Shelton school officials are trying to find ways to save money on employee health care and transportation costs for next year, but those efforts have not yet borne fruit.
The Board of Education’s finance subcommittee met Wednesday evening and discussed several possibilities regarding next year’s budget, from participating in a state-run health care plan to lower costs to converting to an all-propane bus fleet.
But they do not yet have concrete numbers that would mean changes to their budget request for next year, which at this point represents at a 5.49 proposed increase in funding, or about $3.5 million.
Last month the school board voted unanimously to endorse Superintendent Freeman Burr’s budget request for 2013 – 2014, totaling $67,240,073.
Since then, school officials have tried to trim projected costs for things like benefits and transportation.
At the end of Wednesday’s meeting Board of Education Chairman Mark Holden tentatively scheduled a special Feb. 11 meeting of the school board where any changes to the budget request can be made.
The board’s budget request must be sent to Mayor Mark Lauretti by Feb. 15.
Arlene Liscinsky, the chair of the school board’s finance committee, said Wednesday it’s too early to tell whether the numbers will move much.
“There’s a lot of balls in the air right now,” she said. “The dust has to settle and we kind of go from there. Health care, transportation, it’s just a matter of finding out what those are going to come in at.”
Health Care
Among the major costs driving the proposed increase are employee health care costs. The city’s health care provider wants Shelton to pay an 17.5 percent higher premium next year.
In compiling a budget, officials used a “placeholder” estimate of a 10 percent premium increase, figuring they could negotiate the number down.
Burr said during Wednesday’s meeting that prospects have improved, but the insurance provier, Anthem, is still crunching the numbers and hasn’t come back with a lower quote.
“That 10 percent is not realized as of yet,” he said.
Meanwhile, Allan Cameron, the school district’s finance director, said officials will get another quote from the Connecticut Partnership Plan, which allows employers, municipalities, and boards of education to participate in the same health care plan as state employees.
That number will come in within seven to 10 days, Cameron said.
“That will give us an estimate and we’ll be able to compare that estimate to what’s on the table with Anthem,” Burr said.
Perhaps a more competitive bid will nudge Anthem to lower their quote.
“If we’re not going to compete we’re going to be held hostage at 17.5 percent,” Burr said.
Transportation
Transportation is another area the school district is trying to save money. Its provider, First Student, wants $500,000 more next year.
Like with health care costs, school officials used a “placeholder” figure of $262,197, anticipating savings by negotiating the figure downward.
Thus far they’ve been disappointed.
“Things did not work out so well with our negotiation with First Student,” Cameron said.
At Mayor Mark Lauretti’s request, Cameron said, the school district sent out feelers to companies asking whether they’d be interested in an arrangement whereby the city would own buses and lease them back to a vendor to operate.
One company, All-Star Transportation, is “very interested” in the scenario, Cameron said.
“He’s given us a price for that which is more attractive than the price we would have if we were to award to First Student based on the bid,” he said. “We still have to meet with him, dot all our i’s, cross all our t’s, and make sure we’re in a good place.”
One of the options would be to invest in a fleet of propane buses, which could further lower costs because of tax incentives for using non-gasoline vehicles.
Burr said he planned to meet with Lauretti Thursday to further discuss the bus proposals, among other matters.
“There’s still a lot of moving parts to this,” he said.
One thing he was certain of, though: the schools can’t afford to lose teachers — and contractual obligations mean the city has to pay $1.3 million more next year just to keep the ones it has now.
“The district cannot sustain layoffs,” Burr said. “We are still down staff from the massive cuts we had three years ago. Any loss of staff may well jeopardize any of the academic achievement we’ve had over the last three years.”
“I’m comfortable that our budget request is going to be something that is reasonable,” Holden, the school board chairman, added. “I think the number’s going to be ugly, but in terms of what needs to be done, it’s very reasonable.”