Harlandale ISD board posts proposed tax‑rate notice and awards employee‑benefits agent to Baldwin Group

At its June 3 special meeting, the Harlandale ISD board approved procedural and procurement actions: it authorized staff to post the statutorily required notice for a public hearing on the proposed 2026 tax rate and voted to award an agent‑of‑record contract for employee benefits.

On the tax rate, administration asked the board to approve publishing the required notice under Texas Education Code §44.004 to set a public hearing on the proposed 2026 tax rate and budget. The notice the board approved schedules the hearing for June 17, 2026 at Harland High School at 6:15 p.m. A trustee moved the motion and another seconded; the motion passed on an open vote. In the presentation Mr. Flores noted preliminary appraisal values from the appraisal district had fallen between April and May and that certified values are expected by July 25, 2026.

On procurement, Beverly Hubard, the district’s employee benefits coordinator, summarized the RFP process for agent‑of‑record services (RFP260016). She said the spring employee benefits survey had 531 respondents, outlined utilization and cost trends for the district’s self‑funded medical plan, reported that three fully funded carriers declined to quote while three submitted proposals, and recommended awarding the contract to the Baldwin Group for an initial term effective Aug. 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027 with two one‑year renewal options. "The Baldwin Group proposal included an in‑depth root‑cause analysis of the plan drivers and a different approach on employee communication aligned by the data," Hubard said.

Trustees asked whether Brown and Brown Insurance had been the prior agent of record; Hubard said Brown and Brown had served as the district’s agent of record since August 2022 and that SWBC was the agent of record before that. Trustees also questioned whether a return to fully funded plans would be less expensive for employees; staff reported fully funded family quotes were substantially higher and could price employees out of care, supporting continuation of self‑funding with a new agent focused on data analysis and communication.

The board moved and seconded a motion to award RFP260016 to the Baldwin Group and the motion passed; the transcript does not include a roll‑call tally in the record. The June meeting also included congratulations on recent graduations and a moment of silence for a student who had passed that week. The meeting adjourned at 7:04 p.m.