USD253 Board Meeting 2025-09-24

001Okay, ready to get started. Okay, I'd like to call the September 24th, 2025 school board meeting to order. We have seven board members present. That brings us to item 2A, adoption of the agenda. I would entertain a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Okay. Thank you. And that brings us to a couple recognitions we're going to be doing this meeting. And the first one is a recognition of the First United Methodist Church for donation of school supplies. The board of education extends its heartfelt thanks to the First United Methodist Church for leading the 2526 school supply donation initiative along with the many community partners who joined in this effort. We are sincerely grateful for the generous donation of school supplies that

002supported students from preK through 12th grade. Your generosity has ensured that every student began the school year with the tools they need to succeed, helping to create a more level playing field for all. We recognize the time, energy, and commitment that goes into making this project possible, and families across USC 253 are truly appreciative. Thank you, Sarah, and your team for being with us tonight and for your continued support of Emporia Public Schools and the students that we serve. [Applause] 3B, recognition of EHS National Merit Scholarship finalists. The board of education would like to recognize Emporia High School seniors Lionus Langfelter and Colin Wen who have been named [Applause] who have been named among the 16,000 semi- finalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Linus and Colin are competing for one of 6,930

003scholarships worth nearly $26 million. Semi-finalists represent the top scorers in each state on the preliminary SAT. Out of more than 1.3 million test takers nationwide, only 16,000 students earned this honor. As part of the next step, Lionus and Colin will work with the Emporia High School administration to develop a detailed scholarship application that highlights their academic record, extracurricular activities, and awards. They must also write an essay and continue to demonstrate strong performance on the SAT or ACT. We are incredibly proud of you, Lionus and Colin, for this outstanding achievement, academic achievement, and we wish you the very best as you advance in the competition. [Applause] And next, we're going to have program highlights. Item 3C EMS turf facility >> adjusted so I can I can talk otherwise I feel like I have to hunch on

004over. Uh thank you board of education for inviting us tonight. I'm really excited to kind of share what we're going to talk about our EMS turf facility. Uh we've got some pictures that we're going to show you. We've got some students that are going to kind of talk about some of the things they're excited about. when I got to sit down and meet with each of them in my office, um some of the things that they shared that they were excited about. I wasn't expecting, but I think when you hear it, you're going to be like, "That makes sense." All right. Um I'm not going to take any of their words from them. Uh one last thing I did want to say is as far as the pictures go, keep in mind those pictures were

005taken about a week and a half ago. There has been a lot of updates since. For instance, the bleachers on both sides are completely finished and ready to go. So, we'll actually have people in stands that are actually getting to use the bleachers tomorrow. We're pretty excited about that. Um the track and the pictures doesn't have lines on it that we've already started putting lines on the track as well. So even though the pictures, you know, we're only taking a week and a half, there's been a lot of updates since then. So I definitely encourage and invite you all to come out and check it out. Without further ado, I'm going to invite uh Matt Balwart, which is the new EMS assistant principal and athletic director. >> Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. I

006want to show the highlights of the kids to Jack McN for a couple slides. We are excited to share that the new EMS turf and track facility is getting closer to completion. The security fencing surrounding the facility is being installed next week to help protect the investment at EMS. PE will also have access to use on the field for their activities. The track will need markings. The parking lot is being paved. Lights and new bleachers are being installed. The press box will be one of the last pieces added. >> And like like uh Mr. said that is a set of bleach that we will be able to use tomorrow night. They got it where it's getting ready. Um sorry is eighth grade football. We have a seventh grade football player Cole Olivia Livier Olivier Olivier

007had it right. All right. >> It's a lot nicer if the potholes all gone. Excited. >> Uh excited to use the track in the spring and use the throwing facilities. We feel important and valued. Excited to have bathrooms. Used to have to walk back down into the building. Falling on the ground doesn't hurt my back for a week. >> Thank you. >> Sam Huber is soccer. >> Excited to have uh concessions. Concessions used to be just a table. Um passing the ball is smoother. The ball goes where you want it. And the lines on the field are clear and easy to read. uh feel safe on while on it and it doesn't hunt when you get tackled. There are no large clumps of grass and down all over the field and it practice is but

