e e e e good afternoon everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the Martin County Schoolboard Workshop to order can we please rise to say the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of
the United States of America to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Miss Falls will you call the role please Dr morard here Mrs Roberts yes
Mrs Powers here Mrs Russell here Mrs pritet here hey uh board information shair do any board members have anything they'd like to share uh chair pret I just want to ask about
the um committee assignments are when are we taking that up do you know I'm just not sure which committees I'm supposed to be serving on I remember we had kind of pushed that back uh is there a time when we're taking that up I just don't know which committees I'm supposed to be
on well we talked about bringing the process of the remember remember in November when or December I guess it was was um we talked about bringing the process back for how the Committees are
selected and talking about that but I thought we I thought it was remaining the same for this year and then we would have a new process in place for the November when we or December I guess would be December of this year right so
we probably need to have add it to a workshop of some sort agenda item um Miss Falls do you want to um send out to uh Dr Mari Ari the Committees that he was selected for and
if anyone else has any questions maybe just send them to all of us he can you can also go to our website as well because each one of us we have our picture and then our information up there so for you you're on the Stuart Martin Chamber of Commerce boundary advisory committee code of student
conduct committee and then school calendar committee okay and then we're going to review the pro process maybe closer to the date of like at the end of the year that we're thinking or is it a policy that we use or is it a just has
been past practice I don't know I mean it's been that way as long as I've been on the board but I don't I'm I'm happy to take a I don't mind taking a look at it and doing it my we talked about doing it similar to how
like the county does it they discuss them at their meeting okay this is these are the Committees who would like to do it and then we're collectively making making the decision as opposed to Miss Roberts thank you so if we're
just doing um process and we're not reassigning as long as it gets done before long as it gets on a workshop where we can discuss the process before fall time we'll be fine because it doesn't happen again until for the next calendar year sounds good everybody good
with that okay yeah just make sure that it's not in policy somewhere because um then it takes three months to do it so we just need to build in that timeline in case thank you thank you all any anyone else have something to
share okay uh public comment I have one public comment I just have to read this I apologize that's what I have to do citizen input is vital to the Improvement of our district most times your remarks may be listened to without
comment from the board members or superintendent this does not mean they are heard with any less intensity or concern where appropriate the superintendent and staff will investigate your comments and report back to you in the board with an answer we thank you for taking the time and having the concern to make our district
better better your presentation to the board should not exceed three minutes letters or statements from others not present can be given to our clerk who will be sure that each School Board member and the superintendent receive a copy to keep our records straight and authentic our policy does not permit you
to read the statements of others into the record I have Angela Roberts Madam chair board members administrators my name is Angie Roberts I've devoted 36 years to educating the Next Generation
27 years of that I have proudly served in this District in 2019 2020 I was honored to represent our district as Martin County's teacher of the year it was a challenging time to be a teacher as that was the covid shutdown year during that time I recognized The
Importance of Being a a champion and a voice for teachers to that end I am here tonight to address some terribly troubling proposed contract language that will most negatively impact me and many other teachers who are technically retired but continue to work through the
FRS drop program two months ago this conversation wasn't even on the horizon but now with little time to make such a major life decision I'm being forced to make two choices one retire in 3 months from a job that I have loved and devoted
my life to or to lose the insurance subsidy for life that I was promised since being hired in 1998 with either choice I will lose life sustaining income I can understand your choice to stop this benefit for new
hires or teachers in their first 10 years but to discontinue it for those of us who are already in the retirement phase and have dedicated the best years of our lives our loyalty and our service to this District is in my opinion an unfair Labor practice and more
importantly a show of disregard for our Health and Welfare to by the very District that we have faithfully and passionately served retire now or lose your subsidy doesn't really feel like a choice to me it feels like an ultimatum to force us out we counted on this
subsidy when we made decisions regarding our retirement and the choice to inter drop the choices you make regarding this subsidy will change the climate of this dist District people will either view this board as a group of thoughtful compassionate decision makers who
understand that the good and fair treatment of its Workforce directly impacts productivity and success or they may see you as a callous group of business people who put budget before ethics and who wrongly strip their Elder employees of promised benefits you will
make news either way and your decision will be seen and felt by our Workforce and by the larger community we the tenure teachers have been the torchbearers the mentors the backbone and it was our Blood Sweat and Tears that made this District the treasure
