Clearing Up Errors in School Board Story Re: Health Insurance Savings

To the editor:

I want to clear up some inaccuracies in the recent Patch article regarding the reinstatement of some classified positions.  

1. The district put our health insurance out to bid in the summer.  As a result of the proposals received, the district negotiated with our employees a change in health carrier. This change resulted in savings for the district.  There was a slight 2.63% (or so) increase in our Kaiser quote, but there was a 15% or so decrease for our non-Kaiser staff. 

The $100,000 for the increased custodial time, etc., is the result of the savings generated by the switch—not taking dollars out of our employee pockets as the article seems to allude to.  

2.  The district covers 100% of the cost for employee health insurance and 30% of the cost for dependents.  The switch also has a savings to our non-Kaiser employees who use the district policy for dependents.  

3.  Yes, we do work very closely and collaboratively with our employee groups and the idea to use some of the savings from the change in health insurance carriers (the $100K) was developed at the negotiation table and was offered by the teachers—but it is not teacher or classified money that is being used. It was the savings as the result of the health insurance [request for proposals].  

Hope this clarifies the events leading up to the actions taken at the board meeting on Tuesday.  

Brian Marshall
Superintendent
La Mesa-Spring Valley School District