e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e finance and bring it back to the board
is that okay yes okay all right I'm done with policy Christine you met twice yes Finance um has met twice and we going to be meeting again on I believe March the 5th and at that point hopefully we have some more information um regarding State
numbers and right now we are just brainstorming and looking at different Avenues um um for cost cutting measures and to run the school as efficient as possible um uh in the upcoming um school
year so again we're trying to pre-plan as much as possible and be prepared as soon as those numbers come out so we can make um the best decisions possible okay thank you uh a curriculum did not meet and Communications will be meeting right
Chris why we nail down the date okay yes we've been trying to do that okay that's important and just I think while people are here I just want to give a shout out um three board members Greg John and I went to the cupcake contest was that January
31st 30th maybe and I just want to say it was fantastic um Tiffany middle coup did a fantastic job organizing it I was so impressed by the talent in this district and the people that were there and the kids everybody had a great time
delicious cupcakes it was hard hard to judge we had to try 21 cupcakes so it was hard to judge but we did we made it um through the judging had to another couple with us but so five all together
um yeah yeah it was great so thank you a shout out to Tiffany mil cop and also to our board member Allison for inviting uh myself and a lot of towns folks to the um Wildcat Shack and good work they're doing over there it's
really impressive it's like a little mini store and you know we're hoping to do some kind of shadowing of that over here I know we do some some yeah yeah closet so it was really good to learn
about that and yeah thank you for advertising that more letting us know the resources over there okay we will move on now to presentations sorry about uh Transportation Transportation okay as
part of Finance go ahead no no no about our board work session okay Transportation yes I just wanted to speak I sent everyone a copy today of um I don't know if this is really a word a jointure it's a word it is a word okay
I'm going to check on the weer um uh for our busing agreement between pands eagleswood and Tuckerton and I just asking who's ever involved in that situation if we could clean up the language so
that when there is potentially inclement weather that might affect one District that might not affect ours that we could work on something so that our students are not required to or all of the other students are not
required to have a late opening um so just just to give a backstory I guess last week due to um sharing with p and the fact that Northern Ocean County schools had late
openings due to uh votek that we were then um required to have a late opening so then our students were affected I believe tuckeron was affected and eagleswood and forgive me if I'm misspeaking um so just asking for some
type of language that perhaps we can work on that so that's a joint decision and maybe have it in writing so that or maybe we need to have plans in place in the event that that happens again perhaps it hasn't happened a lot in the past because we haven't had snow um but
this year it's between illnesses and weather it's been a very interesting one so I just think that maybe that something that needs to be discussed so that our students can be in the classroom as much as possible it's great suggestion put us more on dur to to come
to the table with that okay thank you anybody else for work session okay I'm sorry superintendent report thank you I just want to remind everybody as Dr Snider said people are getting sick left and right we have
staff out we have all all of our offices are out we are we are D and our students are out however as I've said to my own colleagues is if you're sick please please stay home nobody wants to be sick I think central office had four people in it last week because everybody was
out ill so students can't learn if they're sick so please please keep your child's home and we're asking our staff members as well if you're ill we need you to we want everybody healthy in school so there's a lot going around between the neuro virus and the flu
seems to be the big things so uh every time someone gets the neuro virus we call our maintenance guys and our custodians and they come in and they spray everything down we were following people around me today in our office so please also I wanted to affirm with
everybody that the little like Harbor Township School District is committed to protecting the rights of every student to attend public school regardless of immigration status national origin or religion the district does not permit non-local law enforcement agents
including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and board of protection personnel to enter schools except when absolutely required by law there has to be a Judicial warrant court order or subpoena or declare the existence of exent
circumstances we do have a protocol in place and the building administrators have been briefed and we asked to share the protocol with their front office staff two Kudos and shout outs one to our district bus drivers for their willingness to constantly go above and
beyond and truly put the welfare of our students first Mr koford often Sheriff's just how grateful he is to have our small but Mindy transportation department thank you for the work you do to transport our students safely each day a huge shout out also to our facilities director Seth Cole and our
facilities crew both konian and maintenance for another job well done clearing the snow at all buildings while the roads weren't great for us to come in our buildings were perfect so had the roads been in we could have come to come to [Music]
school wanted to remind everybody that as outlined in the 2425 ofof school calendar Friday June 20th will now also be used as a makeup day so June 19th and June 20th are now makeup days we will put out an adjusted calendar but we
wanted to let everybody know that also please be sure to log into Genesis which is our student information systems and review update or or unblock your contact information in the portal to be sure you receive all system notifications for district announcements we received some
calls that people didn't get the announcement for delayed opening and so when we went and checked it turned out that either people's numbers were blocked or they had home numbers that they were no longer utilizing so you want to go in and just make sure that everything is up to date there also it's
very important to have more than one emergency contact number if possible if we can't get one person we'll go to the next so you want to make sure that as many people as you want to put in there will take and we'll go from there so if you can take a couple minutes to do that if you need help let us know reach out