that it is today now we are counting on you to stand with us and keep the promise that we were given let us retire with dignity peace of mind and the allocations that we've earned through service I humbly ask that you not vote this proposal into fruition jely there's
a more ethical way to reduce expenses I thank you so much for your time and consider ation thank [Music] you hey that all right uh next we have Carter Morrison with budget Workshop number two
good afternoon Madam chair members of the board Mr superintendent members of Staff community and those who are watching us over the worldwide web this afternoon I welcome you to budget Workshop number two and this budget Workshop today is a little bit of a
update to information presented last month when we met um at the first budget Workshop number one with respect to the agenda this afternoon again um we have moved the needle a little bit um in discussing and moving through our budget development
process that I'll go over with you in a moment we'll look at the updated Trend data for the unweighted FTE um talk about what next year's projections look like the impact of currently what the impact is in the budget based on our
October count which has been finalized and published by the Department of Education and talk a little bit about some internal initiatives that we have undertaken with respect to um maximizing and making sure that we're getting best pricing through the purchasing
department so looking at um slide number three where we are with respect to the budget cycle um the arrow is not pointing on discretionary and categorical funds allocated um that that work has actually been done based off
the estimated February FTE for the schools that has been done and is currently on my desk being reviewed before we Infuse that into the system for uh for the next uh fiscal year on slide number four um looking at
the summary of unweighted FTE as of survey to in October this has now been updated with the final numbers for the third calculation if you look to the right um you will see the red circle
when we last met that number was still 174.72 million price tag to it it has been updated and finalized by the Department of Education so you can see that scholarships now in Martin County School District the FTE unweighted FTE
is now 2,231 75 FTE which just as a talking point is larger than any of your high schools so we continue to see that um sector of our um of Education continue
to grow so overall when you were to if you were to look at it the entire School District FTE is seven has grown by 722.151 19.53 ft looking at the next slide number five we look at the again the price tag you
can see see the the dramatic rise in the scholarship funding and when we last met it was $18.6 Million has now risen to about $2.9 million and I'll go through another slide that details all of that but you can see that there's a
significant increase in our um FES scholarship population this next slide on slide number six is was extracted from the proposed committee bill um from the prek budget 2501 which is the house side of
the U proposals we received these proposals earlier um this week so we will have that update for you at the next budget Workshop that compares the Senate versus the house and potential the implications of some of the proposals in both Chambers but I wanted
to give the board a sense of the Statewide the history of the FES plus what they're predicting moving forward so if you to compared 2324 at 22,9 64 FTE to the current year 356
62875 FTE that's approximately another 135,000 66475 FTE Statewide or a 61.4% increase and in the verbiage that you see below the chart um for
2526 Statewide they're also increasing that by by another 89,000 or roughly about a 25% increase in Fes this is Statewide now we've seen different proposals from the house and the Senate which I will go over with you at the next meeting that handle the FES a
little bit different but for our local purposes I will show you that we've always excluded that from our budget to help protect us because that is a penny that those are dollars that we wouldn't we would not see coming flowing through uh Martin County School
District the next slide um looks at the doe database and looking at our 2526 projected FTE and our submission to the state uh this was submitted to the state on March the 5th based on the um
our internal FTE AC met and as a as a team we looked at the historical data looking at the losses which you have in front of you in what I'm going to call the big chart um that shows historically that for the last 10 years we literally
have not grown in the traditional Public School sector but we took that into consideration and in the summary of the chart to the right in the colored area you can see that traditional in October was 16 excluding virtual
1604 6.77 projection is 158 37.75 or a decrease of as I mentioned at our last meeting every single model that we looked at in the state's database predicted a decrease
and further expansion of the um FES or scholar scholarship program so Charters uh we did uh project a um an increase in Charters um the board might recall that we lifted the cap on the um Clark
Advanced Learning Center as well as Indiantown High School uh We've also added some FTE there for some growth out in Indian town and scholarships as you can see is a big number at 5 52.5 we just pretty much picked the biggest
number that we could um in order to try to protect ourselves so updating the graphical representation again you can see the regression um and in the blue in the orange bars that the traditional schools
have been losing FTE and the um schol ships and Charters um are have an inverse relationship in terms that they're growing So based on the third ffp calculation there are some major components that we just need to go over
so in the second calculation is after the legislative session is done and the milles excuse me the property tax rules are certified to the Department of Education then they set your budget but the budget includes for us at the