008as >> the kids are excited and proud to have the facility as nice as the one being built. The investment in this project will be felt for many years, not only by the football program, but many programs that the facility will serve. >> The first home soccer game on the new field. >> Um, thank you. And the next games we will have football there tomorrow. Seventh grade football. And then we did have a cancellation yesterday. So does October 7th, we're going to have homes. One thing we want to do is make sure we want to thank you for this great Did you guys have any questions for us before we go take some pictures? All right. Again, thank you so much. It looks great. I really hope you come out. Um, I actually got some

009pictures I can send to you guys. Uh, that was taken from a drone. Kind of has a nice aerial view. I didn't get a chance to get them into the slides, but I'd love for you guys to see those. You can really see the field in its totality. Okay. Thank you again. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Well, I wish we could stop start all of our meetings that way, but so the next item is 3D public comments. Uh public comments are allowed for a duration of three minutes per speaker to be timed by the board clerk, and speakers must sign up in person for public comment by 1:00 p.m. the day of the board meeting. Casey, do we have any public comments? >> We do not. >> Okay, thank you. That brings us to item

010four, the consent agenda. The items on the consent agenda are considered by the board to be uh routine business items. Approval of the items may be made in a single motion and a second and majority vote with no separate discussion. Should an item uh board member wish to discuss any item at his or her request, it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. I would entertain a motion. I move to approve the consent agenda as submitted. >> A second. >> Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none, please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 70. And I wanted to mention that we have a rather large donation from one of the elementary PTO's. So again, thank you for all the support for our schools from all of the organizations, the people

011that step up to support our kids. And that brings us to item 6A, change order for the middle school track concession stand. >> Yeah, Mr. Schwarz is going to be here. um you may get some help from some folks that are coming up as well, but you know, you got to hear all about the amazing things that the kids are discovering about the new track and field and now you get to discover that it comes at a cost and that cost has gone up just a little bit since your first approval. >> All right. Well, anytime you have a project this size, there's things that you don't foresee or things that change through the process. Um percentage wise, this one's a really small change order compared to the normal percentage we would see on versus

012the total cost. Um you guys have the line items there. There were some permits and then uh some locations had to be changed on the plumbing to bore into for sewer and for supply that extended our cost. Um there was also some stuff for future plans that was done um before the concrete poured and everything so we don't have to tear it out. So if there's questions I have uh ATG's here with us for any specific questions or anything that I might be able to answer. So for this we are asking for a 79,400 79411,22 cents um additional in in the track fund for the cost of that. >> Um I have a question. It's kind of two parts. So, we have a lot of money going to permits. Is that like permits to the

013city? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um and then what do we need to do in the future to more um like have more foresight or plan in the event that we need permits like this down the line? How can we plan for this? >> I think the biggest thing is that since any of the big projects were done, a lot has changed at the city as far as who's there and the processes. And so, I think we're a lot more in tune with what that is now. to where we can be ahead of it with the right people whereas we are more reactive this time unfortunately. So now that we kind of know all the players that are involved we can be in front of it for anything in the future. >> I don't know if

014Dylan might want to um talk about his experiences. I mean you've done a lot of these projects. >> Yes. Yes. >> And uh there were some some unanticipated soft costs that you don't typically see. You might talk about that. >> Exactly. So, whenever you whenever we bid these, especially when we're doing concession and bathrooms, it's just standard protocol for us to assume that we'll find water or sewer within 150 ft. You can kind of see that, uh, not only did we not find it within 150 ft, yours is actually on the north side of 24th Street. Um, and that's the most nearest place to actually access the water. Uh, to prevent the U project from stopping or stopping traffic, we went ahead and went with the boring route. So that way it wouldn't disrupt everything

