NOTE: To find the most current posts, please scroll down to the two big red arrows. You can't miss them.

STRS Ohio Watchdogs: a public Facebook group you can join

STRS OHIO WATCHDOGS

by Cindy Murphy

STRS Ohio Watchdogs monitor the management and investment practices of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

We advocate for prudent and transparent investments, the restoration of the COLA for retired teachers, and the rollback of additional years of service required for active teachers.

This site will provide you with information about the work that is being done by Ohio's active and retired teachers to preserve our retirement benefits. Check back often for updates.

Join our conversation on Facebook. You don't have to be a member of STRS Ohio to join. Everyone who is interested in learning more about the management and investment practices of STRS Ohio is welcome.

Use this link to join our pack on Facebook:.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ohiostrswatchdogs 

Have you joined the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum on Facebook?

If you are a member of STRS Ohio and have a Facebook account, you are eligible to join thousands of others who make up the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum. This is a closed group of retirees and actives who are advocating for the return of our COLA, which, as you no doubt know, your STRS Board SUSPENDED on April 20, 2017. Two of our members, Bob Buerkle and Dean Dennis, filed a class action lawsuit against STRS on May 23, 2019 suing for the reinstatement of our COLA. The text of the lawsuit can be found on this blog. You can go here to join the Forum and sign the petition, already signed by more than 20,000 people, for the return of our COLA: Ohio STRS Member Only Forum

Click image to enlarge

Angel of Grief

Garrison Keillor

Items of interest in the Archives: The 2013 STRS Board Election

Many people have been very interested in reading about the irregularities of the 2013 STRS board election. There are many posts related to this topic, beginning the first week of April 2013, after the ballots were mailed to retirees from STRS. You can find them by going to the Archives for this blog, over in the right sidebar, and clicking on dates beginning with April 7, 2013. Dennis Leone announced his candidacy for a retired seat in November, 2012. There is a lot of information about him in the Archives, beginning with November 12, 2012 posts. If you want to read only the best stuff about that infamous election of 2013, go over to the sidebar on the right of where you are now, which is the archives of previous articles on this blog. Scroll down to April 2013. That's where the "interesting" articles begin. You will see many, clear up to the middle of May 2013.5/28/13

.....so what REALLY happened in 2003 that touched off a firestorm at STRS that is still smoldering today? Read it here, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. (Hint: It ain't over yet!)

More here (Akron Beacon Journal, 2003)

A MUST READ: Dennis Leone Reform Initiatives as an STRS Board Member  Between 2005 and 2009

To find current, day-to-day posts -- pull your scroll bar down a ways, just below the big red arrows (you can't miss them). Thanks.

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Find your state representative and senator here.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/

I know, it's weird.........

Many posts that appear "at the top" for a while are eventually moved down, where they can be found under their original posting dates. Also, if you are confused by the postdating, this is done to keep these posts up there; otherwise, they drift down when new posts are added. It's a "blog thing" which I have no other way to control. KB

Handy links: Contacts, information and more (short version)
This is an abbreviated version of the original 'Handy links' post. Click here to view a more complete list. (Some of it is old.)

STRS Board.....STRS website

Board calendar

E-mail contacts at STRS (old, but some may still work)

Map/directions to STRS, 275 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43215

STRS "Membership Survey" (spoof)
State legislators.......State of Ohio website

Latest OEA salaries (2011) over 100K; USDL report

Rich DeColibus' PowerPoint presentation STRS' PBI Program; Does it work?: click December 21, 2008 (blog Archive) and scroll down to December 23 posts.

Charts: PBI (bonus) payments

Popular links; click, then scroll down: charts, graphs, investment staff, lists, spreadsheets

$TR$ Inve$tment $taff $$$ (old)

SPECIAL (must read):

Dennis Leone's INVESTIGATIVE REPORT on STRS: May 16, 2003...Who is Dennis Leone?........(PDF version)...More on Dennis Leone .......(PDF version)

Dennis Leone: "Catcher of Thieves"

Dennis Leone's STRS Report to ORTA, March 2007

Dennis Leone's Testimony at the Statehouse 9/5/12
The Plain Dealer article that started it all

Dennis Leone: Factors Driving STRS 30-Year Planning and Revenue Assumptions (with charts)

