Q: Are public school teachers eligible to utilize unused, unpaid sick leave to increase service credit at retirement? An article in last month's New York Teacher refers to using unused sick leave to increase your service credit at retirement.

A: The article referred to School-Related Professionals who belong to the New York State Employees' Retirement System. Teachers are members of the New York State Teachers' Retirement System, which does not offer service credit for unused sick days.

NYSUT does have a bill in its legislative program that proposes to afford such credit. If and when it is enacted into law, only then would TRS members be able to use accumulated sick days for service credit.

Q: I am a teacher with 30 years of service and expect to work three or four more years. A friend mentioned that TRS will give retirement credit for summer work. Is it possible to amass time for summer curriculum writing? I usually work 3 to 8 hours per day per curriculum area. What about summer school lead teacher duties?

A: There is a state law that one can only get one year's credit in a school year. If you are a full-time teacher, you are already receiving one year's credit. Therefore, summer work will not add to your service credit. However, if the summer educational work is done during your Final Average Salary years, the monies paid could be included in your FAS. Note: TRS is carefully monitoring all payments in FAS calculations, so be sure to save documentation of your work.

Q: I attended a TRS videoconference and am still confused by the survivor and the pop-up survivor options. Are the amounts which my survivor would receive dependent upon his or her age?

I assume the answer is yes and, if it is, how do I ascertain what those amounts would be for my survivor if he or she were 50 years old at the time of my death? Is there some sort of actuarial table to which I could refer to find out what these amounts are at various ages?

A: If a member selects one of the joint-life options at retirement, the premium cost will be predicated upon the life expectancy of both participants (i.e. the retiree and the beneficiary).

That is determined by the age and gender of each at the time of the effective date of retirement, not at a future date of the death of the retiree. You should have received those calculations at your video conference. You might wish to sign up for another conference and specifically ask for those figures.

Q: From what I have read, I have to be 55 and have 10 years of service to get any type of pension from the retirement system. Is this correct?

A: It used to be 10 years, but NYSUT pressed the state Legislature and governor to change the vesting for retirement to five years.