Property insurance bill rises for Vigo schools [The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.]

Jan. 29—Commercial insurance premiums for the Vigo County School Corp. have increased 28% this year, much of it due to higher post-COVID building values and replacement costs.

This year, the cost is more than $1.3 million, representing a $298,000 increase, Donna Wilson, VCSC chief financial officer, recently told the School Board.

VCSC building values went from $601 million to $823 million, based on replacement costs per square foot.

The $1.3 million is for one year.

Wilson noted that commercial insurance includes property, auto, cyber liability and other areas.

According to Superintendent Chris Himsel, the insurance costs "did go up significantly. We had to update the values of our schools in terms of replacement values with post-COVID construction costs versus pre-COVID construction costs."

When the insurance company was renewing the policy, they recognized the cost of repairing, renovating or reconstructing a school due to a severe weather event — or some other type of emergency that would be covered under the policy — was insufficient, he said.

"We wanted to update those so if we did have a catastrophic event occur, we were well insured and we could repair, renovate or build new [replacement]," Himsel said.

Pointing to last spring's tornado in Sullivan County, he said, "We want to make sure our schools are protected so that if we need to renovate or reconstruct a school, the insurance policy is going to allow us to do that."

Epic Insurance is the broker agent and Liberty Mutual is the carrier for the property insurance.

The district did take a higher deductible to bring down some of the premium rate increase.

Representatives of Epic Insurance, Steve Danielson and John Sahm, addressed the board Jan. 8.

Danielson said he and Sahm have been in the insurance business for over 30 years, and the last 18 to 24 months have probably "been the most challenging time we've had in our careers," specifically when it comes to property insurance.

In 2022, there were 18 catastrophic events that exceeded $1 billion in the United States, and that was a record, he said. In 2023, the record was broken with 25 catastrophic events that exceeded $1 billion.

Locally, he noted the tornado that caused destruction in Sullivan County last spring as well as other weather events throughout the state.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at [email protected] Follow Sue on Twitter @TribStarSue

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