Statewide level Charters and it also includes includes the FES now I will say that in the Senate bill they try to separate that out as a separate categorical which kind of helps us to separate out that but you can see the
ftef 19841 point8 4 is allinclusive so the weighted portion of that is 22 40212 the student allocation Remains the Same that is the rate which at which the
state pays for each unweighted FTE the comparative wage factor or C CWF um attempts to recognize the difference between the cost of living between one school district and the other if you think of the old economic
market basket of goods comparison um and then you come up with your base funding now because the FES is included in there and and the FTE looks higher if you look on the increase decrease column you can see that there's an increase in the in the categoricals
of about 1.7 million then you deduct your required local effort that is the portion of funds that are generated when we come before you under two trim hearings one in July and one in September to Levy
local taxes so they take a credit against that so and then of course we get into adjustments so prior adjustments $53,000 could be adjustments that they're making for different reasons um in the
ffp in not this District in past districts when we had penalties for class size you would see adjustments for that you would see maybe overpayments were made they would make those minor adjustments to your to your ffp but the big one below that pration to
appropriation 1 milon 42174 so in when the budget is set at the beginning of the year the general Appropriations act caps the budget this is how much the state budget is going to be for ffp in that budget it was projected to
have 3.10 million FTE however on the third count there was more more FTE that that what was in the original budget 3181 so of course they had to prate down that amount of money that that deficit
so our share of that deficit was 1, 42174 the next line to the bottom says education stabilization allocation that was a special special part of the legislature in 2324 that what they do is if your total
funds per F per FTE in the second Cal which is your budget have do your October count if your total funds for FTE go down then the state makes up that difference in in funding because of that FTE change so that is a stabilization
allocation that they give you for fluctuations in FTE base primarily because of the impact of the FES or the scholarships our share this year was 624 621 now we're kind of looking at
legislation with baited breath because in The house's proposal for next year they completely repeal that so said another way if we did not have that those funds then we would be having to cut another 62,000 theoretically out of our budget
the Senate actually keeps it in um in in in there but they treat that and they actually add um another $50 million to that amount for next year to keep it at an impress of about $250 million
so again when when we meet next time we'll go through the the various um legislative pieces from both Chambers but I wanted to point out how critical that is um at this at this point so we're up at about one uh 1,64
before we flip the page to slide 11 so we carry forward that that million doll increase and then we have a prior year scholarship adjustment of about $246,000 again this could be a recovery from scholarship monies paid to parents
and things of that nature and then the big adjustment comes in red um in the second calculation as I mentioned we had U an adjustment out of our budget of $18.6 million that Rose to
$2.9 million so that cut another 2.2 million almost $2.3 million out but as I mentioned before right below that where you see adjusted net state ffp of 11,117 74 in the 2425 second ffp
calculation that's the number we budgeted for as if so we did not include that $18 million doll in in our budget so the adjustment down to in the third Cal would go to 10.55 million or or a
decrease of about 962 th000 class size reduction um reduced by $91,000 so the net total State funding is a million milon 53 637 less however
uh with with the budgetary processes that and systems that we have in place we typically Reserve um those funds for um any any loss of FTE that may come during the during the fiscal year what we're currently doing now is looking at
the net effect however we're divvying up between okay how much did the the charters go up particularly and how much did we go down which would produce that net effect of a million dollars so we're working through that uh my staff and I right now to post those adjustments in the
budget any questions so far okay um Switching gears now um as you are aware we're always looking to make sure that we're um appropriately and maximizing our efficiency with respect
to our how we spend our dollars um just wanted to give the board a quick update on some initiatives that the purchasing department has been undergoing and looking at some of the purchases that some of them actually have been board approved but subsequent to board
approval we want to make sure that we're getting the best the best the best deal in town so to speak so we had um a tree removal project and an audiovisual project those two we got quotes from duly authorized and awarded vendors and
subsequently we were able to save on those two projects $2,700 and 34515 respectively on a high school track resurfacing project what we were able to do is peel off a portion of the work and
be able to to quote that separately and as a result of that we're able to save over $283,000 from from that um award finally a Swale and drain drainage Improvement project we again we also had a quote from an alternative vendor which
was duly authorized under an an a publicly awarded bid and we were able to save 14,8 863 so just running total so far we have about $335,500 out of the back so to speak U
we are working on a districtwide um lawn maintenance contract uh we probably will have to phase it in over time but we do we are seeing some immediate savings to some of the locations that we have already received a quote for we'll update the board on that and per the
superintendent's direction we will be putting those on our website to keep a running total for the public to see uh what we're what we're um undertaking to save save uh the next one is an update on the Reprographics
