• My income will be reduced by the percentage I'm not working. 
• I will pay out of my pocket to make up the difference of my contribution for STRS at the full time rate. 
• The District will pay into my STRS at the full time rate. 

I’ll be reducing my workload this semester by 10 percent, working 90 percent. For July 2002—June 2003 I plan to work 80 percent. I could potentially have a different percentage each semester if I notify Human Resources and my division in a timely manner (see Guild Contract, Article VII, Section 17: Optional Reduced Workload Program). I’m planning to stick with 80 percent for next year, since I don't trust STRS to keep a lot of changes straight. 

Before I could embark on the reduced workload plan, I first had to clear up errors in my STRS account. In September 2000 Jean Antanaitis in Payroll Services had me obtain a statement of account information from STRS in order to correct errors in my service credit. There were inexplicable changes and percentages in my STRS service credits that I could not understand. Los Angeles County prepares our checks and reports to the state the amount of STRS service credits we are to earn, so I called the county almost weekly over the period of 1½ years to get my STRS account corrected. 

The busy woman who helped me at the county ordered an audit of state STRS to show each transaction, and she found the error. Service credit had been subtracted from my first year of full-time employment. When I started on a full-time contract in August 1980, I had been working for the LACC District. Someone arbitrarily removed some of my service credit because I had worked in July 1980 for LACCD, reasoning that I had not worked a full year for GCC. I was an adjunct counselor and did not qualify for any STRS benefits at that time. My point is that if you see strange fractions in your STRS service credit that do not match the years you have worked, please question it before you retire. It is too late after you retire. 

I took a sabbatical during calendar year 1990 at 75 percent pay. This overlapped two academic years and also resulted in reporting errors. I worked hourly during part of that year, enough so that the district should have “backfilled” some of the missing 25 percent STRS service credits. Those errors had to be worked out, as well. After all errors were corrected I owed STRS about $900 for the 25 percent I had not paid during sabbatical, which I arranged to have taken out of several pay checks. Because the district made an error by not paying into STRS for the hourly I worked during sabbatical, I do not owe any interest on this amount. 

The details of my case are not of importance to you except as a cautionary tale to pay attention to your STRS service credits and to plan ahead. If you believe there are errors, allow several years to correct them before you retire. My persistence should result in several hundred dollars more per month during my retirement.