and we'll help you do that Saturday February 15th is school resource officers day and so we want to thank our SRO for the work they do each day to keep our schools safe and secure I wanted to I often talk about
respecting others property when during pickup and arrival in dismissal and I want to once again Ask parents Guardians and caregivers to please please please follow all all the traffic laws and District procedures on and around school grounds at all times but especially
during arrival and pickup we've observed drivers failing to stop at posted stop signs on school property we've observed illegal u-turns on Frog Pond Road creating dangerous conditions we've observed Vehicles driving onto private property parents driving in between
buses very very dangerous including and then what that does it not only is dangerous to our staff and our students but holds up the unloading process and parents allowing their children out of the vehicle and then having them walk through the parking lot we really have
the same we have had the same or very similar parent drop off and pickup for at least 10 years with little or no incident however to assist us in ensuring the safety of our students and staff it is please essential that the rules are followed we will continue to look into the situation and put
additional corrective action and resources in place that everybody has has to contribute to this finally just a reminder that schools are closed on Monday and observance of President's Day that's it thank you thank you very much I didn't know
that about February 15th yes good to know okay now to get to the action items um recommend a motion to approve Finance items a through F I have a motion
that's why everybody came sorry I'm new at this presentations are next student of the month acknowledgements for George J Mitchell please and [Music] then good
evening the George Mitchell treat for January was courage and all of our students of the month were chosen isn't based on that trait so I'd like to call um each student up Miguel and H pH
chello Miguel's teacher Mrs Natoli said Miguel on Hell exemplifies courage kindness and respect towards his peers and teachers he is dedicated to learning new do things and always displays a positive attitude he puts forth great
effort in all that he does and is self motivated to overcome challenges he's excited to learn and often helps his peers overcome obstacles with his words of encouragement Miguel onel is an active learner and supportive teammate
therefore he is a wonderful example of courage and determination congratulations [Applause] next we have alisandra [Music] [Music]
wetz Alexandra's teacher Mrs gunen Houser said alisandra comes into school with a smile on her face ready to take on each day she works hard applies herself and is eager to try any any challenge that presents itself she
exhibits personal courage with a positive attitude and applying the right amount of grit but she's never afraid to ask for help I love watching alisandra learn grow and being a productive member of our classroom Community
[Music] congratulations next we have Leslie Hernandez [Applause] Leslie is an amazing student she's always willing to lend a helping hand and is always showing the courage to do
what is right she demonstrates this trait when she is our bus leader in the class when she is a hard worker and on the playground her resiliency to do what is right and always does her best makes her a great second grade friend
and her teacher is Mrs Goa and last but not least Abigail Grant the special Area Teachers chose Abigail and this is what they had to say Abigail is a shining example of courage and second grade she always stays true
to herself embracing her unique qualities with confidence whether it's lending a hand to a CL best me in need or encouraging others to make good choices Abigail leads by example her kindness and bravery Inspire everyone around her to do their best and be their
authentic selves making her a wonderful role model for her classmates [Applause] [Music]
thank [Applause] [Music] you gra C yes now you [Music]
good evening everybody I am happy and proud to announce the Frog Pond students of the month for January if you hear your name please come forward first up in third grade in Mrs ket's class Ryan [Music] bur for let's comment on Ryan's t-shirt
he is wearing the correct t-shirt so we'll do an eagles chant Ryan when we're finished sorry giant s all right Mrs Keta says the following Ryan is a really positive and hardworking student he loves the Eagles I made that part of it's awesome
that he brings such a good attitude to class every day Ryan's attitude is infectious and it sets a solid example for others in our class he's not just doing well for himself but also contributing to the class vibe in a big way we are very proud of Ryan please keep it
up in fourth grade from Miss lat's class Pac [Music] prit Miss laachi says p is an amazing student in class he comes into school every day with a positive attitude and he is ready to work that was underlined
Pon completes his work all time is always participating in classroom discussions is kind helpful and a good friend we are so lucky to have pacon in our room keep up the great work pacon we are proud of you congratulations fifth grade Mrs Clemens Riley
[Music] Frolic come on down Riley Mrs Clem says Riley is an amazing student who puts 100% into everything she sets she sets out to accomplish she's always considered over her classmat and always follows the rules of
our classroom her work ethic and pride that she takes in her daily work shows that she really wants to do well she's a good friend of all of her classmates and she is a leader in our fifth grade classroom [Music] congratulations grade six Mrs Arnold's
class Cassidy weers ban come on down Cassidy Cassidy is without a doubt our pick for a student who displays the Frog Pon core values of being safe respectful and responsible C City comes to school each day with a quiet smile a positive attitude and a
desire to learn she's determined to figure things out even when they're challenging she interacts well with her classmates teachers and anyone else that she encounters during the school day [Music] congratulations and also in grade six
from Mrs Benson's class Dean Lightner sure's here but I'm going to read with Mr Benson Ru Dean joined our class in January he has adjusted well and made new friends danan is a cooperative and hardworking young man he works hard on assignments and being a good friend Dean
is a role model to his classmates he follows all the rules shows respect to everyone and is wonderful to have as a part of our classroom Community David is a special part of our team and we feel honored that he has joined our class so how about a round of applause
[Applause] [Music]
