Charter founder's pension benefits cut Philadelphia Inquirer 11/23/2009:
"Eighteen months after Pennsylvania's retirement system began investigating Dorothy June Brown for collecting full-time salaries from two charter schools, Brown's pension benefits have been slashed.
The state Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) has informed Brown that her monthly benefit is being cut from $14,150 to $3,254 - a 77 percent drop.
Ruling that Brown had provided incomplete and conflicting information, the system wiped out all employment credit she had claimed since July 2004."
The information was contained in an Oct. 14 letter to Brown, who founded three traditional charter schools in Philadelphia and the Agora Cyber Charter School in Devon. The Inquirer obtained a copy after filing a request under the state Right-to-Know Law.
Brown, 72, has appealed. She disputes the findings and says she is entitled to the pension, which is partly based on her 19.3 years of service as a Philadelphia School District administrator.
"They are going to end up paying me my money," she said recently. "PSERS owes me money."
Evelyn Tatkovski, a spokeswoman for the retirement system, could not say how often the state takes such actions. She said the agency must follow the retirement law and cut benefits "if a benefit was improperly paid to a member."
Employees at most of the 127 publicly funded charter schools statewide participate in PSERS.
"Eighteen months after Pennsylvania's retirement system began investigating Dorothy June Brown for collecting full-time salaries from two charter schools, Brown's pension benefits have been slashed.
The state Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) has informed Brown that her monthly benefit is being cut from $14,150 to $3,254 - a 77 percent drop.
Ruling that Brown had provided incomplete and conflicting information, the system wiped out all employment credit she had claimed since July 2004."
The information was contained in an Oct. 14 letter to Brown, who founded three traditional charter schools in Philadelphia and the Agora Cyber Charter School in Devon. The Inquirer obtained a copy after filing a request under the state Right-to-Know Law.
Brown, 72, has appealed. She disputes the findings and says she is entitled to the pension, which is partly based on her 19.3 years of service as a Philadelphia School District administrator.
"They are going to end up paying me my money," she said recently. "PSERS owes me money."
Evelyn Tatkovski, a spokeswoman for the retirement system, could not say how often the state takes such actions. She said the agency must follow the retirement law and cut benefits "if a benefit was improperly paid to a member."
Employees at most of the 127 publicly funded charter schools statewide participate in PSERS.
