Public Notice: Board of Trustees Election 2018

 Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS)

Board of Trustees Election 2018

Election of the following two (2) positions on the ATRS Board of Trustees is scheduled in March, 2018:  Position #5 (Certified Member – Administrator Trustee) and Position # 11 (Retirant Trustee).

Positions #5 Candidates must meet the following criteria:

• Must be an active member of ATRS (includes T-DROP participants);
• Must have five (5) years of actual service in ATRS; and
• Must be employed as a school administrator (superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, vice principal, president, chancellor, or director of a state institution of higher education, community/technical collect, or vocational center/cooperative),

Position #5 Eligible voters shall be active ATRS members (includes T-DROP participants) employed as school administrators (superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, vice principal, president, chancellor, or director of a state institution of higher education, community/technical collect, or vocational center/cooperative) or employed by an ATRS covered employer in a position Grade 24 or above.

 

Position #11 Candidates must meet the following criteria:

1. Must be a retiree member receiving an annuity paid by ATRS; and
2. Must be a resident of the State of Arkansas

Position #11 Eligible voters shall be all ATRS retirees receiving an ATRS annuity.

 

Nomination for election shall be upon receipt of a petition signed by at least 25 voters who are eligible to vote for the trustee position for which the member is seeking nomination.  The petitions must include the last four digits of the Social Security number of each signatory for verification of the member's eligibility to vote for the position.  Nominating petitions and a candidate information form must be filed with the Executive Director of the Teacher Retirement System by Wednesday, January 10, 2018.  Petitions may be requested by calling Tammy Porter at 501-682-6149 or toll free 1-800-666-2877.

 

The Board of Trustees shall employ an independent contractor who will mail ballots to eligible voters' addresses or record and will also collect, count, and certify election results.

• Deadline for nomination: Wednesday, January 10, 2018
• Ballots mailed: Thursday, March, 15, 2018
• Deadline for ballots to be returned: Monday, April 16, 2018
• Results certified: Friday, April 20, 2018

If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes cast by eligible voters on the first ballot, a run-off election will be held between the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes for the position.  The Schedule for the run-off election will be as follows:

• Run-off ballots mailed: Tuesday, May 1, 2018
• Deadline for ballots to be returned: Friday, June 1, 2018
• Results certified: Tuesday, June 5, 2018

If any of the above fixed dates fall on a weekend or holiday, that date is moved to the next regular work day.

If a candidate receives at least 50% of the votes cast on the first ballot, they will be declared the winner of the election and will assume office on July 1, 2018.  If a run-off election is necessary, the candidate receiving at least 50% of the votes cast in the runoff will be declared the winner of the election and will assume office on July 1, 2018.

The term of office of each elected trustee is six (6) years.  Each trustee shall continue to serve as trustee until his or her successor is elected.

 

 

November 13, 2017 - Executive Director Update: ATRS Adopts New Actuarial Assumptions

Important Update! The ATRS Board met today, Monday November 13, to consider proposed actuarial changes presented by the ATRS actuaries and executive staff.  ATRS has updated actuarial information due to a five year experience study by the ATRS actuaries that will be presented to the ATRS Board in December.  The information generated in the experience study is the basis for adoption of new actuarial assumptions. ATRS has been expecting and providing members with the anticipated actuarial changes that were presented and accepted today.  ATRS has also worked to provide the ability to absorb the costs of the assumption changes in a comprehensive manner through legislation and rules that have been put in place over the last several years.

The first change was adoption of new mortality tables that have significantly longer life expectancies for ATRS members than the existing mortality table.  The second change was ATRS reduced its assumed rate of return from 8% where it has been since 1991 to 7.5% which was the ATRS assumed rate of return from 1986 to 1991.  In addition the five year experience study brought about many other minor actuarial assumption changes regarding disability rates, retirement rates, refund rates, and basic assumptions on inflation and member behavior.

More detail on the assumption changes and benefit changes are provided in this very important executive director update.  Importantly most changes regarding member benefits are over a year and a half away and begin in the 2020 fiscal year.

ATRS executive staff is ready to maintain transparency and provide full information to members.  Most members will not see any change for well over a year and most of the changes will not have a material change to current benefits.  In addition, the changes implemented have hold harmless provisions and benchmarks to prevent a reduction in benefits being paid or a major change in benefit calculations, especially in the short term.  In the coming weeks you can email questions to the executive director with answers to questions being posted in upcoming executive director updates.  Additionally the executive director reminds school districts, ATRS employers, and ATRS member groups that the executive director will schedule times to attend "school hall meetings" across the state to answer benefit questions and provide insight to the quality benefits ATRS provides. The executive direct will stay and answer questions until all are answered. Your school should call and schedule a school hall meeting with the executive director.

The ATRS website allows members to have direct access to specific member account information.  Now approximately 12,500 members have direct account access to individualized account information.  You can find instructions to sign up on the ATRS Welcome page.

You can also sign up to obtain these executive director updates through your private email address.  Updates are made throughout the year such as at retirement season and other times when information needs to be shared.  Now, over 17,000 people have signed up to receive this executive director update by direct email delivery.  On the ATRS Login page you can find the link to sign up for email delivery of these updates.  It is always a great pleasure for ATRS staff to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members, employers, beneficiaries, government officials, and the public.  The ATRS Board is committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent. 

You can also get helpful ATRS information on the ATRS Facebook page under the name of Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.  Over 3,800 Facebook users get updates via the ATRS Facebook page.  Go to the Facebook page and "like" ATRS to get daily updates.  I try to go to the Facebook page every day to post information and answer member questions about ATRS.  In addition, if you use Twitter, you can join over 860 others by following events at ATRS and issues of interest on the ATRS Twitter page.  Remember that ATRS is here to serve you!  If you have questions, email me or call.

Respectfully,

George Hopkins

(501) 682-1820 Office
(501) 318-5998 Cell
georgeh@artrs.gov

List of Attachments:

1. New Actuarial Changes