congratulations got all the two e g l e s u [Music] thank you all um we are moving on to a
health um Insurance presentation from Brown and Brown benefit advisers so parents are welcome to stay or or go if you have small children please uh help yourself with some cookies before you leave
mommy mommy [Music] it's [Music] over it's over ready the
midle ready that is so nice [Music] girl beautiful look at me perfect got it girl [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] congratulations every I look you like this okay welcome Mr [Music] Mara I think we're good thank you my
name is Mike Morrow I'm here from brown brown your health broker of record for the district's medical and prescription coverage we're going to talk a bit about our services you provide to the board and your staff as well as some of the ongoing costs for your health care
so just a quick agenda item we're going to go over our services what we do client Communications we're going to talk about some of the services we're bring to you guys with something called H workplace Services give you a historical perspective um talk about what we're looking at for this upcoming
fiscal year budget of 25 and 26 and then ultimately we want to talk about the waiver option for the district I want to talk a bit about us so we've been the broker of record for little Lake Arbor for 18 years since 2007 we've been through a lot brown
brown is the largest L is this better there we go all right so brown brown is the largest broker in New Jersey uh we're the fifth largest on a national basis these numbers are actually a little bit outdated we're 15,000 employees now well
we have a large uh brokerage behind us we are a very Local Company in New Jersey just to give you an idea we focus specifically in New Jersey on public sector and specifically School District districts our firm represents over 300 of the 583 school districts in New
Jersey today manage over $1.5 billion in healthcare premium and over 400 of that's in the state plan where you guys as a district have been in and out of over the past seven years three different times let's talk a bit about your team
that helps manage us Gary wart is the senior producer I am the day-to-day uh responsible party for things when it comes to budget financial analysis collective bargaining I work with Robert quite a bit uh supporting you guys on the customer service front is Dana ponor
with us tonight D is the first line of defense for your teachers their cover of dependence when it comes to Insurance related matters we also have Carrie Quil with us tonight who does all of your financial analysis and special projects at a high
level our team represents 70 school districts up and down the parkway we represent mouth ocean and Atlanta counties here's a quick snapshot of who we work with uh up and down the parkway now when it comes to what we do for little egg there's quite a few
different services that we provide for you guys first and foremost it's Financial right your second largest budget line item is Healthcare benefits we all know that it's going up at much more than your 2% cap and that's not just a little legegg issue that's
Statewide so our job is to make sure we Market your plan which we do every year we're going to get into that in a little bit in some additional detail um ultimately we do a lot more than that we're in charge of compliance we work on your Cobra regulations we work on your marketing and Collective marketing which
I think you guys are geing up for as well or just actually just wrapped up now when it comes to the services that we provide for your staff uh we start with our website and the website is the warehouse for all things benefits related so if an employee has a question about where they can see their benefit
summaries or if they can get enrollment form this website is the One-Stop shop so that everyone doesn't have to bother Cindy about every single thing that comes into the the central [Music] office I think maybe more importantly is what we've provided in the past few
years is something called a contribution calculator so we all know that the cost of healthcare is very expensive some of your family plans are approaching $40,000 a year employees obviously pay a significant portion of that in their paychecks and we want to give them a tool to make sure they know what they're
paying for their cost of their healthare it's important to note there are two different contribution schedules in place today there's your legacy plans direct 10 and direct 15 which are based off of chapter 78 does anybody know what chapter 78 is all right chapter 78 is a a law
passed in 2011 by Chris Christie it it was the first time public employees had to contribute a percentage of the premium so you guys went from paying 1 and half% of your salary for healthcare to a portion of the cost C the 35% it was big fast forward to 2020 chapter 44
came out offers two new plans specific to school districts it's the Educator's Health Plan and the Garden State Health Plan that contribution ties back to salary so I don't know if you guys have seen the headlines but the state health benefits plan's gone up 15 10 and 15%
the last 3 years anybody in those plans the district is paying 100% of those costs we'll get into the financial aspects of that a little bit more just wanted to explain contribution customer service and this is where Dana shines and there's a lot for you and your employees here so first
we have benefit resource cards which I know the city's got a box of behind us these are laminated cards which have our contact information listed you know since your employees knowwhere to go we've been here for 20 years when it comes to Insurance related issues they call it
data now you guys left the state plan last January and in doing so we've had 102 inquiries over the past 12 months quick snapshot just some of those that we've received client Communications just some of the things that we do as far as
education for administration so look our job is to make sure you're educated and compliant over the past 12 months some of the biggest things we thought talked about its cost avoidance the first is avoiding a state health benefits increase which was
15% this most recent January now we knew about that last March which is what we educated uh compliance on federal requirements right Medicare par D requirements this is something you have to comply with as a district we educated employees on open enrollment in the fall
for a125 Effective day uh age up reports people coming off your plan because of age restrictions EIT reporting with affects your W2s what we're here tonight for is the budget discussion which we had about a month ago and then most recently was the update from hack saac Meridian which
affects everybody up and down the shore they have terminated their contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield effect of June 1st it's a negotiations tactic be sure we're sure it's going to get resolved but just an FYI it's out there it's very public and it's the new way of doing business with Healthcare Systems