Historic PBI vote, January 16, 2009

Charts: PBI (bonus) payments

CURRENT POSTS BELOW

Dan MacDonald's report on the April 2026 STRS board meeting

From Dan MacDonald

April 25, 2026

HEALTH PLAN CHANGES COMING IN 2027

The STRS April Board meeting occurred over April 15 & 16.  On Wednesday, 3 committees met. First was the Investment Committee. The preliminary net total fund return for March was a NEGATIVE 3.7% with domestic equity –5.1% and international equity –9.4%. [The Iran war started February 28.] The preliminary net total fund return for FY 26 to date is a positive 6.9% [Remember the assumption is a total fiscal year return of minimally 7%] Total investment assets ended March at approximately $104.1 billion [February’s total investment assets were approximately $108.3 billion. You can see a little war dropped the assets about $4.2 billion.  That is billions, with a B.] As of the meeting on April 15, the assets had bounced back to approximately $107 billion.  The committee reviewed and adopted a Statement of Fund Governance, plus Defined Benefit Plan and Health Care Plan Statements of Investment Objectives. Outside consultant Meketa concurred with the statements.

Next the Governance Committee met and reviewed and approved eight Board policies: The Governance Committee Charter; Board Member Education; Board Job Description; Officers, Term of Office Duties; Actuarial Soundness; Board Self-Evaluation; Delegation to the Executive Director; Executive Director’s Job Description.

The Human Resources Committee met last. They reviewed and approved the Executive Director’s Performance Evaluation along with a Supplemental Leadership Feedback Survey. The Performance Based Incentive Policy for FY 2027 was updated [Think PBI, the Investment Department compensation package.]

At 3 p.m., the Retirement Board was called to order. March minutes were approved.  The Board reviewed the Travel and Expense Policy, which was last reviewed in 2015. The updated policy will now be sent to the Ohio Ethics Commission for review. The Saperstein & Associates Member/Retiree Survey Results were then reviewed. Saperstein did the presentation.  His company surveyed STRS members from 2006-2022. He emphasized that the 2026 results have shifted. Key Takeaway: STRS needs to rebuild trust and confidence of members since the overall number is trending lower. Saperstein stood his ground on the findings.  [If I am not mistaken, Saperstein shared that he had 360 pages of comments from the recent survey, I plan to request a copy.]  Direct feedback from a retired member: “I believe that the service staff is excellent. Counselors are wonderful and all questions are answered.  However, it is hard to understand how STRS seems to be the only organization unable to give a COLA. Ohio’s other pension systems and Social Security are able to do so.  If it is truly impossible, then STRS needs to do a much better job of explaining why.” Serious discussion followed. [A good session to review by going to strsoh.org, then under the top banner, click on “About,” then “Board Meetings” then find this video from the April meeting.]

The Board session ended with a presentation on the Defined Contribution Program. Its history, participants, the plans assets, the average account balance, and distributions in FY 2025. [If you are on the DC or CO plan, a good session to review by going to strsoh.org, then under the top banner, click on “About,” then “Board Meetings” then find this video from the April meeting.]

Thursday’s Board meeting started promptly at 9 a.m. with three actuarial companies vying to be STRS’s consultant.  Cheiron; Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company, and Deloitte. After the presentations, Cheiron was chosen.  Public Participation then happened. Six retirees spoke.  Three retirees addressed yesterday’s Board meeting. Particularly, the member survey findings and the Board/staff discussion of the findings. “Misunderstanding” and “Trust” were trigger words from yesterday that stirred the retirees.

Following lunch, the Retiree Health Care Plan Mitigation and Plan Design Changes were presented for calendar year 2027. Retirees are using the plans and depleting the health insurance fund which is separate from the pension fund. [Also, as you know, the federal government approved “The Big Beautiful Bill” which has altered assistance.]  Using the Sustainable Benefit Healthcare dashboard, more money needs to be placed into the fund.  The fund is trending downward.  To alter the down trend, plan designs and STRS premiums subsidies changes will be presented next month. Final determinations will be made at the June Board meeting.  Strategies being considered include “Cost savings opportunities within the plan designs and revised premium subsidies.” [Think: raising your yearly maximum out of pocket, your charge for specialist visits, your charge for Urgent Care, your charge for Emergency Room, your cost for hospital stays, your monthly premium cost. Continue thinking prescription drugs with the same line: raising maximum out of pocket, raising deductible, raising your cost of generic, preferred brand, non-preferred brand, specialty. OK, calm down.  Chair Harkness immediately blew up.  Changes will have to be made, but your Board will address next month.  April was an overview. May will be specifics. June will be the voted changes. Remember, this IS A NATIONAL ISSUE.  Your VOTE in November will determine if healthcare will be addressed or continue to be decimated for many, including health care plans downward spiral.]