Department um we have instituted a software program that has been able to streamline our operations with respect to the Reprographics Department um all the credit goes to Jeff Carver and his and his team down there they have inst
registered over 500 users um districtwide for this um process every desktop um on the software icon appears on everybody's desktop for who's registered for this program we've processed to the datea of printing of
this about 1,200 orders and delivery since the implementation of this program uh the target is by the end of this month um that all schools will be on board and and utilizing that software and that program um I just put a little
bit of a feedback from a principal on there that she loves the print shot Pro they can see all the copies and the prices before they actually get approved so that beefs up our internal controls helps them with their budget they can see exactly how much the order is going to cost before that is put through and
we're able to go back and have historical data on pricing and able to um cost things out appropriately you said I was able to prevent a $2,200 mistake by seeing it first I like that I can we can get errors corrected ASAP when copies don't come correctly or on
time so that's the customer service piece that we're working on and for the Reprographics Department we are seeing improvements in that and thank the superintendent and the board for supporting that initiative um as we worked our way through through that that
Madam chair I believe concludes this afternoon's budget update um as I mentioned we'll be back next month with a comparison of the um State excuse me the Senate versus house house bills and talk about some of the legislation and bring forward some of the departmental
savings and things that we've been working on behind the thank you so much thank you do I have any question no thank you surprise I neglected to read the addendum to the agenda items updated
6.15 advertising and Commercial activities and then items remove 5.01 School Board budget which will come up uh in our Workshop next next month okay we're going to go to school board policies does anyone have any
public comments regarding the school board policies open to the board don't vote on them okay sure um 0131 technical Corrections technical corrections I
noticed on thech under superintend 405 it talks about the superintendent with a big S or the superintendent with a small s would imply the ability to delegate and I believe that what we've
been doing is that the large s gives gives us the ability to delegate and the small s does not give us the we're backwards is that correct Miss Falls one gives us the one implies a delegation and the other one
doesn't or so in our existing policy anytime we say the word superintendent big S little s anything it always means the superintendent can can delegate okay all right um the next one
is 01 31.1 One technical Corrections um the recommendation is to select the first option which would have the school board making technical Corrections as resolutions every
time that's what we do now for technical Corrections is that what we want to do or do we want the superintendent to be able to take care of a technical correction if it's technical in nature um it which is refers to consolidation of sections transfer of sections
combining dividing sections renumbering chapters titles grammatical typographical errors alterations or omissions I mean do we really want every time we have a oh we renumbered these paragraphs
incorrectly it's got to come back for a resolution um I don't think that that necessary to me those are just scrier errors or like simple um things but if you're going to delete or alter yes I
do okay okay so but I'm talking grammatical or typographical error so the way that it's written here by adopting this it would mean that if we have renumbered something wrong or we have a typographical error it's got to come back for resolution I'm fine with
that not being so do we want to delete the piece that talks about delete the line that says alterations and omissions to keep all the definition the same for technical except alterations or omissions
that was where I was going with it that I'm okay with the consolidation of a section transfers a section combining dividing sections renumbering sections chapters titles Corrections or additions for grammatical or typographical errors um and and the updating of names of
individuals who serve as compliance officers Etc but the piece I would have an issue with calling Technical and I think needs the board's permission is alterations or omissions so I think if you wanted to use the second paragraph
and give the superintendent the authority to do technical Corrections my preference would be to delete the words alterations and omissions and make everything else a technical correction is that yeah I would just want to run that by the attorney before
we make changes like that but yes let's if that I'm fine with it as long as the attorney says it's good okay um let's see 164 wait
6.6 oh 6.05 yeah it's okay um this is do we currently do a 7day publication notice for
workshops and the only thing less is an emergency or I guess even a special requires seven days so the only thing that's less than seven days is an emergency meeting okay so that's fine
and then if you go to agendas at 165.1 6.07 6.07 page two letter B says the agenda for each regular meeting shall be de mailed or delivered to each board member are we
considering delivery to be electronic delivery generally agenda should be mailed no later than 7 days prior to the meeting or delivered so as soon as possible to provide time for study of the agenda by the member I know this is old language
because there were um I know when I first came on the board there were board members that had this someone from the school district hand deliver a printed agenda to their home right and that that's what I'm but do we I'm I I'm I don't even know about