in New Jersey last thing about Who We Are and what we do is another value ad is HR replace services this is our compliance Workshop in ESS since they make sure you're doing everything you need to do accurately and we had a very real life
situation pop up two months ago Robert where we had a IRS notice for the district come in where they wanted to penalize you guys $300,000 because a box was checked in the wrong spot for a 1095 form from 2021 we were able to get that addressed
in two days have a response to the IRS and this was Tak them off your play but it's scary when you get those notices from the IRS so that is who we are just want to say if there's any questions as I go this is a lot I know you guys have a lot on your place tonight want to make sure we address it but any questions about
Brown and Brown just briefly the uh you said you had 102 or more inquiries um when was that over the last 12 months so basically Cal year 24 and why was that so you guys had a transition whenever you leave a carrier you went from the state plan on January
1st to 24 it could be anything enrollment my daughter's sick my prescription's not covered so it's anywhere where somebody has an issue with accessing their Healthcare that's where we commit we don't want that going to the board office in that since it's all hip of Private health information that's our job so they come to us for
anything health benefit really is that's because we got a new plan right that you helped us negotiate for our staff is that right so I mean you know we have volume whe regardless if you guys make a change or not okay there's always Healthcare problems it's so complicated and complex I've been
doing this for 20 years it gets nothing but more complicated with all these crazy new prescriptions that come out or treatments that come out so it's just an impossible task for the everyday person to navigate the health trouble so that's our job to do that for you because we don't expect your administrators to do
it that's how we do okay and then um in regarding the Hack and Sack contract so I've worked in healthcare for 20 years I know how this works are we like do you know what Horizon's going to do do you do you talk to them because I know it's about getting paid it's about claims coming in it's a lot of things so look I
worked at Blue Cross for 14 years and in my time there this was not something that was typically public but in those days which is dating me the healthare systems weren't as big as they are largest healthcare provider in the state they have 15 hospitals they just went through this with ET last so they
terminated a contract V for July 1st guess what on June 20th they had a term for a new deal for 3 years these Hospital Systems put pressure on Blue Cross and in Turn Blue Cross put pressure on the hospital systems the goal is they need each other they will come to terms but the reality
is inflations real these Hospital Systems want 15 to 20% more which means that direct correlation to what you guys pay for healthare and so they're always going to bicker but this will end positively they absolutely need each other to fun in the state that's good to
hear just because I mean that's our local health system and I know a lot of primary care docs like we don't want our staff to have to so just in the past in the past 12 months with blue gross it's been axi women Healthcare it's been AdvoCare two largest independent position groups in the state and then
Hack and Sack Maran uh they had Memorial s kering that just came ter for one1 so this is perpetual and unfortunately they're putting the membership in the middle and sending out letters trying to make everybody say well I need it for my insurance well I need my doctors and unfortunately it just means nothing but inflation to the cost of your
off thanks all right so I want to get into the landscape of school district insurance and what it means for you as a school district and what we've done for you in the past going into this fiscal year so here's a quick pie chart that
just shows or represents the 583 school districts in New Jersey there are only a handful of insurers that provide what we call equal to or better than coverage they have to guarantee the benefits that you have collectively bargained the biggest piece of the pie
here is this gray slice it is the State Health Benefit program as of July 1st of 24th so going back to the last fiscal year we had 206 school districts participating 38% the second largest piece of that pie was Blue Cross and Blue Shield where you
guys are currently they have 136 or 23% of all school districts in New Jersey the next largest is these school's Health Insurance Fund they have 119 this is an Etna vehicle the state health benefits is a horizon and Etna vehicle
so they kind of cross over who has what but these are the majority slices of coverage in New Jersey next piece of the pie is a maral which is a Brown and Brown proprietary trust there's 49 school districts in there and then we start the strink we go
into self funding which typically is reserved for groups with a thousand maybe more employees which which is not little egg we have Edna on a direct basis with 20 there's another Health Insurance Fund which is South Jersey they have about 20 as well and then there's two slices that really don't
play in public sector anymore which is Sigma and unit I want to give one more snapshot just giving you a look into what things were doing two years ago and I mentioned before the state plan has had some significant increases in their healthcare costs over the past two years
2022 went up 15% in 2023 went up uh 9 12% last year was 15% which you guys have waited by coming out of the state last year so just taking a look at this in those two years with those massive increases the state has lost 50
employers they went from 255 down 206 and there's a direct correlation Blue Cross went from 87 up to one up to 136 so basically everybody who left like little egg went to Blue Cross on a direct Arrangement schools health insurance one has grown a little bit the others have all kind of stayed where
they are so there's been an exodus from the stay plan which means bad risk is stuck good risk is getting out and when you guys left for 124 you were good risk so when it comes to little like Harbor we have a phrase which is specific to you guys uh it's always beat
the curve we've always had a way to get you in and out of the state to pay the lowest possible cost it is our job and as your broker of record to make sure you're in the most cost effective health benefit every fiscal year of course it has to be guaranteed to be equal to or
better than yeah so how did we move I'm just curious from one plan to another and it's not considered prexisting conditions so so pre-existing conditions is it doesn't exist anymore the Affordable Care Act actually eliminated that 15 years ago but realistically PRX
