Politics & Government

Decreased Health Insurance Claims Help School Budget

School District Able To Meet Mayor's Request To Reduce Budget

Educating employees about responsible health care decisions was a major factor in the Board of Education's ability to reduce its budget from a 1.43 percent increase over the current year's to a 1 percent increase, or from $36,789,691 to $36,632,735.

"I've been in politics for 42 years," said Councilor Howard “Russ” Beetham Jr., "and this is the smallest education increase I've seen." 

Mayor Joseph Jaskiewicz said he started educating town employees about health care options a couple of years ago and since the program began, health claims have decreased.  

Find out what's happening in Montvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We've really seen a big difference," said Jaskiewicz of the decreased number of health claims. "They don't run to the emergency room right away." 

The program informs employees of health care options like calling a nurse who is part of the employee benefits package with questions rather than going to a doctor's office.

Find out what's happening in Montvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"But, if they need to go to the doctor's they should," Jaskiewicz said.

Both the school and town are self-insured and have contributed enough money in the employee health fund to pay two months worth of health claims. At the end of April, a final review of health claims filed by both town and school employees was lower than expected. 

Superintendent of Schools Pamela Aubin said the decrease was significant enough so that the district could "reduce the amount we would have to contribute to build the fund back up." 

Other insurance claims were down also. Aubin said, "the property insurance can be reduced and so can the workers comp, so we are able to meet the 1 percent without having to reduce any of the services." 

Another contributing factor to the low increase is that the teachers took "a hard zero" in the recently negotiated contract, according to Aubin. The three-year contract froze the teachers at their current salary step and gave them a zero percent raise in the first year, it allows one step increase and a 1 percent raise in the next year and a zero step increase and a 1.5 percent increase in the last year. 

Aubin said that in the past five years the school has reduced its work force while teacher responsibility and accountability has increased "immeasurably." 

"I think we're working pretty hard," she said. "We have more mandates and greater accountability. It's not the school you walked into 10 years ago." 

Aubin said that the budget was a "moving target" and could change as needs arise. 

"It's not smoke and mirrors, it's a process," she said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here