the delivery the fact that it's posted into board dos where it's accessible by me and the public I've never never even had one emailed unless it's prior to the seven days to discuss it with the superintendent can we send that one back
to check it with the I mean I think as long as every board member has access to it yeah I understand that but I I I I think at the very least they need to say that delivery can can be electronic or something along
those um I I think the reason it's in here is because there's 67 counties and our board operates quite differently than many other boards and I think it's covering all the bases so I think for us
we don't need to have it in there but I understand why it is in there Dr marii did you want to say no I agree with I agree with Miss Robert okay would would the board be opposed for us to just add electronic format
into there without having to send it to the attorney for review I I just feel like that's an easy ad without incurring a it could just say electronically delivered well it just says it's it doesn't call out how you're going to
deliver it so if I don't I don't prefer a printed agenda I can look at it on my right laptop but some board members May so you either get it delivered in the method that you would like it delivered whether it's a
printed agenda or it is a electronic agenda I mean we we don't have them delivered at all I mean I don't I don't get I mean they're on the board docs and that's where I access them but they're not mailed electronic mailed or delivered in
anyway well they are uploaded and basically delivered to your board docks and that's what you you have access to very similar to email right I consider that delivered once it's uploaded and available to us I consider that
delivered do you do you agree you can I'm looking at the language that they crossed out that includes um electronic format up in the language above and I'm just wondering why I I don't know I feel like Neola
didn't do a very good job on this so Mrs Falls pointed out a the agenda along with any meeting materials available in electronic form excluding confidential or exempt information shall be published on the board's website before the event and shall include any
recommendations of the superintendent so the board's website meaning your board docs or printed for you when you meet with me prior to uh the board meeting I don't know if a suffices for you or if you want some additional change we'll go
with whatever pleasure of the board I just don't feel like we should need to send this all the way back to niola I guess what I'm asking for is under B where it says shall be mailed or delivered after the word delivered if we
put in parentheses including electronically and just did that then it is kind of clear because it's yeah I don't even know why the paragraph B is even there I don't it doesn't make any sense think out B well they just added B so I mean that seems like a little right
but a covers it is the board agreeable to just adding electronically in parentheses I'm fine with it it's semantics in my mind it's it's delivered is delivered regardless of how you deliver it I'm fine with you
way yes okay yes is that okay to include it then okay thank you and that's all I had thank you thank you except we are going to discuss the
6561 correct yes so um we are open for discussion on 6561 anyone no um so this is the retiree health insurance for employees retiring after July 1
2025 um and I know that we have pass the policy that is dealing with the people who are retiring before July 1 2025 which is in pretty much in three months um and we've already taken care of that
that's already for the people who are either currently retired or retiring before that end of the year um what this is saying now is the way this policy is it's saying that we will contribute until June
30 2038 correct yes so if you retire before your Medicare eligible you will continue to get something until 2038 which is 13 years from now right
and knowing that so 13 years from 65 means it affects somebody who was less than 42 years old when for this piece right yes less than 42 right now now and it also means since
we had the notification and we changed that policy 10 years ago when it came out of the contract and went into policy it means that we're talking about anybody who was 32 years old if I take the 42 year old now 10 years ago that 42 year old was 32 years
old 42 minus 10 is 32 so we're talking about people who were 32 years old so they got 10 years of notice and we're giving them another 13 years is that correct yes yes okay um and then the only other real change we're doing is we're
changing the piece that has to do with the health insurance subsidy correct yes correct and I don't know if any all of all the board is okay with that or if
they had any wanted to discuss it any further no yes not okay thank you no it just says after does the media people need any time does the media need any time to set
up 15 minutes we do have to wait yes if it says 5 o'cl right okay yeah it's advertised 5 o'clock so we have to or does it oh immediately following okay good good yes perfect all right so I'm going to call this second meeting
of the work special workshop for the Martin County School Board um and the addendum to the agenda I have another one here hold on is items updated 3.01 employee
benefits Insurance final offer with the district's preferred carrier Signa for fully insured medical and Pharmacy RFP right okay good afternoon Madam chair members of the board superintendent main Don Calderone director of risk management hang on we
need a we need a motion sorry Don I'm sorry we need a motion in a second I move approval to approve the agenda motion by Miss power second by Miss Russell all those in favor I
unanimous proceed restart good afternoon Don Calderone um director of risk management employee benefits Madam chair members of the board superintendent Maine um alongside me is Senior Benefits consultan Dustin Keane who is a little under the weather today but he's here we wanted to make sure you know that he
he's still with us and alongside me is um our benefits consultant Gabrielle Swain um so as you recall we were here a week ago at the March 25th board meeting where the board directed uh staff to um