would have kicked in only if you had Gap in coverage so say you weren't covered for a month between jobs and then you went for treatment that's when a preex would have kicked in so when we talk about equal to better than it's basically the pie chart it's a mer Health at nna Horizon United
Healthcare and the school's Health Insurance Fund those are the only places that can write coverage guaranteed the vehicles were better than which you guys offer by bargaining and stay law realistically with chapter 44 since I joined Brown and Brown in early 2017 we've done three training
transs for you guys the first was in December of 2017 where you guys left the stay plan on a 13-month Guaranteed Rate they saved the district $825,000 it was a significant savings to the school district this happened because
you guys left right before an increase to the state plan for one one of 18 that was plus 13% and your rates were below the current at the time so this was a significant Sav to the district unfortunately the claims were not great which was a precursor for a lot of
things you guys joined the state plan again one one of 20 fast forward a year and a half August 1st of 21 we once again leave the state health benefits program go to Blue Cross and this time save
300,000 unfortunately the claims did not run well once again 12 months later your contract expired we went back to the saate plan which is always the insurer of Last Resort or the lowest where most you guys will pay for healthc [Music]
care our most recent transition January 1st of 2024 you guys left the state plan Blue Cross gave you an 18month Guaranteed Rate so we're still within that period up through the end of this current fiscal year when we quoted this we thought
there was a floor savings to the district of $170,000 so the state planted have an increase for 115 sorry 1 you guys would have saved just under $200,000 we conservatively assumed the 9% increase of the state plan which
would have saved you roughly 557 th000 the reality is the State playing on a plus 15 you guys avoided $620,000 in healthcare premium over the 18 months since she' left the state all in these three transitions of the last 7 and A2 years have saved the
district were avoided the district paying 1.7 5 million in premium so here's just a quick snapshot of where your costs are over this 18-month period where we know the rates are guaranteed with Blue Cross versus what they would have been with the state
and what you guys saved one thing I want to point out and obviously we mentioned it before is the contribution structures you guys have 25% of your employees in chapter 78 plans so only a quarter of your staff is paying contributions time a premium so when your Healthcare goes up they pay the same amount that your
healthare goes in the other 75% are in the educator plan tied to a percentage of salary just a couple quick slides for you guys so obviously you went to Blue Cross for 24 we did shop it to every other carrier for equal to coverage Etna amera Health the school's Health
Insurance Fund and Signal all decline in quote Blue Cross was the only option available to you guys for 1 124 all right I want to jump into the current experience since you have left this day plan and we're going to start with what we present to your business
administrator Robert Green last month which was data we had from January 24th through November 24th we're going to show you a couple different graphs and these graphs are what we call loss ratio reports insurance carriers will base their renewal increases off of your loss
ratio simple function of your dollars in in Premium versus claims out in paid Services a Target loss ratio for most insurance carriers is 85% meaning for every dollar you pay in premium they pay 85 cents out in a claim as you'll see
the first 11 months did not run fantastic we always discount the first three when we talk about Healthcare Healthcare takes a little bit of time to catch up especially the medical side because of the lag of when you go for services and when they're received and actually adjudicated for payment with
Horizon Blue Cross so you've seen the first month it ran at 3% which is not what we typically see for healthcare but it caught up by the third month running at 76% things were going pretty smoothly through June the first six months but come July we passed over that 100% Mark
and the claims started to go the wrong direction so from July through November we exceeded 100 the cumulative amount for this 11mth period was 87% but the last 6 months we're trending much higher at 112 prescription was much worse and this is
not a little egg problem this is a state of New Jersey school district problem the state health benefits plan which is where you came from has very subsidized prescription rates meaning there's not enough premium for what they pay claims Horizon took you because your medical claims were running much better when you
came out for 1124 and they said we'll take the hit on prescription cuz the medical is running very well prescription's running at 80% for the first 11 months every single month was over 100% there is not a maturity this year prescription is Real Time claims
pay as you go for services now when we put these together unfortunately we're looking at a 99% loss ratio for the first 11 months last 6 months were 124% when we dig into what drives these expenses for your employees in the
school district here's what we typically see is your high level activity on the on the medical side is a big factor for your medical claims this means anybody who has an ongoing chronic condition where costs are high in this snapshot at $75,000 or more we had six members that
account for 17% of all claims statistically speaking we see about 1% of every employer group account for 50% of their spend so you guys aren't out of the normal here with where this is trending [Music]
prescription is a little bit different the Trends on prescription are running higher than they've ever been it's approaching 20% just year-over year in cost because of these specialty medications and new drugs hitting the market we highlighted two that are becoming more prominent it didn't exist
18 months ago these are glp1 weight loss medications these are the number one number two or number three drug for every school district we represent when we talk about these drugs every single fill is about $1,500 through 11 months you guys had
$400,000 in paid claims again not a little leg issue this is every single School District we work with but it's just the reality this is $400,000 that did not exist in yourk claims history a year and a half ago the other outlier is specialty medications there are 500 specialty
medications out of 20,000 FDA approved drugs these specialty ads can range anywhere from 10,000 to $50,000 of treatment and you guys have a few their $20,000 a month these add up quick and costs a lot
