Regular business meeting of the Collierville School Board. All of the board present, as well as a significant contingent of school and central office staff. Bill Dries from the Daily News was also present (albeit a few minutes late…).
At the start of the meeting, there were two public comments. The first was from a representative from Cigna, who wanted to relate some additional points of information about their response to the RFP. The second comment was from the CEO of Healthchoice, which is an organization that is affiliated with Methodist Health Care managed care, as far as I understood. His comments were in support of Cigna as a health insurance provider.
Following the moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance, Beth Robbins presented the Collierville Highschool Academic Allstars, as recognized by the Commercial Appeal. She also noted that of the 11 overall scholars designated by the CA from the are, 3 are from Collierville High. Mr Hansen congratulated the students, and commended them on being a great example of what Collierville Schools exemplify.
The report from the chairman touched briefly on the interlocal agreements still in progress (with some recent “hiccups”) among the municipalities. Germantown will be voting on a budget on 5/14, which will hopefully include the shared services. Mr Hansen also mentioned the almost completed central office facility, which will be a great place to showcase Collierville Schools. The move-in date is Monday May 19th.
The Superintendent’s report had four quick items:
- The personnel plan for Collierville Schools has been approved by the State Board of Education
- The County Commission has approved $1M for capital projects in Collierville, which will primarily be directed to a new roof at Collierville High
- Job offers for teachers and administrators were delivered this past week
- Regular meetings have started with SCS around the transition of buildings and personnel over the next few weeks
Mr Simpson, the consultant had an update with more detail about the finishing touches for the central office. Additional updates covered the contracts for services that the school district is still working on, including two later on in the agenda, and the transportation contract as well as others for safety equipment and insurance. Mr Vaughan asked if the bus radius is being changed, to which Mr Simpson replied that in order to most efficiently and economically start services in August, no changes from the current transportation plan were being made. This includes bell times.
The next agenda item was added at the last minute: a presentation on the benefits plans recommended to the board, based on the RFP process that was followed. Karen Naccarato explained the process followed, which included representatives from the municipalities to set out the objectives and perform the RFP process. For health benefits, the options considered were the state plan, full insurance and self insurance. 10 companies provided proposals.
The recommended option is from Aetna, as it came out with the best match of the required features and the cost. Its proposal also will provide for various allowances to allow for change management to ensure a smooth transition. A significant change from the current provider (Cigna, the runner up) is that Aetna offers two network choices: Methodist plus St Francis or Baptist plus St Francis. The employees will have that choice, with the Baptist plan being slightly lower cost.
There was significant discussion around this recommendation, including concern with changing insurance administrators from the current provider, whether this plan provides for the state-mandated level of services, etc. While the employer/employee split is improving from 63/37 to 66/34, it appears the monthly cost will go up slightly for employees. Mr Hansen pointed out that his employer (FedEx) has had major overhaul in its health insurance plans and associated cost, primarily due to the Affordable Care Act, and every employer is facing similar issues.
The board is not yet ready to vote on this, and a vote is not needed until the 23rd of May, so a special called meeting was decided on for one week from today. Mr Vaughan will be unable to attend, but expects consensus among the board.
Metlife Dental, Davis Vision and for basic life insurance, Metlife, are recommended. That maintains the current providers for all those.
Up next, the board considered the policies that were presented three weeks ago at the working session. Mr Aitken pointed out some minor changes that were made, mostly for grammatical reasons. Additionally, the facility use policy was updated to allow use of kitchens, provided under appropriate supervision. The policy on naming of schools and school real estate was simplified based on feedback from the working session. The policy on athletic participation insurance was restated to allow parents to provide for their own insurance or accept the risks of not having insurance if they so choose.
The 63 policies were approved.
Two new policies were presented: first, vacation and holidays, which mostly stipulates the non-teaching personnel policies around vacation and holidays. A key improvement over current policy is to reduce the wait time for the commencement of benefits from 1 year to 6 months. Also, those employed by SCS during the current school year are not considered new employees under this policy, and will thus enjoy the vacation amounts commensurate with their time at SCS. The other new policy is around On-the-job injuries.
Finally, two contracts were up for review and approval:
Both custodial services and maintenance services are recommended to be provided by the current custodial services provider, GCA. For maintenance, SCS currently uses in-house personnel, which may not be economical for a small district. Collierville is proposing to work together with Germantown specifically on this, and the two municipalities will share the use of 11 skilled maintenance personnel, such as plumbers, HVAC technicians, locksmiths, etc. Germantown is expected to vote on, and approve, this arrangement in their meeting on May 14. These both passed.