engage um the Garen group to uh finalize the final offer with the preferred carrier of the fully insured medical and Pharmacy RFP um and that preferred carrier was Signa so um there was was um
several items that the Garen group went back to siga um to negotiate following that board meeting and Gabrielle is going to present the final offer um but those three items were that we wanted uh siga
the preferred carrier to match the current benefit for the Advanced Imaging benefit which if you recall right now under the HMO plan is a $350 co-pay under the best and final offer from siga it was a calendar year deductible then
20% Co insurance and then $350 co-pay um and then the other um item that the Garing group uh went to siga to discuss was um they had heard our conversation that we had about the board in years
past um has traditionally picked up that difference between the high deductible Health Plan employee only cost and the $6,500 which is what the board's uh contribution is towards active uh employee Insurance um and they went back
to Signa and said okay um we see that your best and final offer was a little bit more than $6,500 a year can you get that closer to $6,500 which comes out to $541 67 a month and then also just a
little housekeeping thing from an administrative standpoint if they can go back and um change the odd pennies to even pennies for payroll calculations um it's just a little bit easier for us to work with the payroll department when we administer those benefits um so I'm
going to hand it off to Gabrielle and she's going to present siga's final offer hello so the good news is that siga was able to do all of the things that were asked of them so they did match your current Advanced Imaging
coopay so it is only going to be $350 which matches what you currently have and no longer subject to the deductible or the co insurance they were able to lower the high deductible health plan to 54166 that's a savings to the board of
over 33,000 and they made all the rates have even pennies the next page is a summary of what we looked at last time you'll notice the 7.9% increase but if we go to the following page this is the
negotiated response that we went back to so you'll notice the 350 copay is in a blue box because that has been improved and changed you'll see the 54166 the 7.7% overall
increase and now the high deductible Health Plan the per pay deduction would be zero based on the 6,500 annually your caveats remain the same and your additional funds added there's no change here from what we looked at last time
you're still going to have that full-time on-site rep rate cap is 10% for year two 175,000 in annual discretionary funds 50,000 in annual technology Andor implementation
credits 200,000 in annual Wellness funds an annual Cobra credit to pay WX $5,000 you have virgin pulse or which will be personify as your wellness program and visana the virtual women's clinic and the 50% participating
contract which is total funds for each year that includes the first year and every year after that of 430,000 and with that I'm going to turn it back over to Dawn um so just before we get into the um decisions that we are going to ask of
the board tonight um just wanted to open up to any questions or comments on the board I'm asking this for the chair are we doing it in pieces like we're doing this now or are we waiting until we have everything and then doing
everything well I think we have everything well there's two other there's the two other pieces there's the traditional family piece and there's the health savings account but I'm ready to make a motion on this piece if you want this piece to sure right so I'll move approval of siga
and keep the caveat of the no new enrollment into their oap Open Access poo plan for the 2526 here second okay so I have a motion by Miss Roberts a second by Miss Powers all those in favor I
I just say one thing I just wanted to say thank you to um the in group our staff and Signa for listening to the concerns that the board had in Trying to minimize the cost for employees and I really do appreciate all that yes very well done thank you so
much thank so next next okay so um the other um item that we are looking for board input is to decide if the board wants to continue a
board contribution a board contribution to the health savings account for those active employees that are enrolled in the high deductible Health Plan and you'll see there it's the same options that we presented um last week There's four options ranging from
$250 up to $1,000 and the um annual cost associated with that is listed in the yellow in the bottom open it up for discussion our current is 750 correct yes um for this year it's
$750 and employees get that um when they are actively enrolled on July 1st you know um very closely after July first when the new plan year goes into effect and then for employees that join us throughout the year they get it um in the first of the month after they become
benefit eligible after their benefits go into effect so can you tell me you think that that contribution has encouraged people to move over to the high deductible plan yes greatly um in years past we've done
$1,000 750 this year um I I do feel like any contribution towards that health savings account does help in enrollment because not only do we educate um our employees during open enrollment but also when they are um being hired not
only do we let them know that it's a Z cost to them per paycheck but also the school board contribute something to their health savings account to get them started um so it gives them a little bit of something and then we highly encourage them to continue their own
savings into that account um through automatic payroll deductions when they roll in bentech so I'm all for um continuing to make a contribution to the HSA I guess I would look to the superintendent and Carter and
ask the dollar amount what you know what can we afford um what's that number I I know the discussion that uh Carter and I had and it's been a couple of weeks but uh we were we were still at the 750 option