The Executive Director followed with an initial review of the FY 2027 budget. He presented a 9.8% increase. His goal is to maintain operations and start some major initiatives with a deliberate shift over time from labor heavy to tech enabled. If I am not mistaken, he sees a 3-year management project. Sixty percent of FY 2027 budget is driven by compensation and benefits.  Next, he gave the Executive Director’s report sighting 7 activities such as third quarter satisfaction remains high for member services and STRS employer education staff were present at a school software conference.

During Routine Matters, 3 people were nominated for Rudy Fichtenbaum’s seat. Joan Bellner was unanimously chosen.  She will be seated for the May meeting. [I know nothing about her, nor was anything shared.  She was in audience.]

The next Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday, May 19 and 20th.

Dan MacDonald's comments to STRS board April 16, 2026

From Dan MacDonald

April 25, 2026

PROPOSED BUDGET GROWS TO 9.8% AFTER MY SPEECH

Mr. Chair and members of the Board, good afternoon. I am Dan MacDonald, an STRS retiree with 38 plus years of service and Executive Director of Local 279R, Northeast Ohio AFT retirees regularly attending Board meetings since 2014.

Last month, during the Executive Director’s report, he mentioned to be prepared for the 2027 budget that would have an 8.5% increase. In my discarded speech, I addressed the budget with “Would the 2026-27 proposed budget address the needs of actives/retirees or STRS staff or give preference of one over the other?”

FY 2026 operating budget had a 9.2% increase which included salary adjustments presented by CBIZ April 17, 2025 for all: non-investment and investment staff. If I’m not mistaken, the proposal was even improved by the Board. More money was added. 33% of last year's increase addressed new hires, both opened positions and new budget roles.

I reread a paper written by Rudy Fichtenbaum titled Reform at STRS.  Using the numbers from the Defined Benefit plan he pointed out that “about 79% of STRS’s expenses are investment expenses. But even if we were to reduce unnecessary expenses to zero, would we have enough money to restore 30 years of service to active members and an ongoing 3% COLA for active and retiree members. The answer is clearly no!”

So now we approach a budget that has grown by 17.7% in two years.  Before February 28, the beginning of the Iran whatever it is, I’d say the 9.2% was well spent with this year’s di minimis amount addressing actives, retirees and overseer legislators, plus staff through FY 2026 budget. I remain concerned for pre-2000 retirees since I do not know health care premiums/plan designs yet.  Their increases and adjustments might totally eat up the 1.6%; they are most vulnerable. Judgement on the 8.5% will be assessed in a year.  Treadwater needs to continue to shrink and restorations continue. I need to say this; Investment Department, we need your success and appreciate you in these monstrous, unstable times.

STRS’s fiduciary responsibilities are for actives and retirees.  I am looking forward to “heart”y restorations for actives and healthy COLAs for retirees.

Karen Loeffler to STRS board: "... the primary obligation of the board and the STRS management must remain their fiduciary responsibility to provide benefits for the members. All else is secondary."

Karen Loeffler's speech to STRS board

April 16, 2026

STRS Board Meeting 04/16/2026

My name is Karen Loeffler. I retired in July 2012 from Pickerington Local School District, with 30 years experience as a high school classroom teacher and as a middle school counselor. I also spent countless hours as a volunteer in Pickerington, in a variety of capacities. I’m fortunate that I can be here. That I’m healthy enough, and live close enough, that attending a board meeting simply costs me gas money, and my time. Not everyone has that opportunity, and I am grateful that I do. And so I feel an obligation to be here, to represent in some way, and advocate for, those retirees and active teachers who cannot be here, either physically or virtually.

There have been a lot of words used in board meetings and STRS publications. Words like investments, salary incentives, bonuses, stakeholders, profits and losses, and the oft-repeated ‘fiduciary”. But the word to which I have kept returning, as I contemplate the events of the past few years, is “trust”. According to Merriam-Webster, “Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. It acts as a confident hope or reliance on a person’s character or a system’s, often, it involves placing responsibility for safety/well-being in another's care. Legally, it is a fiduciary relationship managing assets for a beneficiary.”

Trust is, and must be, the cornerstone of what we do. As a school counselor, I had to create trust with my students, in order to be effective in working with them. I had to build trust with the staff, especially when I could not share everything I knew with them, due to confidentiality issues. The same issues extended to the administrators and parents, with whom I had to build that trusting relationship.