015else going on on 24th Street uh when we just go down the list. So the extra conduit for the school for the school is actually for uh future uh like uh sound systems and for security systems and stuff like that for cameras and everything like that. U again when we uh bid these the 4 inch primary that's expected um during to have uh enough volume of electrical for the stadium lights, the concessions and everything else. You just you just plan to have enough power right there. Unfortunately, you guys did not. So again, we had to tap into with EverGy and run conduit for that. And then like like he mentioned these um we have a standard of roughly $10,000 is what we expect to pay permits. It's just a statewide NOI uh that we typically

016have in the past. We have not always had to go through this much extension extensive permitting and each municipality is completely different. So this one required every aspect to be to have a stamp drawing and so that's where most of the cost came from. >> Yeah. >> Typically your drawings might be accepted but they they weren't. You were having to take them back to an engineer get them. It is it's way it's a lot more common especially with what I've seen in the past is cities are a lot more proactive in terms of seeing progress. So uh I can give for instances but a lot of times they just want to see the the actual connections. Um so they come out and do the inspections we submit asbuilts and the preliminary drawings that we provided

017them as well. And in this case, Emporia, the city of Emporia required us to get everything stamped. >> What do you anticipate the timeline looking like um if we approve this? Like when what are the next steps and then when will the the project be finished? >> Yeah, it's a good question. So, the next step would be uh we're we're actually working through a lot of this right now and uh in the next week a lot of this can just be wrapped up. So, I'm really hoping that this project can still get completed. Uh, the substantial almost everything should be done by October 1st, at least by the end of that week. I would believe everything should be right there. Um, we just got to get this approved and and move forward with uh everything

018with that. But it it'll move fast because nothing on here is really time or takes too much time. It's pretty quick process. So, >> so everything will be done by October 1st or the permitting process will be done. >> We've gotten the permits. So, part of this was the procedure we had to continue to follow through. We had to go ahead and get the the permits. Uh, so we've already got the permits at this point, but in terms of the rest of the work that should be completed, I think >> so like next week we'll have everything done >> for the most part. Yeah, we we'll have a little bit of here and there stuff to to wrap up, but I foresee the, you know, we're putting in the roof and everything right now for

019that building. And so now we just got to get the water actually supplied to it and the sewer and everything else. So, uh, yeah, we're we're right there. Next Wednesday is actually when we are planning on paving the parking lot. So, from that perspective, everything will be pretty much wrapped up and then we'll have a walk through and see what items we need to address after that. And Corey, is there any other potential expenses that we need to be considering at this time? >> We still have to get like trash cans and kind of the little things that go with a new facility. Um, we have a meeting on that to see what all needs we have. And then there is some technology stuff for uh like sound systems and security stuff that we've talked

020about the conduit is for. So those are future after we see what we've got and what we need to have coverage for. >> Any other questions? >> I move to approve the 74,000. It doesn't have the exact change. Would you like me to do that? Okay. It does say 749 up here in the motion. >> The 79,41122 uh change order from ATG Ram Industries LLC for the middle school track project is submitted. It's going to be been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? If not, please cast your vote. M motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> And that brings us to item 6B, health insurance renewal for 2026. >> Yes. U Mr. Schwarz has this item also and he's got some friends from IMA that we've been working with. Um this

021is kind of the second look at all the options we've been talking about and uh you'll have an opportunity to ask your questions with regard to you know the whole self-funded exploration as well. >> So yes, we do have IMA with us here tonight. Um, last two weeks ago, we had an intro into self-funded versus fully funded. And tonight, wanted to bring the team in to really go through their presentation a bit more in detail and have some questions ready at the end of that for discussion. So, I'm going to turn it over to Lisa and team go from there. >> Yeah, great to see you all. Thanks for the opportunity to come in and speak tonight. We have Lisa Clark who leads our practice in Kansas City and then also Cody Perty who leads

