Lafourche School Board OKs $1.6 million healthcare cost

The Lafourche Parish School Board unanimously approved allocating healthcare funds from the general fund to cover the school system’s $1.6 million cost for the 2006-07 school year.

Acting on a recommendation by the finance and insurance committees, the school board agreed to fund the group health insurance plan premium and to create a property and casualty loss control fund.

The two initiatives were first proposed at Nov. 29 committee meetings.

Business Manager Don Gaudet said the insurance committee determined that each employee had to contribute $15 per member to the health insurance plan premium for the coming calendar year. “At the Nov. 29 meeting, we determined how much the school board would pay,” he said.

The business manager said initial the school board’s healthcare representatives met to determine the board’s total healthcare cost for the 2006-07 school year, which was $1.6 million.

“Once, the insurance committee knew the employees’ cost, we knew how much we would taken in. We also knew how much we had to raise so that we wouldn’t have to reduce our insurance fund balance,” he said.

Gaudet said after the employee portion increased, he made a couple of adjustment in the benefits and assessed what the individual rates would be. The committee was still left with a $1.2 million shortfall to balance the 2007 plan, he said.

“I recommended that the committee adopt the premium, which included the employee increase. I also recommend we asked the finance committee to determine a funding source for the $1.2 million,” Gaudet said at the insurance committee meeting.

After the meeting, Gaudet approached the finance members with the committee’s recommendations, noting the school board was operating in the red.

“The school board is faced with a yearly deficit in its Group Health Insurance Fund of about $1.6 million for 2007. We have already made up some of the shortfall by altering the pharmacy benefit and by increasing the employee portion of premiums by an average of $15 per member. But, a $1.2 million deficit remains,” the business manager explained to the finance committee. Gaudet recommended the committee use the unreserved/undesignated fund balance to absorb the premium deficit.

Gaudet said that the insurance committee currently has two causality funds: one for the Group Health Insurance and the other for Worker’s Compensation. The business manager said each of the causalities carry big deductibles. He said the insurance committee has a “self-funding period,” where the committee has to absorb all costs before the insurance kicks in.

The worker’s compensation deductible is $300,000 and the group health insurance deductible is $150,000, he said. The committee also has general liabilities, automobile liabilities and building and content liabilities, all of which have to absorb the deductibles cost, he said.

“I was running those loses through the general fund and that causes two problems,” Gaudet said.

In the case of the building and content coverage, if someone vandalizes the school board property or one of the buildings have some storm related damage under the deductible, it shows up in maintenance costs, he explained.

The other issue comes when insurance committee runs general liabilities through the general fund.

Gaudet said one claim could cause a lot of variations. “You lose sight of where the claims come from.”

The business manager said the insurance committee wanted to reduce those issues and stop dipping into the general fund. “The only way to do that is by making a separate fund,” Gaudet said. “The fund will account for all the claims and all the costs the committee acts upon for general and auto liability and the building and content.”

The business manager asked the committee to allocate $500,000 from the contingencies balance to create a property and causality loss control fund. Gaudet said the seed money would provide working capital and a reserve for the fund.

In Other Action

The following is a rundown of action taken by the Lafourche Parish School Board during its regularly scheduled school board meeting on Dec. 6. All board members were in attendance. All decisions were unanimous.

• Added the position of Migrant Family Recruiter to be funded using the Title 1 Part C Migrant Education grant.

• Reviewed the current project amount for the construction of portable building at Golden Meadow Upper and Galliano Elementary schools.

• Gave Patrick Amedee authority to negotiate portable building construction with Resun and to bring back negotiate agreement for board approval.

• Accepted the bid from Lapeyrouse Metal for re-roofing and waterproofing Raceland Middle School building B.

•Accepted B.E.T. Construc-tion’s bid for renovation work at Raceland Upper Elementary School.

• Hired Jay Cailloulet, architect, to draw plans for repairs at maintenance warehouse.

• Accepted the bid from Fred Carreras and Son to replace HVAC equipment at West Thibodaux Middle School with project cost to be paid using Air Conditioning Maintenance Fund.

• Advertised for Oil and Gas Lease Sale for Section 16, Township 15 South, Range 14 East.

• Entered into to a seismic permit with Seismic Exchange, Inc. for Section 16, Township 19 South, Range 20 East, and Township 18 South, Range 20 East.

• Obtained an appraisal of property owned by Matt Zeringue near Chackbay Elementary School for the possibility of purchasing the property for school use.

• Approved emergency repairs for all three Lafourche Parish high school track to be paid through the General Fund and performed by Center Court Tennis & Track, LLC.

• Accepted memorial resolutions for the following Lafourche Parish school employees: Antoinette St. Pierre, Curtis Chauvin and Lester Lirette Sr. The resolutions are in tribute to the deceased employees, and will be placed on a special page of the school board minute booklet.

• Authorized an early dismissal day for Raceland Middle on Tuesday, Dec. 19, in order to allow for proper restructuring of the staff and students, and distribution of equipment and material between Raceland Middle and Bayou Middle schools.

• Considered renewing the service agreement with Unemployment Compensation Control Systems, Inc., for the 2007 calendar year under the same terms in effect at the present time.

• Issued a request for proposal covering Third Party Administrator services for the current 403(b) plan and for a possible 457 plan.

• Allowed John Norris to work with the Shaver Robichaux Agency to receive quotes for the buildings and contents insurance policies, and to negotiate with the carriers and agents on the remaining policies.

• Accepted recommendation to the Salary Committee to replace coaching salaries on an index based on certain criteria presented to the committee.

• Changed Elementary Principals’ and High School Assistant Principals’ salary to reflect a 230-day contract.

• Increased incentive for teachers to obtain a Master’s Degree by $3,000.

• Approved request for general leaves for two Lafourche Parish school teachers: Tara Callais and Roxanna DarDar.

• Approved sick leaves extension for six Lafourche Parish employees: Angelle Lorraine, Stephanie Melancon, Renee Muhammad, Hilary Ohmer, Patricia Robichaux and Lesley Terrebonne.

• Approved a personal improvement sabbatical leave for Rhonda Normand, a teacher at South Thibodaux Elementary School.

• Approved a request for cancellation of general sick leave for Tammy Guidry, a Lafourche Parish paraprofessional.

Sophia Ruffin can be reached at (985) 876-3008 or sophia@tri-parishtimes.com