Franklin School Board to Discuss, Insurance Bidding Process

For the sake of Franklin taxpayers let’s hope the “insurance” being discussed by the Board is employee health insurance.

In its May publication Wisconsin School Reformer, a publication of Education Action Group Foundation (EAG), reported that the limitations placed upon teacher’s unions collective bargaining will allow school boards and their to free their districts from costly WEA Trust insurance.  Baraboo School Board got a jump on the rest of the state in May when it voted to dump WEA Trust employee health coverage in favor of similar coverage through the Dean Health Plan.  According to the report, he Baraboo school District will save an estimated $660,000 per year by making the change. Eighty-eight percent of the savings will go to the district, while the other 12 percent will be split among insured employees, according to wiscnews.com.

Wisconsin School Reformer also wrote that the money the district saves will almost certainly help salvage a few teaching positions and student programs over the next few years and goes on to state that the bidding competition at Baraboo was really not competitive at all.

The family premium proposed by WEA Trust was $1,630 per month, while the premium proposed by Dean Health was just under $1,400 per month. The WEA Trust plan would have cost the district about $5 million per year, while the Dean plan will cost $4.3 million.  Read more.

A check of this Wednesday’s (7/14/11 Revised) Franklin School Board Meeting agenda shows item 9. a. Board Discussion, insurance Bidding Process.  Other topics we found interesting on the agenda include:

Discussion Regarding 2011-2012 Budget

Superintendent’s Report:

a. Trails Committee Update

b. Economic Development Committee Update

c. SWSA Resolution

d. Architects Hiring Update

e. Retreat Update

Look for our report on Wednesday night's meeting on Thursday, July 21.