St. Cloud schools, administrators reach benefits deal [St. Cloud Times, Minn.]

Dec. 22--An agreement between St. Cloud school district and its administrators will end the practice of paying for health insurance during their retirement.

School board members also have approved a $17.6 million property tax collection in 2010 that includes $984,000 that will be used to pay for what are called "other post-employment benefits" (OPEB). The 2010 levy is about 1.7 percent less than 2009.

That $984,000 is expected to provide a cushion as school districts brace for difficult financial years ahead. In addition, it is expected that the board will be able to maintain its commitment made in a 2008 campaign to get voters to approve a tax hike to increase its reserves by $500,000. The board in November had decided to spend $250,000 from reserves to balance a shortfall in 2010.

"It meant that we were able to create some money to keep us from going in the hole the next couple years without increasing the total taxation from prior years," board Chairman Jerry Von Korff said,

The board and administrators reached an agreement late Thursday after saying it would probably not happen until Friday at the earliest. The board was planning to call a special vote this week to approve the annual property tax collection that pays a portion of the district's budget.

School district agreement with adminstrators -

The 2009-2011 administrators contract is still not settled. This agreement means that when both sides do reach a settlement, the provisions will go into the new contract. Both sides were hurrying to reach an agreement to sunset the health benefits before the Dec. 28 deadline to approve the 2010 property tax collection. Board members have said they would not collect the OPEB tax without the sunset in place for administrators.

The district wanted to end the practice of paying administrators an amount toward their health insurance from the time they retire until they reach 65.

"It is a significant positive step forward for the district in terms of how we are doing business," Von Korff said.

The district also got the administrators to agree to more oversight and restrictions over duty days and schedules. The two sides had been working on an agreement for months. The benefit helped administrators because it helped reduce the cost of health insurance until they were eligible for Medicare. It was troublesome for the district because it created costs that were difficult to project and were not paid for.

The district is projected to owe $15.1 million in OPEB cost in the next 30 years, according to an actuarial report. Most of that is for teachers, who removed the benefit to contracts in 1988. The district owes about $1.6 million in 2010-2011. So the tax will not cover the entire cost.

The agreement takes effect July 1 and means any administrator hired after that date will not get the payments toward health insurance from retirement until age 65. The 26 members of the administrators union will still receive the health insurance benefits. It only impacts employees hired for next school year and after.

The administrators also will see some changes to how they can bank and cash-in unused leave time. The current contract allows an administrator to receive up to 12 leave days that can be used if they are sick or have to attend a funeral. If those leave days are unused, they can be banked and cashed in at retirement. The first 100 days can be cashed in at 100 percent of the administrator's daily rate of pay at retirement. Any remaining days above 100 can be cashed in at 30 percent at retirement.

The new agreement allows administrators who have already reached 100 days in the bank to cash in any days beyond what they have already banked at 60 percent and the money goes into a health savings plan they can access at retirement. If they are not at 100 right now, an administrator can bank up to 100 and receive full pay at retirement. Unused leave days beyond 100 must be cashed in each year at 60 percent. For example, if an administrator has 10 unused days at the end of the year, that administrator could cash in six of them and have the money placed in the post-retirement health care savings plan once the administrator reaches 100.

New employees can bank up to 100 days and cash them in at retirement. Beyond 100 days, the new employee can cash in unused leave each year at 100 percent of their daily rate. They cannot bank the days once they hit 100.

The district estimates the cost of shifting existing administrators to 60 percent cash-in instead of 30 percent at $15,500 a year.

Administrators also will receive, starting Jan. 1, $200 toward the purchase of a cell phone and $60 a month toward a service plan. What administrators currently use for cell phone service varies, said Charlie Eisenreich, principal at Apollo High School and lead negotiator for the administrators union. The district does not consider this an additional expense because the cost of administrator cell phones is being paid from budgets at each school. That cost is being shifted to the district. It is estimated at a maximum of $18,000 a year for the service plans and up to $5,200 for the phones, director of business services Kevin Januszewski said.

The agreement also includes a one-time payment of $385 to each administrator that costs the district $10,000. Some of the district's other unions received that payment for 2007-09 after the state gave districts a one-time increase in state aid. St. Cloud received $500,000 and half of it was used for one-time payments to employees. Administrators did not get the payment because they settled their contract before the money became available. The administrators did not, Eisenreich said.

The district also got the administrators to agree to more oversight over duty days and schedules. Administrators can no longer count weekends without prior approval from the superintendent and may collect up to five compensatory days during the year if they do work an approved weekend that was not a duty day.

Taxes for St. Cloud school district will cost the owner of a $182,000 home about $436 in 2010.

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