three uh given the current status of finances and looking for continued deductions so do you want I would make a motion that we um continue the um
HSA contribution for employees at $750 second second okay I have a motion by Miss Powers a second by Dr marior all those in favor I I unanimous
okay okay one more one more to go okay the last um uh decision uh that we would appreciate the board making um tonight is um in years past the context behind this is about 5 years ago when the um the benefits
change for medical insurance and all lines of insurance um from a two-tier system which was Employee plus family to a four tier system uh which includes includes employee plus spouse employee plus children employee only and employee plus family um at that time back in 2020
to help offset the increase um to the employee plus family the board had made a decision to um contribute a little bit extra towards the employee plus family it is a uh a grandfathered um subsidy if
you will um we are down to 128 employees that are in that um just so you know just for history purposes when an employee leaves a district or if they change plans or whatever happens um they are no longer able to get this and if
they come back um it's it's not offered to them so we're down to 128 uh those employees that are enrolled in that and there are uh three options there that we have presented to the board each of the last five years with option A being a a dis um to
no longer offer it option b would be a blended tier increase um which is the formula that has been used for the past five years um to actually maybe for the past like three or four to go over that um to pick up some of the difference and
option C um is if the board absorbs the full increase um based on the overall increase to the medical insurance plan and you have the cost in there if you decide to go with either option what it would cost the board
Roberts thank you um I'm interested in eliminating the subsidy we've been doing it since 2020 and I think if we saved the instead of doing the Blended at 367 it would pay for the 321 for the HSA piece so I would like to um I I do think
we have to phase this out um I think now especially that we have a really um good pretty good po through our with a held savings account and maybe for those families if they choose to switch over
um that we would give a one time to get them started maybe $1,000 doll for those families in their HSA if they switch over to the high deductible plan otherwise it just goes away so they would get started with $1,000 if they
switch but if they don't switch they it goes it's just going to kind of so you're meaning just these that are getting the subsidy if any of the subsidy people switch not the people who are already in the not the two that are
already in it no just the ones that are families that are getting either the P HMO or the other po so they're already getting a subsidy now or have been getting a subsidy so if they switch to
the High deductible plan which is the zero cost well it's it's a minimal cost to them but then to get them started in a new plan that they weren't um so you can't do that because of the Discrimination of
treating people in the same class of employees differently well how how are we giving them a subsidy now if we're treating them differently now so because this is pertaining to treating people in the
high deductible plan differently so you wouldn't be giving the high deductible people the same but we're not giving the people in the HMO or the PO the same now so so I don't sorry just just for clarifications
and exclude my exclude my uh excuse my all allergy voice here but that discrimination rule is uh specific to health savings accounts so anything you do in a health savings account you have to do uniform across all enrolled individuals and you can't specifically
call out a certain class of employee but we can do that in the HMO in the P not through an HSA but you can do it through contributions like you're currently doing cor so it can't be in HSA it has to be through a contribution by the board to
that policy correct like a subsidy or something like like like like that exactly just how you've been funding it for the F past five years when we work with Garen group and bentech each open enrollment we program bentech separately
for these individuals they have a separate uh contribution and a separate contribution uh for every payroll for the payroll department and that's how we allow for them to have a different rate well and I'm okay with
you know I I do think we need to phase this out but I do know from a historical perspective why we did it is because when we went to that tiered system I want to say I can't remember
what the increase it's it is for a traditional family with uh two parents in children it is exponentially higher than it was when we made the went to that four
tiered system right so Mrs Powers you're correct so five years ago when we went from the two-tier system to the four tier system the three tiers that experienced a um a decrease if you will was the employee only the employee plus spouse and the employee plus children
tier the employee plus family tier did have a substantial increase um in the per paycheck deductions and and the board made the decision to help alleviate that by contributing a little bit extra each um each paycheck towards
those employee plus family en um active employees chair and what did we do last year for this Main he did the blend option b my thoughts would be with the big increase coming
to with the Blended to your increase but have this be the last year for it um Gabriel so just so I understand there is no way to take this 100 28 people and in lie of giving them a
subsidy giving them an HSA contribution correct um is there a way to give them a subsidy if they move to the high to dble like only allow the subsidy at the
high deductible level so you can do that it just has to be outside of a health savings account you can't fund a vehicle specific for a population that is not you know for the general population in the high
deductible so you can do that through a subsidy but just not through a health savings account it would impact their premium the amount of pre premium so we could give them a discount on the premium that a family pays so it would basically transfer if they go to the
