JACKSON SCHOOL BOARD DEBATES INSURANCE PLAN

JACKSON -- Discussion about insurance coverage options for employees dominated the Jackson Board of Education meeting Tuesday.

School board members questioned administrators and the district's insurance consultant for nearly two hours regarding the benefits package offered to eligible full-time employees.

Since March, the district has contracted with Robert D. O'Bryne & Associates, an insurance consultant company based in Kansas City, to prepare for an increase in its contract for medical insurance with the Missouri Consolidated Health Plan.

During the meeting, administrators said the district would have to agree to the insurance carrier's nearly 25 percent increase in premiums because no other insurance carriers submitted bid proposals for the 1999-2000 school year.

"At this point, we have no choice but to stay with Missouri Consolidated, but I believe we have to start preparing a long-range plan for the next year," said Dr. Terry Gibbons, assistant superintendent for finance and support services.

Board members voted unanimously not to offer some 34 eligible new employees a chance to participate in a tax annuity shelter. The vote also froze contributions for currently participating employees at the 1998-99 level.

The vote was meant to encourage its 439 employees to participate in the district's medical insurance plan.

Each year, a number of employees opt to use a spouse's insurance coverage. In those cases the district's contribution to their coverage is then diverted into a tax annuity.

Blocking new employee participation was one of several plans offered to improve employee participation in group insurance. Board members favored the plan over the administration's recommendation to offer annuity's only to employees who had worked in the district five years or longer.

"It just seems unfair to me to take something away that we have traditionally offered to them," said board member Vicky McDowell.

Ruth Lane, Jackson High School nurse, also advocated a plan to grandfather in employees currently in the annuity plan.

"There's really no reason to cut us off at the five-year point that I can see," said Lane. "I'm not speaking for myself. I'm speaking for the 21 percent already in the annuity."