The Mount Vernon School District has discontinued a practice of paying a cash benefit for employees not enrolled in the school’s health insurance plan for this coming fall, and employees will now have an open enrollment period due to those plan changes.
The district has received fines for their health insurance non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act from back in 2021 for the amount of $37,000, which is what triggered the board to begin looking into action pertaining to health insurance earlier this year.
During public comment, employee LeeAnn Pisarik said that reducing the cash benefit for her will impact her financially, as she uses that to help pay for supplemental insurance.
“I trusted this school for 13 years for the education of my students, and have trusted you as my employer for 24 years,” Pisarik said. “I trust that you will do the right thing for those that work for you.”
Citizen Shawn Voigt was asking the board to remember how important it is to offer health insurance benefits to employees, and not see reducing the cash stipend as a way to get out of a pinch.
“If you are reducing the cash benefits, I hope this is put towards health care benefits as much as they can be,” Voigt said. “The goal should be to offer affordable health care for the district.”
Board member Kristi Meyer said that was the plan the management committee had over the past few months.
The committee was recommending the health care cash stipend be discontinued for employees beginning in August. Meyer and other committee members noted that removing the cash benefit is not a cost cutting measure, that the district may now have to pay higher insurance costs overall if more people enroll in insurance through the school district. The school would pay for 100 percent of the cost of the lowest paid health insurance for a single employee for a staff member, and 100 percent of the cost for a family plan for administration teams.
According to superintendent Greg Batenhorst, the district currently pays a benefit of $500 per month to employees in the cash stipend. The lowest cost health insurance plan offered by the district for an individual is $668 per month.
Business manager Michael Marshall said if more people join the insurance offered by the district, rates could go down and other plan options can be offered in the future, but they won’t know what rates are until after the open enrollment period has concluded and they have a better knowledge of how many employees are enrolled.
“It’s the right thing to do for our district,” said board member Lance Schoff, also a management committee member. “We’re out of step with other districts on this matter, and knowing we may still need to make cuts, we’re looking at improving our health care options as something we’re giving back to employees.”
Employees are now eligible to make a decision during open enrollment through April 15 on what their choice is. Currently, 35 employees are signed up for the district’s health insurance plan.
Board member Suzette Kragenbrink said that while many employees were receiving a cash benefit per month, that cash was going towards their household’s insurance costs on another family member’s plan.
“It just wasn’t being used here at the district,” Kragenbrink said. “If we are not in compliance with the ACA and are being fined roughly $37,000 or more a year, that’s roughly a new teacher’s salary per year. Adding teachers to staff at Mount Vernon has always been tough, and we have never had that luxury to spend that much money. I cannot say it is sustainable to pay for not complying.”
Board member Jeremy Kunz said he agreed that stepping the cash payments down to get in compliance had to happen, but he was worried about the impact this would have on staff in the district.
Kunz was hoping the board would be ready to take action on what they need to do to help employees financially impacted by the cash stipend going to insurance instead, especially support staff.
Other board members were not ready to act on those actions at the March 25 meeting. They wanted more data on the new changes to teacher pay rolled out by the legislature from this session as well as firmer numbers the management committee can have researched by the April 8 school board meeting.
The board set meetings for April 8 and April 17 for additional discussions on insurance and other cost saving measures at the district.
MV school discontinues cash stipend for insurance payments
Nathan Countryman, Editor
April 4, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.