School Districts Balancing Competitive Benefits, Savings

Neither the Greenfield nor the Whitnall school districts will experience huge savings when their teachers begin contributing 12.6 percent of their insurance premiums, as required by state law.

And both administrations are moving forward with both the district's and employees' financial well-being in mind.

Whitnall is proceeding to implement a hike to 12.6 percent effective July 15, for year-round employees, according to interim business manager Doug Johnson. School year-only employees will have this contribution reflected in their first paychecks in the new school year.

Whitnall, however, is projecting a savings of only $63,000 with the increased rates because district employees already pay 5 percent of their health premiums.

“The cost savings isn’t as great as it might be (in other districts) where employees are currently paying less,” Johnson said.

The savings to the district could go up, according to Johnson, who added the district is working with its provider – Humana – to explore changes to its current plan that will not only save the district money, but will also save employees money.

“While the district will continue to pay the bulk of costs for health care, employees also pay out of pocket through deductibles and co-pays,” Johnson said. “Thus, we are looking for ways to cut costs without driving up their deductibles and co-pays. We are looking at cost-saving measures like point-of-service plans and wellness programs, for example.

“Basically, we’ve told Humana that we want premiums frozen at 2010-11 levels and challenged them to get us there. … If we are able to get to a zero increase, or close, that could save us an additional amount still to be determined.”

Greenfield’s savings will likely be even less

In Greenfield, the administration just began looking at its available options in late June, according to Superintendent Conrad Farner, who said the district will deliberately investigate its options as the administration works through changes brought about by the state budget and Act 10.

Greenfield teachers, however, already pay 10 percent of their premiums, so, should Greenfield bump that amount up to 12.6 percent, which they are not required to do because the district is not part of the state insurance plan, the savings would likely be minimal.

Farner said the district’s plan is to spend the next 3-4 months investigating the most cost-effective yet still competitive benefit packages and then 2-3 months educating the employees about the plan with the hope it is ready to implement by Jan. 1.

“The reality is we have to compete with other districts in a number of ways, so there is little to be gained and much to lose from rushing into any decisions,” Farner said. “We also self-fund our health insurance and medical costs, so that adds a bit more complexity to how we manage our health benefits. … We want to be as aggressive as we can to maximize our ability to stay in business while still being an attractive place to work.”