explains exactly why you're running at 180% any questions on data through November we're going to talk about data through December next okay so look looking at what we had through November our recommendation for a budget estimate again coming off an
18month guarantee with clue cross was 18 % running at 99% on a first year renewal BL cross we thought that was feasible you're still beating the state plan at plus 18% by 5.5% meaning you pay $400,000 more to go to the state plan
over the course of the next fiscal year so this is always the floor if you guys are ever paying word in the state the recommendation is to go back to the state and we've done it three times over the past eight [Music] years again that was Data through November which was we had available when
we met with Robert in January we now have December data things got much worse December was one of the worst months we've had for any school district for claims and we'll explain to you why this happened but you had a month where your medical claims were
236 so you guys paid a dollar in premium Blue Cross paid out $236 in claims your loss ratio only increased a little bit because there some fluctuation from 8 88% last 6 months went to
126 again Target loss ratio is 85% prescription is much the same we had another rough month at 290% your highest prescription month we've had year to dat your loss ratio went from 180% January through November to
192 January through December when we combine those it increased from 99% to 102 last 6 months went from 124 to 13 so trending in the wrong direction but there is a little bit to be aware of
as to what's driving is you had a high level claimant from the first 11 months that had a half a million dollars in paid claims extra in the month of December explains the massive increase in both buckets it appears to be an ongoing cost unfortunately we're still digging into
it that's the driver in December prescription side much the same only thing I want to report is obviously from November to December those two highlighted drugs went from $400,000 in Pay claims to $460,000 in Pay claims those glp weight loss drugs are
now accounting for 26% of your overall spend knowing what we know now we're recommending a new budget number of 20% we're scheduled to meet with blue cross on the 20th so a week from today where we'll get their initial R nums for you guys so we'll have a better picture
one week from today where they're going to land but this is where we think that Horizon's going to be able to acen even at 20% you're still beating the state plan which is scary so you're beating the state plan by 3 and a half% at a 20% increase for the next fiscal
year so something we're going to keep in mind if Blue Cross comes out of the box with a crazy reable number the state is always the insurer of Last Resort where we go for insurance for the [Music] district I want to talk about marketing
and this is again one of our core Services we do this every year we take your health and prescription lines out to all the carriers that can do equal to or better than coverage annually for this year again it's AER Health Eda Signa United the school's Health Insurance Fund and of course Blue
Cross is doing a renewal to dat we've received declined to quotes from Etna amera health and the United we're waiting to hear back from the school's Health Insurance Fund this is not unexpected with the performance of your claims they don't think they can
compete with your rates versus the state planine one other note is we're going to look at a new alternative that just came out January 1st of 2025 there's now a Horizon Health Insurance Fund for public sector it became an official Health Insurance Fund one one of 25
it has four government entities in it today but we're going to ask them to take a look at your claim suit to see if they can do anything from a cost perspective so that's what's going on with your claims and your budget for next fiscal year happy to answer any questions about that I have a question
yes um for the high level claimants does that include retirees prior to them being Medicare eligible or not so great question school districts are unique so when you look at government employees or public employees signatur there's two buckets the first bucket is your local
government County government Sheriff's officers they're in the shbp school health benefit employees school districts belong to the SBP now when you're in a school district your retire is 25 years of service at attained age retire into the state plan they come off of your experience so anything
attributing to high level claimants are active employees or cover dependents okay and then so my next question is is there benchmarking or analysis to see how we can comp how we compare to your other districts that you service so there is we can always look at those types of things I can tell you from a
prescription side you guys are well in line with where everything else is medical is a crapshoot it's the anomaly of one person getting sick in this case you have one person who's very sick and when that happens you're cause Skyrocket which obviously directly impact your claims
loss ratio so um you guys aren't out of line we have a lot of districts where we have higher projected renewal increases this year than 20% so a lot of it a fun of suppressed rates you guys have enjoyed in the state plan over the past 8 years it's completely underfunded but Blue Cross took a chance and guaranteed
and obviously they're taking a loss on you guys for the 18 months of guaranteed rates but this is not just a little egg issue as I said before this is a New Jersey school district issue the benefits are very rich and typically you have these small risk pools where things can fluctuate with one claim the cost of healthcare is up significantly in the
past three years thanks yeah so I had heard before that the term like I guess the sunset on chapter 78 in 2027 so what does that exactly mean so sun setting of laws so chapter 78 came out in 2011 and
actually sunset in 2015 so that law which is the one that introduced you paying a percentage of Premium uh has been sunset for a decade so you had the ability to negotiate those contributions for so chapter 44 was introduced in 2021 um and it was a win for employees who have their health
benefits because it really limited their exposure that was a seven-year law so introduced one1 21 expires 1231 of 27 at that point when it sunsets you have the opportunity to now negotiate those benefits until then you can't touch them by State
LA the reality is I don't know how much you're going to be able to get back from the employees at that point in time because was their motivation to give higher contributions for healthcare but that's the reality you're stuck at the holding pattern for those people and you have 75% of your staff contributing based on their sers so you have the
