in the aggregate shall be computed as a part of said twenty-five years of service of said teacher; and in case of absence of less than a school year, only the time covered by such absence shall be so computed.

§ 31. Any person retiring under the provisions of this Act may reenter upon the work of teaching in said public schools. During said term of teaching, the annuity paid to such person shall cease. Said annuity shall again be paid to said person upon again retiring.

§ 32. Such annuities so created shall not be subject to attachment, garnishment, execution or other seizure by process, nor shall they be subject to sale, assignment, pledge, mortgage or other alienation.

§ 33. A suitable office in the Capitol, with suitable furniture and office supplies, shall be furnished for the board of trustees by the proper authority.

§ 34. The term "teacher" as used in this Act, shall include any teacher, teacher-secretary, supervisor, principal, supervising-principal, superintendent or assistant superintendent who shall teach or be employed in the public schools of this State: Provided, however, that service as county superintendent or assistant county superintendent may be counted as a part of the twenty-five years of service required to enable a teacher to receive the annuities provided for in this Act.

§ 35. If at the time this Act shall take effect there shall be in existence any teachers' retirement fund organized and existing or purporting to exist under sections 127a to 127n, both inclusive, of "An Act to establish and maintain a system of free schools," approved and in force June 12, 1909, as afterwards amended, or any other law of this State applying to schools and school teachers, in any city or school district coming under the provisions of this Act, the same and its property and funds shall be and hereby are merged into and made a part of said Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund, and the persons who have contributed to such existing fund shall be credited with the amounts contributed respectively as if such contributions had been made. to said Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund; and the annuitants, if any, of such existing fund shall be eligible to become annuitants of said Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund, and its board of trustees shall take over the administration of such existing fund and administer the same under and in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

§ 36. Except as herein provided, this Act shall apply to all cities. and school districts of the State, and the same shall come under the provisions if this Act: Provided, however, that all cities and school districts of the State having a population in excess of 65,000, as shown by the Federal census of 1910, and operating at the time this Act takes effect under any statute providing for the establishment of a Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund, shall not come under the provisions of this Act.

APPROVED May 27th, 1915.

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