News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Clay County School Board has approved updated insurance premiums for school employees, which could increase payments by about $200 depending on the plan.
School Board Chair Benji Bailey said the board evaluates insurance prices every year. He said after speaking with teacher representatives during contract Memorandum of Understanding discussions, they agreed to split the premium increases 50/50. The board will front half, and the employee will pay the rest.
“I think part of our concern from a board’s level is yeah we’d like to pick up the cost and not impact anyone,” Bailey said. “But once you do that, you can’t really go back. And based on our commitments that we know we’re going to have, 50 percent was kind of a conservative approach.”
Bailey said the Clay County School System is one of very few in the state that uses a private plan for insurance. He said they switched from the state plan about five or six years ago.
Bailey said looking at this year’s state insurance plan, Clay County Schools employees still got a better deal.
“Currently our premiums as a whole are cheaper,” Bailey said. “We have saved a substantial amount from the board’s standpoint (…) There were some changes made to the state plan that were detrimental to the employees. I still feel like we’re holding our own from a competitive advantage with this plan.”
In other business, the board also approved the purchase of some 125 Lenovo Chromebooks using ESSER funding. Technology Supervisor Derick Upchurch said the system had to roll off about 400 Chromebooks because they had exceeded their update capabailities.