Building a trusting relationship takes a lot of effort and commitment, over time. But trust can be destroyed in a heartbeat, and, once lost, is difficult to repair. In my view, this is one of the most critical issues for me right now. I feel much trust has been lost. Some members don’t trust the management of STRS, some don’t trust board members, some actives don’t trust retirees and vice versa, and there is a significant lack of trust on the part of the members toward the legislature and the governor.

This, then, to me, is one of the most critical tasks facing us: the restoration of trust, which requires openness and transparency, and the willingness to truly listen to each other. But the primary obligation of the board and the STRS management must remain their fiduciary responsibility to provide benefits for the members. All else is secondary.

Suzanne Laird lays it to the STRS board: "This Board has a very serious problem. Mr. Saperstein was merely the messenger."

Suzanne Laird's speech to STRS board

April 16, 2026

Good Afternoon, Members of MY Board:

You may start your timer now.

Red flag.

Yesterday, I listened with interest as Mr. Saperstein patiently explained the results of the member survey to this Board.

Survey says: no one, active or retired, trusts or has confidence in STRS. Survey says: no one believes STRS manages expenses prudently.

Fiduciary, fiduciary, fiduciary (thanks, Cathy Steinhauser).

And yet, some Board members pushed back, asking if the comments were “cherry picked” or claiming “When I’m out in the field, I only get positive feedback.” We have to “educate them.” “The number one misunderstood issue is the PBI.”

How insulting! We understand all too well projecting 12 MILLION dollars in PBIs, while we get a 1.6 percent projected COLA. We understand hiring another communications person when we have demanded a freeze on hiring. We understand when you agreed yesterday to hand employees airline points for their own personal use, earned while on business trips for STRS. We understand someone blithely mentioning an 8 and a half percent INCREASE in the budget, but we just “can’t manage a 2 percent COLA” again this year.

Almost as insulting as last month, when guest speakers, Tweedledum and Tweedledee claimed vouchers are a “complicated” process we teachers, “who don’t work as many days as others,” can possibly understand.

We understand our pathetic COLA doesn’t stand a chance against last month’s 3.3% inflation. Or the cost of gas to drive here. We understand that, and yet are able to complete a survey about STRS while focusing only on STRS. It is arrogant to claim the survey takers were confused by other issues, and I thank the 3 of you who were honest enough to call out staff members on using the “misunderstood” terminology and admit that the fault, dear Brutus, lies within.

This Board has a very serious problem.

Mr. Saperstein was merely the messenger.

Don’t shoot us for speaking truth. 

Public notice for the April 2026 STRS board meeting

From STRS

April 8, 2026

The April 2026 STRS board meeting is scheduled for April 15 and 16. Public Participation is scheduled for Thursday, April 16.

PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
The State Teachers Retirement Board and Committee meetings currently scheduled at the STRS Ohio offices, 275 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, are as follows:

Wednesday, April 15, 2026
10:00 a.m. Disability Review Panel (Disability reviews will be conducted in Executive Session)
11:30 a.m. Investment Committee Meeting
1:00 p.m. Governance Committee Meeting
Followed by Human Resources Committee Meeting
3:00 p.m. Retirement Board Meeting

Those wishing to attend Wednesday’s committee meetings and retirement board meeting virtually may register using the link below:

https://strsoh-org.zoom.us/.../WN_S3U89QY6RZqbJcgk3kRfLg

Thursday, April 16, 2026
9:00 a.m. Retirement Board Meeting resumes

Those wishing to attend Thursday’s retirement board meeting virtually may register using the link below:

https://strsoh-org.zoom.us/.../WN_BQUbAF_gRPmVoUTN_kZkCQ

The Retirement Board meeting will come to order on Wednesday, April 15, 2026 and begin with Travel Policy Update, followed by Member/Retiree Survey, and Defined Contribution Plan Update. The meeting will resume on Thursday with a Report From the Finance Department, followed by public participation, 2027 Planning Discussion on Health Care Benefits & Budget, Executive Director’s Report, routine matters, old business, new business, and any other matters requiring attention.

Preliminary meeting materials will be available on the STRS Ohio website 48 hours before the meeting. Final meeting materials will be available approximately 30 minutes prior to the meeting.

[For further details, go to https://www.strsoh.org/about/board-meetings.html]