River Falls School District: Health insurance savings eases pain of budget cuts

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A change of health insurance carriers with a higher deductible plan will save the school district $385,000 for the next school year.

Monday night, April 16, the school board OK’d the switch from WEA (Wisconsin Education Association) to Health Partners.

School district Personnel Director Donna Hill said the three-year deal could affect more than 250 teachers and staff.

Yearly cost increases are capped at 9%. The plan can also be adjusted if those increases are deemed too high.

Hill said the district is still bidding out for dental coverage. Depending on how those bids return, more cost savings are possible for the district.

The new health insurance deal helped minimize classroom and teacher cuts for the 2012-13 year.

Balancing next year’s budget required coming up with a $900,000 budget reduction package.

The health-care savings were included in the reduction package that the school board passed Monday night.

Reductions totaling $900,000 had been worked out over the winter. The new health-care deal meant some of those cuts were avoided.

For more details on this story, please see the April 18 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: river falls, news, k12