What is DRSPA?

The Delaware Retired School Personnel Association (DRSPA) is an organization devoted to improving the lives of Delaware public school retirees.

At this time DRSPA efforts are focused on three important issues:

Protecting the Pension Plan Seeking Pension Adjustments to Offset the Effects of Inflation Maintaining Much Needed Medical Benefits

Executive Board

DRSPA functions through an Executive Board. Its members are all volunteers. They are the very best advocates for retired public school employees. No other group of like-minded advocates comes anywhere close to spending the number of hours they do working to improve and maintain retirement pensions and benefits. An Executive Director is responsible for carrying out the activities approved by the Board.

Independent Organization

DRSPA is a totally independent organization. We are not an offshoot of an active teacher association. We are not a part of an administrative group and not affiliated with any national union or federation. We welcome into our ranks every retired public school employee who receives a state pension. If a retiree is deceased, we welcome as members the spouse who inherits the pension.

Fulfilling a Mission
The business of the DRSPA is carried out by standing committees, listed elsewhere on this website. While each of these committees is important in enabling the organization to fulfill its mission, one of the most active is the Legislative committee.
Education and Communication
We must continually and consistently educate legislators to the very critical challenges that retirees must face in order to live with dignity. Our Legislative committee under the chairmanship of the First Vice President, has developed a multi-faceted strategy to communicate our message to our legislators. These strategies include making presentations at important budget-writing meetings and meeting with legislators in a variety of venues.
Providing a Voice
Another strategy that has proven effective in the past and will be continued is utilizing our Ambassadors. These DRSPA members are liaisons to legislators of their choice, and we are grateful for their assistance in getting our message to the members of the General Assembly.

We face many challenges. Our medical benefits are not guaranteed. We must advocate strongly for their continuation. We must keep a keen eye on the growth of our defined benefit pension plan. While we have been assured that our Delaware pension fund has sufficient dollars to meet future pension needs, many other states face severe shortages in their pension plans. We must work to insure that this crisis mentality does not needlessly spread to our pension plan, and result in drastic changes that simply are not necessary.

What is DRSPA? DRSPA is fellow retirees joining together – and working together – to help provide a dignified retirement for school personnel who labored for many years to educate future generations.