Board members flag sharp increases in employee health insurance costs

During the budget presentation, a board member called attention to rapidly rising health insurance costs for district employees, noting that last year’s increase was 13% and this year's increase is 15.9%. "Those are big jumps," a board member said, underscoring concern about benefit cost pressure on the district's payroll budget.

Board members connected insurance increases to broader questions about total FTE cost and budgeting for benefits. The discussion cited components such as salary, insurance, retirement, state and federal unemployment, and FICA (7.65%) as part of calculating a teacher or staff member's total cost to the district.