School employees back health plan and pay increases
Employees of the Lee County School District ratified the salary raise and new health package Wednesday night. Now, the school board will decide Monday whether to approve the fruit of the negotiations that took months to unfold.
According to district officials, 95.4 percent of teachers and 97.7 percent of support personnel voted in favor of the proposal that gives employees a 3 percent raise. Overall, the vote was ratified by 2,524 support personnel and 3,158 teachers.
The new health package would eliminate the district’s 927 Plan because of increasing health premiums and replace it with a Health Maintenance Organization, which is reportedly lower in cost and decreases available doctors to between 60 percent or 70 percent in Southwest Florida.
“I would say overall, all the bargaining unit employees, both SPALC and TALC, are satisfied with the salary schedule,” said Donna Mutzenard, director of the Florida Education Association’s Island Coast Service Unit.
While the original salary schedule decided upon in 2006 would have given certain employees a 6 percent raise, Mutzenard said they are satisfied with the proposal on the table. With millions of dollars worth of cuts to the district’s budget, employees ran the risk of not receiving any salary increases.
Bob Rushlow, president of the Support Personnel Association of Lee County, said he supports the proposal.
“It is the best they will get this year, at least it is something,” Rushlow said. “We are going through some hard times in Lee County, but we were able to work with the district and we appreciate them.”
Rushlow explained that the district is taking a chance by using part of its contingency funds to supply teachers with a 3 percent raise. The fund is used for emergency situations such as hurricane devastation, meaning that the district could run the risk of not being able to fund disaster repair because of the raises.
What worries many employees in the school district is that the 2009 to 2010 budget is projected to be far more dire than this year’s.
“We don’t know what is going to happen next year,” said Rushlow. “We need to make a concerted effort on our legislators to fund education.”
Employees and district representatives are not releasing the costs of the new HMO. Both Mutzenard and Rushlow said they are hoping that the new plan will benefit employees, but they would not know until it is presented Monday.
Strong will present the specifics and costs of the new HMO at the board’s briefing meeting Monday at 2:30 p.m. At 6 p.m. the school board will vote on the proposal during its action meeting.
The board is meeting Monday instead of Tuesday since Nov. 4 is election day.
“We are going to go through and explain how we came up with the idea of adding the HMO plan,” said Strong.
There will be a comparison of the HMO and existing health plans on Monday as well.
The district has received initial premium prices, but those figures will not be released until Monday. On the other hand, Strong said all health plans are going up, a phenomenon that is happening across the United States.
Employees who use the new HMO or the 118 Plan will have some money left over from the district’s $6,327 benefit bank that can be used to pay for dependents or voluntary coverage. Insured staff will break even on the 706 Plan and will have to pay some out-of-pocket expenses under the 903 Plan.
School employees back health plan and pay increases
Employees of the Lee County School District ratified the salary raise and new health package Wednesday night. Now, the school board will decide Monday whether to approve the fruit of the negotiations that took months to unfold.
According to district officials, 95.4 percent of teachers and 97.7 percent of support personnel voted in favor of the proposal that gives employees a 3 percent raise. Overall, the vote was ratified by 2,524 support personnel and 3,158 teachers.
The new health package would eliminate the district’s 927 Plan because of increasing health premiums and replace it with a Health Maintenance Organization, which is reportedly lower in cost and decreases available doctors to between 60 percent or 70 percent in Southwest Florida.
“I would say overall, all the bargaining unit employees, both SPALC and TALC, are satisfied with the salary schedule,” said Donna Mutzenard, director of the Florida Education Association’s Island Coast Service Unit.
While the original salary schedule decided upon in 2006 would have given certain employees a 6 percent raise, Mutzenard said they are satisfied with the proposal on the table. With millions of dollars worth of cuts to the district’s budget, employees ran the risk of not receiving any salary increases.
Bob Rushlow, president of the Support Personnel Association of Lee County, said he supports the proposal.
“It is the best they will get this year, at least it is something,” Rushlow said. “We are going through some hard times in Lee County, but we were able to work with the district and we appreciate them.”
Rushlow explained that the district is taking a chance by using part of its contingency funds to supply teachers with a 3 percent raise. The fund is used for emergency situations such as hurricane devastation, meaning that the district could run the risk of not being able to fund disaster repair because of the raises.
What worries many employees in the school district is that the 2009 to 2010 budget is projected to be far more dire than this year’s.
“We don’t know what is going to happen next year,” said Rushlow. “We need to make a concerted effort on our legislators to fund education.”
Employees and district representatives are not releasing the costs of the new HMO. Both Mutzenard and Rushlow said they are hoping that the new plan will benefit employees, but they would not know until it is presented Monday.
Strong will present the specifics and costs of the new HMO at the board’s briefing meeting Monday at 2:30 p.m. At 6 p.m. the school board will vote on the proposal during its action meeting.
The board is meeting Monday instead of Tuesday since Nov. 4 is election day.
“We are going to go through and explain how we came up with the idea of adding the HMO plan,” said Strong.
There will be a comparison of the HMO and existing health plans on Monday as well.
The district has received initial premium prices, but those figures will not be released until Monday. On the other hand, Strong said all health plans are going up, a phenomenon that is happening across the United States.
Employees who use the new HMO or the 118 Plan will have some money left over from the district’s $6,327 benefit bank that can be used to pay for dependents or voluntary coverage. Insured staff will break even on the 706 Plan and will have to pay some out-of-pocket expenses under the 903 Plan.
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