022our national education practice for all of IMA to go through where we stand uh previously and then also to what a self-unding platform looks like. So thank you for the time. >> All right, good evening. Thanks for having us. As Nick said, my name is Cody Perty. I'm our national practice lead for public and labor. So, I work with all of our public entity clients, uh, of which a substantial portion is self-insured. I've been underwriting and managing plans for 17 years. I'm a certified employee benefit specialist. Uh, and the majority of that has been in the self-insured world and then transitioning from fully insured to self-funded. Um, one key thing that I'd put out there first is is um, self-funding is a viable strategy for many and we review it from a a very objective

023and a best practice perspective, not a you must move self-funded kind of uh, deal. We like to have the financials and the strategy uh, mapped out and and let the numbers and the uh, the insights and the conversation and consultative direction for you all help drive that decision. um your team has been exceptional in partnering with us through this and so a lot of due diligence and work has been done on the back end. So tonight want to just spend a few quick minutes summarizing the results of that and and kind of a recommendation or a direction for consideration and what the the multi-year strategy around that may be and answer any questions at the end. Um so what you'll see on the screen there is just an executive summary. You're currently fully insured uh

024which means you pay a fixed amount of premium to the insurance carrier. they pay out all of the claims for your members uh covered under the plan. Whether that's a million dollars in claims or $20 million in claims, you pay a set amount of premium and you move on until renewal. And at renewal, they underwrite based on what happened in your past years and then what they're anticipating moving forward. Um this year, you're fully insured renewal based on Blue's underwriting methodology and claims experience. They projected a higher than trend renewal. Um to to put it mildly, we're at about a 26 and a half% increase if we choose to stay fully insured with the status quo benefits arrangement without making any changes to the plan setup. Um one of the things that triggers for me

025as an underwriter in our team is this concept of kind of buy high. Um you know there is variability across plans. you are not credible. A 50 additional $50,000 claimment on your plan can drive you up. One coming off can drive you down. And so you see variability year-over-year. Oftentimes higher experience presents a good opportunity to consider the self-unding, which is where this comes into play. So work through with the carrier and and actually alternative scenarios as well and full diligence to see what that self-unding option may look like relative to the fully insured. Uh if we want to jump ahead to the next in the self-funding environment, you actually take on as the district responsibility for paying for the claims with a caveat that you are protected on a on a certain capped level.

026Um so we structure the plan in a way where you are protected for a capped amount for every employee, spouse, and child covered under the plan and then an umbrella coverage amount. And so what this illustration is here is to look at those varying scenarios and see a is self-unding viable b how would we want to go about funding for that? Excuse me here. Uh so what you'll see here is on the left is the blue bars dark blue bars are the fully insured premium. So you pay this amount no matter how well how well or how poor your plan perform. Um with the highest blue bar there being the renewal. It's a 26% increase to the 7.3 million. Uh, think of this as a best case and worst case scenario. Uh, as long as

027you have the exact same enrollment used for this illustration, you will pay $7.34 million in premiums. You know that no matter what happens with the claims and experience, um, we did get a competitive proposal from another vendor that is a lower fully insured premium. It does come with plan design takeaways um benefit takeaways to reduce the premium down. That would be a negative impact to membership and would require a network of providers changes. The first gold bar is the immature maximum. And so I'm going to try not to get uh too in the weeds of the underwriting nerd that we live in here. But uh what that means is that's your worst case scenario for the year. And the way we've structured the proposal and the uh the underwriting of the plan for next year.

028This would be a maximum for the district. It's the worst case scenario. Think of it as fully insuring yourself. If you were to put aside that got the numbers are a little small here, that's $6.8 million into an account every month. Instead of sending premiums to the carrier, if you put that same amount of monthly amount into a bank account and paid out every claim and fixed cost you have, you'd put aside $6.8 million. Worst case scenario is you run to that amount. You pay out every one of those dollars in fixed costing claims. You're protected contractually beyond that. So, you would not need to call for extra cash. Um, that's at maximum. The difference between maximum and what we expect to happen is a margin of about 20 to 25%. And so we would

