Is there a Required Minimum Deduction taken from a small retirement with PERS having worked as a teachers aid? I've never been asked that before

Yes, the RMD rules apply to all employer sponsored retirement plans, including profit-sharing plans, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and 457(b) plans. 

A defined benefit plan generally must make RMDs by distributing the participant's entire interest in periodic annuity payments as calculated by the plan's formula for:

• the participant's life,
• the joint lives of the participant and beneficiary, or
• a "period certain" (see Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-6, A-3).