NEW: School Department Saves $900,000 in Health Care Costs

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Worcester Public School Superintendent, Dr. Melinda Boone, released a report showing an additional $900,000 added to the 2013 budget from reduced healthcare costs. The extra funding will be put toward supplies, integrating technology into classrooms, and benefiting special needs children.

“As a result of actual plan migration and correct premium rates, the FY13 health insurance budget reflects an additional $900,000 in savings,” Boone said her report to the school committee.

After passing the 2013 budget for Worcester public schools with more success than in years past, school committee member, Tracy Novick said that additional funding is always good news, and the issue of healthcare has been a subject long ignored at the state level.

“Anytime they come back and say they can keep costs down, it’s great news. Healthcare has gone through the roof. We got a chart that compares where the state pictures us being and it showed that healthcare is off the chart,” she said. “It’s been so expensive and we haven’t been funding in other areas.”

Novick explained that this part of the budget has been overlooked and was overdue for an overhaul.

“The state has a foundation formula where they say they can look at how much it costs to educate one child, including a lot of things, like teacher salary, lights, supplies, and healthcare,” Novick said. “The calculation they have for healthcare hasn’t increased with inflation and was also incorrect to begin with. There was an overhaul to the plan several years ago, but no massive overhaul since.”

The final city contribution this year towards the premium rate for the City of Worcester Family Advantage Plan is $45.23 per month, per employee, is less expensive than the original rates provided to the WPS earlier this year when the budget was being developed.

Where the Excess Will Go

According to Dr. Boone’s statement, the extra funding will supply three special education teachers positions, two English Language Learner teacher positions, two school adjustment counselors, an increase in instructional supplies and materials by $5 per student, $122,900 for textbooks for secondary schools, one Technology Integration Specialist teacher, a school security hardware upgrade, and one additional cheerleader coach.

“A bunch of things in there are pretty exciting. We heard from schools and from city council that we need more staffing. We’re finally increasing the supply budget that hasn’t gone up since 2008,” Novick said.

The school committee has also been struggling to integrate technology, but hang-ups have kept this from running smoothly. She hopes this extra funding will bridge the gap.

“Since we’ve been doing creative jiggering to make sure we have technology in schools, there are also other issues. It breaks, and we need to be making sure people are getting the proper training,” she said. “We will be putting money towards that and meeting with teachers to make sure they are able to use it effectively in classrooms.”