029have you funding to that amount, but we actually anticipate your spend to be at the 5.83. And so what happens is is if you put aside all those dollars and in funding and you run as expected, not at worst case scenario, you end up with that $ 1.5 million delta as a reserve. So, I'm gonna kind of bring that back to a couple points. Uh, one, your maximum worst case scenario is a worst case scenario with upside potential and it's lower than the fully insured renewal. Fully insured is set with no upside potential. Uh, the likelihood is that you run below maximum. Less than two plan 2% of plans self-funded hit maximum. So, it's a high likelihood that you come in at or below that number and you would end the year paying less for

030your actual plan than the fully insured premium and would have a reserve built up at the end. The far blue line illustrates the hypothetical renewal for next year. If you were to move self-funded, run exactly as we projected, you would have run at the 5.8, save money off fully insured renewal. I have 1.5 in reserves and then you get about a trend renewal into that subsequent year by the time we go from the 6.8 million to the 7.4 and then you're kind of off to a more normalized. Stop there. Any questions at this point? That's the really deep technical side of it. Well, the the one question I have is based on this year one the little under the I guess the first gold bar it says year one 7% lower renewal than fully insured.

031>> So if we're talking about a potential 26% this is at a 19% increase with this self partially self-funded plan. >> Yes, that's correct. So it's actually it's a 17.8% and so that is less than that 26% the way backing into the math but yes and so that's the the first point is is by funding to your worst case scenario you're funding 7% lower than what you'd be doing if you stayed put as a fully insured option. Um, and then you add the upside from there. >> And then I noticed that on the first slide that or the executive summary, it said that the ETNA option was a 9% increase versus this potential 17 >> uh 9% versus current. So the ETNA option is several percent lower than this. Um, and if we want to

032go back to that chart, that's a great question and clarification to make. Um, so Etna's again, no upside, no downside. That's fixed. You're you're for sure going to pay that 6.3. The self-funded option is the 6.8 there. So it is that 8% higher than the ETNA option. Uh, but you don't have member disruption. You don't have benefits takeaways. We would have the exact same underlying benefits. And that's the worst case maximum where we're not likely to run. Where we actually think you'll run is at the 5.8 8 million. So if that occurs, you actually run $500,000 less than the Etna option. And so we don't have a crystal ball. Um when you think of when I say expected, it is truly back to your high school stats class, right? We maybe we have a math

033teacher in here. Uh but that expected is right at the middle of the bell curve. Um I would call a standard deviation on this size of a plan of about six to 7%. So you're as likely to run at 93% of the 5.8 million as you are at 107% of the 5.8 million. Uh but within that range you're coming in at relatively in line with the ETN opt option or better. Um and that's where it becomes you're taking on some risk for sure because we can't definitively say what that is but that with that risk comes the upside and you're you're funding yourself. And then the more important key that I would like to convey tonight across the cell funding is it's not just a year one consideration. It's over a fiveyear period. Um I

034put it this way. I've been doing this a long time. I'm certain I can manage a self-funded plan over a five-year period more advantageously than a fully insured. And what I mean by that is in a vacuum there's some taxes and fees and fully insured premium that you don't have as a self-funded plan. It's worth a couple percent kind of negligible but at the end of the day at the very least your claims are going to be your claims. And so that's what you're going to pay. Your premiums are predicated on that. Your self-unded plan is the key to self-unding though is you take more control of your plan. you have more levers to pull to enhance benefits, to drive better behaviors, um to improve conditions over time to result in better performing plan over

035the five years. >> So just to make sure I understand with your projections here of the different southunded plans, you're looking at coverages that are very similar to what we have now. I mean, not we're trying to keep it equitable to what what we've had. >> Correct. It would be the exact same plan setup. That's the benefit of we've done this with Blues to be able to say keep the same plane design, keep the same network. Um, >> and in contrast like like with the Etna projection, it's lower, but it's a different it's a reduced in some areas reduced coverage in that plan. >> Correct. Okay. And that is kind of detailed on page five. Um it has the plan designs side by side. Maybe one more slide. There we go. So on the left

