The Derby school board is scheduled to meet June 1 to figure out what the changes to the school district’s health plan means to the 2011 – 2012 school budget.
Last Tuesday Mayor Anthony Staffieri announced that Derby would switch to a self-funding form of health insurance — and that the health benefits of Board of Education employees would now be a part of the city side of the annual budget. Click here to see Staffieri’s remarks to the tax board last week.
The move will save Derby $1 million, city officials said.
School Superintendent Stephen Tracy was informed of the decision an hour before Staffieri made his announcement.
The tax board Tuesday voted to allocate an additional $446,000 to fund the schools next year.
However, complicating the matter is the fact that the city took about $3 million in school benefit expenses out of the school budget and absorbed them into the city budget.
As of Friday, school officials were still working on their projections for next year in an attempt to figure out how the insurance moves will affect them.
“It takes a little bit of arithmetic to take a look at where we are,” Tracy said.
The tax board allocated $15.4 million for the schools.
Tracy said it looks like the school board will now have to reduce its budget by $450,000 to meet the tax board’s number.
The district has already found $100,000 in savings, Tracy said. That is because a few Derby children who attend schools for kids with special needs moved out of the district, Tracy said, bringing down Derby’s “out of district placement” costs.
(The law states that if a child with special needs must be sent to a school outside of the school district, the student’s hometown must pick up the tuition and transportation costs.)
Derby is taking a gamble by counting the $100,000 as savings, because the school district may need the money if new kids who require specialized schools move in, Tracy said.
That leaves another $350,000 to go.
At the special meeting June 1, Tracy will talk about the mayor’s announcement with the school board. The school board won’t take action on its new budget until a meeting June 7.
Tracy said he received calls from school district union leaders last week worried about the new insurance plan.
Tracy said he repeated to union leaders what city officials told him — employees will not see any difference in their health plan, including cost and covering. They’ll still have Anthem coverage as well.
Tracy said the unions have requested something in writing.
“I’ve asked to see it in writing, because the labor unions want to get it in writing, too,” Tracy said.
The June 1 school board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at Derby Middle School.
