Anticipated $1.8M health increase a hit to WFISD budget

April 11--Going to the doctor to take a look at that pulled muscle after showing students the proper way to do a burpee is going to cost more than it did last year in the Wichita Falls ISD.

The district is looking at paying almost $1.8 million more in the 2017-18 school year to cover employees' health insurance.

"If we are going to maintain our same employee-only (health insurance), it will be a $1.785 million increase next year, regardless. It's a $96 increase for each employee -- that's 1,550 employees -- per month," Superintendent Michael Kuhrt said at a 4 1/2 -hour goal-setting meeting Monday night at the Education Center. The meeting covered everything from athletics and fine arts needs to the quest to recruit minority teachers and bilingual teachers, to the pickle of too many students at the junior high schools and the possibility of readjusting attendance zones.

The health insurance coverage conundrum has its roots in Senate Bill 789, introduced by Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston). It is looking at reorganizing the Teacher Retirement System of Texas' ActiveCare, the health insurance program for many of the state's educators.

"TRS has managed our health plan -- we joined in 2003," Lisa Bean, benefits administrator for the district, said.

School districts of more than 1,000 employees, such as the Wichita Falls ISD, would not be able to participate in the plan after September 2018 if the bill is passed. It would limit the districts that could participate in TRS-ActiveCare to those with 1,000 employees or fewer.

Also, TRS-ActiveCare will no longer offer the traditional co-payments type of plan and will only offer a high-deductible option. This option is expected to cost more than the current high-deductible plan in place.

As it is now, the state contributes $75 per employee toward monthly premiums and requires that school districts give an additional $150 per employee -- at least -- toward those premiums.

"We give $318 per employee," Kuhrt said.

Part of the benefit for teachers in working for the Wichita Falls ISD is that the district funds 100 percent of the premiums for employees only. If that employee adds dependents to their insurance, then that's when the employee has to come up with the difference.

Kuhrt said, "If this passes, we're going to find our own insurance."

The school board and administrators discussed having $4 million or so more than it needs in its fund balance and what to do with that extra money, considering the slate of projects up for grabs, from a Barwise track re-do to band uniforms and instruments to weight rooms for some of the junior highs.

Trustee Adam Groves wondered whether the $1.8 million to cover the increasing health insurance cost would come out of the fund balance.

Kuhrt said it wouldn't. Instead, he would ask administrators to make cuts to the budget to cover the additional expense.

According to Bean, the bill was filed Feb. 9 and has to go through a number of other steps before it can be passed into law.

"I think it will happen, unless the teacher organizations decide they want to stay with TRS-ActiveCare," Kuhrt said, though he added, "What teacher group is going to say we're going to stick with that? ... Therefore, we're going to try it on our own."

He thinks very large districts "feel they can do just as well as TRS" and knows of large districts, such as in Houston, that already handle their own health insurance.

"What I'm hearing you say is let's go ahead and get some figures," trustee Elizabeth Yeager said.

Kuhrt said the district is looking at June to know whether the bill will pass and wants to wait until then to get realistic quotes.

If the bill passes, the districts required to leave TRS-ActiveCare may need to hire more personnel to administer the program, which would be yet one more expense for many school districts.

"Everyone is facing this kind of stuff," trustee Bob Payton said. " ... It's unfortunate, but I don't think we're that much different than anyone in town."

According to Teach the Vote, a project of the Association of Texas Professional Educators, SB 789 does not increase the amount of money the state is spending toward employee health care premiums, and it does not increase the amount districts are required to spend toward those premiums. The group contends the bill will not save the state any money, since the state contributes a fixed amount of money with increases in premiums passed on to educators.

"This is significant because compared to the private sector, our state's employer contribution (the combination of state and district payments) toward public education employees' health care premium cost is dramatically underfunded," relayed Teach the Vote. "When the TRS healthcare program was started years ago, the ISD/state contribution was in line with average private sector employer contributions. However, as private business has worked to keep pace with health care inflation, the state has never increased its contribution on behalf of school employees."

Follow Times Record News senior editor/reporter Lana Sweeten-Shults on Twitter @LanaSweetenShul.

___

(c)2017 the Times Record News (Wichita Fallas, Texas)

Visit the Times Record News (Wichita Fallas, Texas) at www.timesrecordnews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.