036the three columns there would be the plan design setup of your existing plans uh with blues and then on the right would be Etna. Um, and they aren't substantial um, major takeaways for most of your employees, but they are uh, benefit differentials and takeaways. And the other pieces is switching from the Blue Cross Blue Shield network of providers to the ETNA network of providers uh, for your members. Can you explain in a little more detail u particular for those who might be listening in on this uh what the exact differences are between the Etna and the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan? Um I guess in simple layman's terms. >> Sure. So uh they are highlighted in red. They're a little difficult to see. Um right now the co- insurance is on the PO plan. you

037have a zero dollar deductible. Members pay a percentage of certain claims up to a maximum threshold there. So, in the current PO, it's 50% to,500. Uh for the ETNA plan, it would be 40% coverage to the out-of- pocket maximum. And so, if you have a $3,000 claim as a member, uh you pay 50% or well, let's call it 4,000 so the math works out. uh you pay 50% of that and you're capped at the $1,500 threshold there. Uh in the Etna world, you would pay 60% and it would go all the way up to 6350 as the out-of- pocket maximum. And so you're paying a larger percentage of of the claim uh in that scenario. That kind of benefit differential holds true on the $2,000 deductible as well, just with the slightly different numbers. um

038urgent care facility and emergency room. Um they're trying to do some benefit design to ensure that the emergency room visits are only emergencies and so not covered if it's not deemed emergency. Um that's a fairly substantial takeaway. That's a tough thing to administer as well. It's hard to say definitively based on codes and billing things uh what is emergent and what is not. And so you could see some noise from that. Um and then out of network there's an added deductible on that first richest plan. Um and then the co- insurance is slightly less rich on the 263. So meaning what members have to pay toward services is more on the Etna plan than on the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Was that helpful? Please call me out. not uh not jargony enough. >> No,

039that was it all day. Sorry. >> It's difficult to understand. I just wanted to actually get it out there specifically what those differences are because I'm looking at this and Blue Cross Blue Shield as a fully funded just seems unsustainable. Since I've been on here, it's always been really big increases and then we all kind of flip out and then we, you know, grow whoever our insurance people are and then they beat Blue Cross and Blue Shield. They take a little bit off, but that's becoming silical at this point. Um, so thank you for explaining that in a little more detail. >> Yeah, absolutely. Great question. Thank you. >> Um, and that that renewal consideration too, that's really the art what we'd contend as as self-funded strategist, right, is where um you take a little

040more localized control of the plan. With the risk comes the control. And there are myriad solutions available in the market space. That's our job uh is to help bring those to the table and help uh be really uh intentional about the solutions that you put in place that help to kind of bend the trend of your your health plan spend to mitigate those renewals. And then to get a little more technical on you, but to give a piece of mind around it, uh following the strategy we've mapped out where you have a reserve on hand, part of that is to help normalize through the var volatility and variability year-over-year as well. So sometimes you will have a projection that comes in high, but we think it's an anomalous situation. You can use the reserve to

041mitigate that renewal some. Uh so a 12point renewal can reasonably be thought down to a seven or 8% renewal um and and help normalize through that overtime. So in good years, you build up the reserve uh or your claims good years meaning your claims are running lower than they historically do. And in bad years when they're running a little higher, you can use reserves to mitigate through that. >> So from your kind of projections of our current use in the partially self-funded with that increase for the first year being that 17 18ish, what do you expect year two to be? If if we kind of stay in the middle, what would that increase for year two look like? That's a great question. And the year two renewal is at underwritten as roughly a 9% renewal.

