BASD adjusts post-employment health insurance plan

BURLINGTON — The Burlington Area School District has changed its post-employment benefits with the aim of saving money.

The main difference is that retired educators will no longer be on a school district health insurance plan.

Instead, they will receive money from the district every month to purchase their own health insurance.

The change will go into effect July 1, 2026, after which the school district expects $12-16 million in savings over 30 years.

The BASD Board approved the changes during its July 14 meeting.

“This is the kind of leadership our taxpayers expect and deserve,” Taylor Wishau, BASD Board president, wrote in an email. “We approached this process like a business. We engaged staff, analyzed the data and delivered results. The projected savings of up to $16 million represent a major win for taxpayers, a long-term gain for staff and an important step forward in securing the financial health of our district.”

Taylor Wishau, BASD Board

Wishau

Post-employment benefit eligibility varies based on employee group and plan design, but employees must retire from BASD and work at BASD for several years to qualify.

According to BASD Superintendent Jill Oelslager, the changes were made after about a year of work with a consulting firm and a district group of 16 employees that included teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, custodians and secretaries.

Oelslager said the district must balance saving money while still offering benefits that will make employees want to start and stay in the district.

“I’m proud of our team for doing a great job analyzing the current benefits package that we have right now and knowing that the goal was to save district dollars but still be a system that attracts teachers and employees to our organization,” Oelslager said. “You got to attract people but also still got to try to save dollars, so how do we do both of those things well?”

Jill Oelslager

Oelslager

She believes the change will balance those interests because it could help retired people who move out of health insurance coverage areas, for example.

“We don’t want it to come off like, ‘The district is just trying to kick people off of health insurance,’” Oelslager said. “Instead of having retirees on our health plan still, it’s simply giving them dollars to get their own health insurance instead. I think this is honestly going to be more beneficial to people. … If they’re getting dollars for their own insurance, they can move wherever they want and then get insurance that is in the network for them.”

Separate but related, Oelslager said the district is considering self-funding employee health insurance after its contract ends in January 2026.

“That is just another component that we’re trying to look at as cost-saving measures,” Oelslager said.

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