Politics & Government

District 58 Forum: Question 13

How will the district manage rising health care costs and pension obligations, and to what extent would increases or decreases in teachers' salaries or benefits affect District 58's ability to attract talented eduators?

Rose LaRue-Slater
My understand is the way the district works is some teachers pay a portion of their health care and it comes out of a fund. Most pay out of that fund to a point. After that there's a stop-loss policy that kicks in. How will District 58  handle things going forward, I don’t know. I know the district is solid and budget is in balance and they intend to keep it that way. I would not have a problem asking teachers to pay a portion of their health care.

As far as the pension goes, this is something that we need to get out and fight or the teachers will lose their pensions. United Airlines was allowed to get rid of theirs and it will happen here, too, if we don’t get out and make sure that the budget in the state is fixed.     

John Miller
The state really determines the funds. They manage the pension. District 58 makes contributions to the state and the state spends it on whatever they feel like. What’s happened is they left everyone in a lurch. Here we thought, from a local level, we funded our obligation, but the state didn’t fund their obligation.

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Health care is a little different. We have to work on the what is the correct percentage. How does our health care  relate to those in the private sector? Our co-pay is correct, our contribution is correct. Those are things we have to work at and can work at as a district. The pension fund—not to shuck responsibility, but it’s really tough to do anything about it unless they change the laws of the state.  They’re going to come asking for more money, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we can fund it. If they don’t actually fund it, if they take the money that we give to fund it, I don’t know what else we can do.

Doug Purcell
I agree there’s not a lot a school board member can do about pensions. The teachers had their price go down that they pay for medical. Our medical reserve fund has been growing . There’s been talk by Member Funk to use some of that money to pay for the technology . It's an issue the board will decide going forward, but the medical reserve fund is in good shape. Regarding salaries, we clearly want to be competitive. It is what it is. We don’t want to fall behind and have salaries that are lower than other districts around.

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Elizabeth Davis (submitted in writing)
First, pension obligations are mandated and determined by the state. The district makes contributions to the pension and the state is to make their contribution but they have failed do to so, therefore leaving a shortage.  When looking to manage the rising health care costs, we continue to look for options that may save the district money since the cost of healthcare in the United States continues to rise drastically.  We are fortunate in District 58 that we attract talented and quality educators who want to teach in our community. By remaining competitive with neighboring districts and on the forefront of educational leadership we will continue to do so.  


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