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Metro East Sun

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Former state school employee Koonce paid in $107K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $2.09M in retirement

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Former state school employee Melva Koonce, who retired in May 2016, saved $106,848 toward a pension over 23 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Koonce would collect as much as $2.09 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Metro East Sun.

The projection assumes Koonce received $43,831 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Koonce will have already received $135,477 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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