ability in almost 3 years to be able to negotiate that chapter 44 language but until then unfortunately you can't touch the Educator's plan we're again 75% of your staff in any other questions on the budget or finances or what we're seeing with claims I know it's a lot and I'm sorry
for it's going very fast but I want to make sure I about as much as I could all right so just one question you said you uh the state health benefits plan has the largest piece of the pie yes right but their rates are going to be higher
than what you're quoting us now for Horizon correct so we don't know where your renewal is going to Land once we do we'll be able to make that full analysis as to what your costs are versus the state plan here's the challenge we Face the state majury renews the school employees health benefit program on a
calendar year basis they set their rates over the summer we typically know in July obviously your budget runs July through June so you're in a predicament go to that plan because you never know what the second half of your fiscal year means for healthcare in the past three years it's been 159 and 15 so it's tough to budget for those in the unknown in
the state plan so we always try to get groups out on a private basis because obviously you're saving money versus the floor of the state plan which is very poorly performing but it's always the floor meaning that's the highest you'll paying premium for any given year so it's the insur glass Resort so it's
always where we have a barometer in place to make sure you're in the right location for cost of healthare the 20% is pretty uh solid as far as our experience you're saying that go up we don't know yet we'll know in a week so realistically you have a couple moving pieces the high level claimants are a
big part of the story if we take those out which we can discount because look they write off certain amounts it's called stop loss protection if they're willing to do that on a first year renewal like little egg maybe we can go lower but for now I want to be conservative with the
[Music] 20 else have questions all right just one more thing I want to touch base was was waivers so waivers is always a Hot Topic when it comes to bargaining because you know you're thinking to yourself I'm
paying employees to not take my health benefits and when we look at this we want to kind of talk about what waving really means so for the district you currently incentivize employees 25% of the healthcare costs cap to $3,000 and just to kind of put it in perspective again family coverage for that Educators
plan is 36 Grand a year so you're paying them a small portion of that to not take the health benefits the state plan and really state law says the most you can give anybody is $5,000 so we have school districts that range between $1,000 and $5,000 you guys are kind of settle right
in the middle when we kind of look at how this works for the district you know ultimately if you were to take away a monetary incentive Financial incentive to wave you run the risk of overpaying compared to what you're paying out in waivers today so you guys have 74
employees currently that do not take Healthcare benefits in the district worst case scenario you take away the financial incentive all 74 reenroll it's $1.6 million in additional cost to the district that's after employee contributions and taking out
what you're paying waivers today so it's a big deal to kind of do that obviously that's not the reality most people who wave aren't going to reenroll but even if you get 10 to 15% that's the break even now we did an interactive spreadsheet we can share with you where you can kind of toggle those and see what make sense but removing the waiver
kind of puts you at risk for losing more than you're paying out today in waiver in [Music] C all right so I know we covered a lot we're going to know more in a week and obviously keep the business office updated with what we expect and we can regroup and have that conversation that
time but obviously any questions I'm will happy to address thanks anything thank you guys [Music]
right along all right I have a motion please to approve Finance items a through F motion I have a second
second are there any questions hearing none I have roll call please Mr s um I'm going to say yes to everything except e I'm going to abstain Mr phello yes Miss Lawrence yes Mr Le
yes Dr Snider yes M Martin yes M Berber yes the motion carries okay facilities I have a motion please to approve facilities item a motion second
are there any questions see M Ro call please Mr Sone yes Mr phello yes M Lawrence yes Mr Lea yes Dr Snider yes M Martin yes M Berber
yes motion [Music] carries okay I recommend the motion to approve School business administrators non-personnel items a through D and I have a motion motion second
second are there any questions call please Mr Sone yes Mr felicello yes M Lawrence yes Mr Lea yes Dr Snyder yes Miss Martin
yes Miss Berber yes the motion carries okay I recommend the motion to approve Personnel items a through E I have a motion please motion I have a second second but don't we have to amend okay
so motion to amend B okay we're amending uh b1b and amending to what um for Staffing okay under I from 4:14 2025 to May 1st 2025 all right I
need a second on that second okay is that is that [Music] the I got three male voices on that side thank you all
right so I have a motion as a amended to for items sorry a through e for personnel motion okay second second any questions any other
[Music] questions I just I just have one question um and I think we talked about a little bit but the um the bus a salary which I know is necessary we need bus AIDS rpt why was that sectioned out
as because it says we're using that RBT for bus a is that right same same cost for the as a bus a uh which which letter I'm sorry D under d
[Music] d just wondered why that was and if that's just for the bus Aid which would make sense because it's the same yes it is just for the bus Aid uh one is sorry okay one one is a parah and the
other is a regular full-time teacher okay I think at the same rate for the bus eight is that what correct I'm understanding okay and the substitute rate is around the same I just made that
Discovery per hour I have a question about e uh Melissa leato I'm assuming she's staff and those are after hours before or
after um is she eligible to take like a Time personal time too if she wanted to spend a whole day she can take but she'd have to take a personal day okay yes otherwise it's not on District time it's our lunch time or AOL okay thank
you good question anybody else see no more discussion may I have a roll call please Mr CI yes Mr phello yes M Lawrence yes Mr Lea yes Dr Snider yes Miss Martin
yes Miss urn yes the motion passes okay recommend the motion to approve superintendent of school's non-personnel items a through D I have a motion motion I have a second second are there any