high deductible plan that savings that they're seeing now would [Music] transfer to the high deductible plan and it would give them that that mechanism to save and contribute more to their HSA
if they wanted to obviously that's a personal decision but then they would still get the 750 they just would not feel the impact of that until next year correct you can essentially contribute more towards the high
deductible Health Plan tiers than you are the other tiers that lower their costs to incentivize High deductible Health Plan enrollment if that's what you're trying to accomplish so the way I kind of Envision it Mr Powers is if basically what you
would do is only allow an employee plus family prior to 71 2020 uh subsidy for those in the high deductible Health Plan and we could note that in the rates um and then any of these 128 that move to
that we could then create a separate contribution or subsidy if you will for those people for how however if you want to do it one more year we could let them know that um well it could be the equivalent of $250 you know to get them to the 1,000 so
whatever that is per per so assuming 128 people move right so there's 128 active employees on it um five of those are already in the high deductible health plan for the employee plus
family so there could be a potential of 123 moving so the 128 isn't the current amount in this plan it's 12 well um if you take a look at that last page it's it's
128 um it's broken down by um by coverage so there's five employee plus family prior to 71220 that is already enrolled in the high deductible health plan so our maximum cost if we contributed
$250 to any employee that switches from an HMO or a PO to the high dedu dble prior that was with this prior to 7 of 2020 then it would cost a maximum if all 123
people moved it would cost $3,750 yes that's assuming every single one of them move yes correct and with the caveat that this would be you know that they would know
this is the last year and to fund their HSA corrected so basically um we we have a board contribution uh towards medical insurance of $6,500 so it would just be $250 on top of that for those
12 for one year for one year and we would communicate that to all U of those 128 employees during our current open enrollment let them know sure M Roberts I'm so confused never
mind so so let me I don't understand that whole thing so here's so if we try to say that for these 128 people which is 123 people the 123 people that three people that are
not on the HSA or not on the high deductible plan if I want to give them an extra $250 um I can't do it in an HSA but I can do it by reducing their premium correct and by reducing their premium it
frees up $250 if I give you a $250 reduction in your premium it theoretically gives you $250 that you could then in fact put into your HSA and make your HSA piece $1,000 to being able to go there so that's $10 per pay period pretty much a little bit over $10 y with
24 pay periods so you could do we could do that and say that the only subsidy available for the families that were in this grandfather group prior to July 1st 2020 the only subsidy that's available is for people in the
high deductible plan and the subsidy amount would be $10 per pay period would that be the way you would we would use the the 6750 they would get yeah apparently you did understand what I was
saying because you just repeated every single thing that I just said what is the 6750 you can oh okay our contribution for those employees would be 6750 going to follow up okay I did understand that thank you there there's
24 paychecks where medical where insurance benefits come out so if you if you want to do $10 it's $240 if you want to just make it 250 it's $42 yeah so if I understand this the only
people that are going to be getting subsidy is leaving this plan we're not giving any subsidy to people who aren't moving only the ones who are well was my next question to you the five um
employees that are currently on the employee plus family prior to 71220 um you might want to just consider offering it to the same to them I think that's fair I was talking about as a whole the only people that are going to get a
extra benefit subsidy or those who are leaving this plan except for the five right right well the 125 that are receiving the subsidy are the only ones that will receive that ex if they move
to the high they don't move they're not getting anything that's what I'm trying to clear out correct if they if they don't move to the high deductible health plan then that employee plus family subsidy that goes away you have to be enrolled in the high deductible health
plan with your family on July 1st 2025 at the end of all of this there is no more subsidy for this plan once we get through all of the things that we just detailed that's what I'm hearing from the board yeah so we would communicate to that
that thank you okay um ju the other the five um active employees that are currently in there would you want to offer them the same yes okay thank you so do we need to so I
would make a motion that we um how do we want to say this that we give a the family subsidy to well let's say the 125 employees that are currently
receiving the family subsidy um will be eligible for an additional $250 to their from the board for the contribution totaling
$6,750 if they choose to move to the high deductible Health Plan yes M Mrs Powers why don't you just say that the only subsidy available for employees and
families prior to the 71 2020 is with the high deductible plan cuz it's the it's not 125 it's 128 sorry I correct that 128 currently enrolled in the plan that
in or not enrolled currently receiving a family subsidy so that's my motion second motion by Miss power second by
Miss Russell all those in favor I I opposed okay um for uh approve and uh Dr marior dissenting and M Robert and M Robert said she opposed to you dissented okay
32 okay 32 I apologize okay thank you okay so do we have any public comment at this time open to the board anything no okay that this meeting
is adjourned y e