Over 30 years of retirement, Shepard would collect as much as $2.44 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Southern Illinois News.
The projection assumes Shepard received $51,331 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.
After 3 years of retirement, Shepard will have already received $158,659 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.