BOARDMAN SCHOOLS District employees OK health-insurance plan

The agreement was ratified Monday.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Employees of Boardman School District have agreed on a plan that officials say will save the district thousands.
The Boardman Education Association and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees Chapter 334 reopened their contract talks before the June 30 expiration date to change health insurance coverage for their members. The organizations have agreed to curtail a traditional comprehensive major medical plan in favor of a preferred-provider organization.
Superintendent Don Dailey said the move will save the school district more than $485,000 in the first 18 months and more than an $600,000 annually.
Employees who choose to stay with the traditional plan will be required to pay an annual premium difference for family or single coverage.
The changes were ratified at a special meeting Monday night.
Sensitivity to situation
Dailey said the agreement shows the sensitivity of employees to the school system's potential crisis, and comes only two weeks before voters decide on a 5.9 mill operating levy.
Besides health-care coverage, rising insurance costs have been an increasing burden, school officials have said. Board member Mark Huberman said the board paid $15,821 for liability insurance last school year. That amount jumped to $39,578 this year. Fleet insurance for the school buses has gone from $31,000 to $89,365, he said.
The board will ask taxpayers to vote on a 5.9-mill, five-year levy in the general election. Officials say the levy would generate $5,016,000 per year and cost the average homeowner with a home worth $125,000 about $225 per year. The last new levy was passed in 1996.