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South Cook News

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Former state school employee McMaken paid in $68K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $1.1M in retirement

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Former state school employee Leah McMaken, who retired in June 2016, saved $67,767 toward a pension over 20 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, McMaken would collect as much as $1.1 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes South Cook News.

The projection assumes McMaken received $23,119 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, McMaken will have already received $71,459 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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