PAG News | Community Updates
Unimaginable joy washed over me in the Yukon.
After a long day of driving, my partner pulled to the side of the road, and I looked up to see the Watson Lake Signpost Forest. It was breathtaking, strange, familiar, and almost dreamlike, as if I had stepped into a story I already knew.
And in a way, I had.
Years earlier, I had shared a story about the Signpost Forest with my middle school students from a Farmer’s Almanac tear-off calendar. The story told of Private Carl K. Lindley, a U.S. soldier working on the Alaska-Canadian Highway, who repaired a signpost and added a sign pointing toward his hometown of Danville, Illinois.
That small act became something much larger. One sign became thousands. One person’s connection to home became a landmark built by travelers from around the world.
I remembered how that story captured my students’ imagination. It sparked curiosity, conversation, and a love of learning — even math. Standing there years later, with my dog Yami beside me, I felt the story come full circle.
The Stories We Carry
After returning from Alaska, I tried to find the original calendar page I had shared with my students. I had saved many of those tear-off pages and repurposed them as notepads, but I could not find that one.
Still, the story stayed with me.
Maya Angelou once wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I understand that feeling. Stories matter. If we do not tell them, they can disappear. And with them, we risk losing pieces of who we are, what we learned, and why the work matters.
That day in the Yukon, I left behind a pair of vibrant green platform shoes and a personalized memento more than 2,500 miles from Chicago. It was playful, yes. But it was also symbolic.
I was leaving behind fear.
Fear that my inability to continue serving as a Trustee for the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund would stop the work that had already begun.
It did not.
Instead, that moment helped me understand that the work was not ending. It was changing shape.
From The Yukon to Pension Advocacy
As educators, we spend our careers building more than lesson plans. We build relationships, memories, ideas, systems, and intellectual work that often continue long after we leave the classroom.
But too often, educators are asked to leave pieces of that work behind. We are told where to store our files, how to follow procedures, and how to move on when the system changes around us.
Pension advocacy asks us not to move on quietly.
It asks us to understand what we have earned, how our retirement system is governed, and who is responsible for protecting it.
A pension is not a gift. It is not a bonus. It is earned compensation, built through years of service and contributions. It represents a promise made to educators, retirees, and beneficiaries — a promise that must be managed with care, transparency, and fiduciary responsibility.
Why Accountability Matters
PAG exists because members deserve to understand the systems that affect their retirement security.
We must ask stronger questions. We must expect clear answers. We must hold trustees, staff, consultants, elected officials, and all fiduciaries accountable for decisions that affect the long-term health of the Fund.
That includes asking difficult but necessary questions:
Where is the money?
How are expenses being reviewed?
What revenue opportunities are being explored?
How are past funding decisions being addressed?
What is being done to improve the Fund’s financial health?
And most importantly, how are we working together to address Tier 2 and protect retirement security for current and future educators?
These questions are not about blame. They are about responsibility.
The Work Ahead
If one person could leave a sign in the Yukon and help spark what became the Signpost Forest, then one community of informed educators, retirees, and supporters can help strengthen pension advocacy.
The work ahead is serious. The challenges are real. But the mission is clear.
We must educate.
We must protect.
We must restore confidence in the CTPF.
PAG will continue working to improve pension education, support transparency, encourage public participation, and advocate for the retirement security educators have earned.
The story is still being written.
And we are still showing up.
With love, respect, and grit,
Tina
