HARRISBURG -- Eric DiTullio was re-elected to a new 3-year term as the School Board Member Representative on the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System Board of Trustees.
Mr. DiTullio, an 11-year member of Butler County’s Seneca Valley School Board, received 52% of votes cast by Pennsylvania school members who returned ballots, according to election results certified at a public meeting on Thursday. DiTullio’s opponent, Otto Voit III, a school board member in Berks County’s Muhlenberg School District, garnered 48% of votes.
“I am honored my fellow school board members have voted to give me another term to serve on this Board,” DiTullio said. “I will endeavor to do my best as a fiduciary to represent school board members and work to improve the System that provides retirement benefits to public school employers.”
PSERS independent election vendor Election-America conducted the election on behalf of the System. DiTullio’s term begins immediately and runs until Dec. 31, 2023.
Mr. DiTullio studied engineering at Penn State and Point Park College. He is employed as a project estimator for industrial contractors and is a volunteer at his local Catholic church and the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Mr. DiTullio has been a member of the Seneca Valley School Board since 2009, and in that role he serves on the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV Board. Mr. DiTullio first won election to the PSERS Board in 2017.
After DiTullio’s election was certified, trustees voted to re-elect Christopher Santa Maria, a history teacher in Montgomery County’s Lower Merion School District, as Board Chairman. The term lasts for one year. SantaMaria is one of three active member representatives.
Trustees also re-elected state Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon County, as Board Vice Chairman, a 1-year position he has held since 2020. Ryan is the House Republican Caucus’ appointee to the Board.
About the Board
The 15-member Board of Trustees is an independent administrative board of the Commonwealth. The Board stands in a fiduciary relationship to the members of PSERS regarding investment decisions and disbursements of the System's funds. The Board also performs other functions outlined in the Public School Employees' Retirement Code, such as certifying contribution rates, authorizing the actuarial valuation and independent audit of the System, and publishing an annual financial statement of the condition of the Retirement Fund. In addition, the Board oversees the operational activities performed by the System's Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer.
About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new hybrid benefit options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and also a stand-alone DC plan. As of Dec. 31, 2020, PSERS had net assets of approximately $63 billion and a membership of about 256,000 active, 240,000 retired school employees and 26,000 vested inactive members.