questions no I just want to say about the calendar that everybody knows the November break is on the calendar yet again so that is uh I think approximately 12 days in school in November so just something to keep at the Forefront of our minds as we move
forward with the surrounding District and what we're going to do with that November break thank you that troubles me also yeah with that is there anything that can be done that we are I mean years ago it used to be a countywide calendar and I there was discussions of
us going back in that direction because I'm assuming some school districts that might be celebrating Jewish holidays do not take that week to account for those days that they may take off in September only holidays I can think I was the owner in September um for that
um are we moving in that direction and then also too with the amended calendar for this year what happens if we go past the 20th can we go into the following week or we pulling days from Easter break I don't remember uh we could go into the following week but I believe
the calendar indicates that we would go um through spring break and in terms of the county it's all over it's all over the place whenever we have a superintendent's meeting everybody does the own thing when when we put this calendar together
I was on the phone with the three other superintendents Pinelands eagleswood and tuckeron and we all are pretty much on the same calendar in terms of that week There's little days here and there that that were're not but for the most part
we're all on the same calendar and those districts want that we off isue yes or at least at least half of them do I thought our main constraint was because we share busing with PS is that
because otherwise we have freedom to move it would we when when it comes to they um pilins can be off and we can be in that wouldn't that wouldn't be a problem and we could be in and they could be off or vice versa and that wouldn't be a problem it's when we're both in doing something different that's
the most of a problem okay makes sense but it would just put families in a really difficult position in town right because there's there's they have multiple children in in pinel's District and little Lake District and then one's going to school
and two are not you know so I just over at Pinelands about the same issue how parents feel over at Pinelands about the same issue do you find that they want more children in school haven't those it's just it's been in place so
long right um we were it was shared that the superintendent spoke with students there and with the community there and this is what came back so I'm a survey went out okay and I'm not sure that students are adults with making the decision making process but I'm just
throwing that out there but um for me as a working parent who cannot take that week off that week is a struggle um because surrounding districts Atlanta County does offer child care for that Thursday Friday of the teachers convention but other than that you are
on your own for finding child care I mean if you can take off it that's wonderful but um I'm not in that situation we also just for your application met with uh Union Association representation as well and
review the calendar with them was there talk of using right at school or something that week then we mentioned that about child care I think we talked about that before Dr and JZ got here but I it hasn't come
up again yeah Hing I wasn't having a mind I think in terms of liability the school's not open I don't know that we can offer those Services we offer summer do summer yeah we could but with that
said are they going to be offering summer camp right at school or is it going to be on the agenda next month CU I know some parents have been asking and we are looking at options we will have something we're looking at options but we're not sure what yet but something will be available cuz are we
going are we continuing with right at school are we we're looking at some options we're not sure I didn't know if we had to go to bid yes we will have to do that is that correct R RFP R there any more discussion all right I have a roll call
please Mr Sone yes Mr phello yes Miss LS yes yes Mr Leo yes Dr Snider yes M Martin yes M Herber yes motion
carries all right is there any new business for the board bringing up anything [Music] new seeing none we'll move on to public comments floor is now open to members of the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment
on educational issues the board requests that each statement made by a participant is limited to 3 minutes as cited in policy 0167 there's a sign in sheet located on the podium please sign in before you speak quiet group tonight
okay close public comment and move on theard Forum there anything for the good of the group I just want to um appreciate Mrs Natoli for nominating
migal lanel my son for a student of the month I had no idea um she runs an awesome awesome classroom and the kids have learned so much in such a short amount of time uh and all my kids have had awesome teachers Mr Str is here teaching Matteo how to read uh we just
have a phenomenal district with some 20 great teachers and I just wanted to say thank [Music] you to that else I'll just second what Chris said we have some of the best teachers and we're so blessed to have them here
little like my kids have the greatest teachers again this year so thank you for all that you do I hope that you can hear us at home because I've heard that you can't so than thank can and um congratulations to all the students of the month and then um just Public
Service Announcement again please if you can hear us at home parents just drive safe do not drive through the middle of the buses please it's just we need everybody to be safe so slow down and do the right
thing and pay attention that's it thank you anybody else like to comment okay I already uh put a shout out to Tiffany metal coup and the cupcake contest and I just really appreciate stuff like that going on in the district and to be invited so we
really had a good time um during that and I just would like to um remind parents and community members that it is budget season if you have concerns questions Now's the Time to ask okay so we encourage public
input um with our community members also just new members reminder you need your bios on the website did you do those yet no I got okay I didn't check it great great great okay Mr G okay and
then there's a financial disclosure statement which I just submitted I think by April so we have to do that yearly everyone okay everyone on the board right okay all right just a reminder by April 1 is that right April 30th I have a lot of children so I put
mine off a little bit all right anything else for the good of the [Music] group and I have a motion to adjourn then motion second second
[Music] sorry all in [Music] favor thank you don't get cookies okay f