Clay Schools See Increase In Insurance Costs

Clay County Schools will see an increase in health insurance premiums this year, as the Board of Education approved moving to the state’s health insurance plan.

Board of Education Chairman Benji Bailey said for the past several years the school system has used a private insurance plan as it was a cheaper option than the state plan. It saved the system some $700,000 in that time. Bailey said the state’s plan is now cheaper.

“Those savings have run out,” Bailey said. “Each year we have quoted an external service provider for insurance and this year that went up considerably and it exceeded the cost of the external plan and exceeded the state insurance plan.”

The increase, some $100,000. Bailey said the schools will cover 75 percent of the increase while employees will cover the remaining 25 percent. Bailey said the increase will not drastically affect the school systems budget as they budgeted for the increase.

“We were able to take a larger percentage and take the 75 percent because we budgeted accordingly,” Bailey said. “It’s one of those things you go into every year knowing that your insurance costs are going to increase. As always we wish we could have done more but from a budget standpoint that’s the amount we could bear out.”

Bailey said the insurance packages will be similar but the way the cost is split up will be different.

“The only significant difference I guess going forward is we in the last several years have offered a 90/10 plan from a premium standpoint,” Bailey said. “The state no longer offers a 90/10 plan, it’s an 85/15 plan that is the best that they offer.”

Clay County Schools Finance Director Ashley White said with swapping to the state insurance plan the school system must stay on the plan for two years before exploring external options again. Bailey said the experience level which is the amount of claims has been the reason the external insurance options have seen a massive increase.

The board also approved a memorandum of understanding that will last through 2026. The memorandum will increase the compensation for coaches, clarify sick leave and family and medical leave, and professional development. Bailey said some staff have missed mandatory professional development days.

“There’s been some confusion there or some difficult situations that have come up,  Bailey said. “Especially in the last couple of years, We are trying to be flexible. We aired on the side of compassion I’ll say with the Memorandum that we have proposed and hopefully no one takes advantage of it.”