SHARON School board delays change in health insurance carrier

Sharon had tried to drop out of the health care consortium July 1.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Sharon City School Board still plans to change health insurance carriers for its 330 employees.
The board voted unanimously again Monday to drop out of the Western Pennsylvania Schools Health Care Consortium, setting the termination date at Jan. 1, 2004.
Sharon, disgruntled with the consortium's handling of health care costs in the past, tried to drop out of the 12-school group July 1 but found itself in a court battle with the consortium, which argued Sharon failed to follow the organization's bylaws by not giving adequate notice of termination.
Sharon had voted to join the Midwestern Health Combine, a group that serves other school districts in Lawrence and Mercer counties.
In a compromise worked out in lieu of a court battle, Sharon agreed to stay with the Western Pennsylvania group through the remainder of this year, reserving the right to again drop out with six months' notice.
That notice has now been given.
Insurance premiums
Sharon school directors were particularly upset with insurance premiums rising in the middle of the year.
The district was paying Western Pennsylvania about $2.1 million a year in insurance premiums but got hit with a $681,000 special assessment in February when the consortium ran into cash flow problems. Sharon had to borrow money to cover that assessment.
"Nothing's changed," Melvin Bandzak, Sharon board president, said Monday, as the decision was made again to drop out of the group.
Reynolds School District, another member of the Western Pennsylvania group that tried to get out when Sharon did, was party to the same agreement that will keep it in the consortium until Jan. 1.
Reynolds school officials haven't taken any further action to leave the group.
Lawsuit settled
In other business, the Sharon board approved a $35,000 cash payment to settle a lawsuit filed against the school district by the Crestwood Board of Education, located near Akron.
Atty. Mark Longietti, Sharon's legal counsel, said the amount is less than half of the claim filed by Crestwood.
The money represents educational costs for a multihandicapped pupil who lived in Sharon, but because Sharon didn't have facilities to adequately serve his needs, moved to the Akron area to attend Crestwood.
Sharon still had an obligation to educate the pupil, but Crestwood did a poor job of billing Sharon for those costs, hitting the district with a bill of more than $70,000 for several years of education instead of billing annually, Longietti said.
Sharon balked at the size of the bill, and Crestwood sued Sharon in federal court.
The $35,000 payment settles the case, Longietti said.