042Um, from that, you've set the stage at the 17 and now it's a 9% up from that. I will say that's a pretty conservative uh estimate that we've put forward there. Um, but we're also entering we're using higher trend assumptions on calculating the claims because we're anticipating what we are seeing and anticipating continuation of the cost of claims rising at a more rapid clip in the last year and moving forward in the next two to three years across the nation. That also means we would anticipate higher fully insured renewal so for the next several years as well. Um so it there's this concept of pay now pay later, right? If you have a bad year of claims while you're fully insured, you're capped at that 7.3, but you're going to get it at the next

043renewal. So next year you're going to pay it no matter what. um when you fund to this amount and you have a bad year of claim self-insured, you pay now instead of later. Uh but if that's anomalous that you have an extra $200,000 claim, but that's no longer going to be around next year. We normalize out and you get to to a better place. All that to say, we've been really conservative in that estimate of 9%. Um, we did a five-year look back uh in the last week since we've been talking about this of hypothetically if you'd been self-insured over the last five years uh where would you land? And in the raw underwriting without assumptions uh or adjustments, it basically comes slightly better than break even to the fully insured. So kind of no

044loss, no foul. If we assume about a 2% improvement eventually over time of pending the trend over your claims in the five-year window, this year's several percent below the fully insured premium and your 26 renewal if you were sitting self-funded today would be a 9% renewal. So just giving some context on that. So just trying to model out different scenarios to be able to give you context around that but the direct answer is that 9% up there. >> Thank you. Obviously, I know claims can vary year to year and we we don't know that. But with a self-funded plan, is there more risk in a way to you like the first year before you get potential of some money set aside or and it's hard to I know it's hard to know, but >> um

045that's a great question. In a five-year window, what we typically see is three good years to two bad years. And by good and bad, that's all relative, right? But I mean higher than expected and lower than expected. Um, so it's quite possible that we're having a higher year now and next year we have a higher year and we run close to that maximum and we don't build up a reserve. That is a potential scenario. Um, the benefit to funding to the maximum is is you're at least funded and yourself budgeted to your to that worst case scenario to where you don't need to call for cash, which is a whole lot easier for the bank down the street or the restaurant across the street, right, than uh than a school. Um, but then we would

046need to consider how we fund year two to try to build up that reserve subsequently. And that would result in a higher renewal wanting to catch up to claims and also build up the reserve. Uh, but I call I call back to regardless of what happens in next year, you're going to pay for it in some way. It's going to be either in that self-funded catchup and next year renewal or fully insured renewal is going to be high on top of the 26% you just realized this year. It's that that pay now pay later philosophy. Um the key is to be committed to at least three uh preferably five years of the self-funding and over that period will have budgeted and performed uh at a net or at an aggregate amount lower than the fully

047insured over that same period. Does that help answer that? That's a lot of extra detail, but >> I think at the last meeting we talked a bit about what self-funding would look like from kind of an in-house perspective and what would be expected of our team here to kind of take on if this would be an additional something on their plate. Can you speak to that a little bit more? >> Uh yeah, that's a great question. Um we are not talking a half FTE or um substantial a measurable amount of more work in that regard. Um there's a difference in in the number of invoices and the timing of payments going out. Um there are some compliance considerations and some filing uh processes that get followed. Um the great news is is with IMA or

048uh some other bro consulting partner um we help guide you through that right and so we support the team with with the information necessary to do any uh federal filings any tax filings uh tax premiums that they call them in in the federal government uh do how to remmit them how to calculate them how to get them done uh and then monthly instead of one invoice to Blue Cross Blue Shield Um there's a couple of different payment things that come with that. So it's paying the fixed cost on a monthly basis and there is a weekly draw of claims that is done instead of just one once a month premium. So monitoring that um reviewing and approving that and the last need to know consideration would around that would be um as a self-funded plan

049you own your eligibility. on ensuring that the claims that are being paid are appropriate and the the individual protection I talked about is called stop-loss. Um any claims over that would be reimbursed. The stop-loss vendor will occasionally request information from the um HR team verifying that the person was in fact eligible to be on the plan is still employed by the districts those things. So um just some tactical things uh definitely more to it but we we would help support through it. This may tie into the stop-loss, but um what what happens in the off chance that your first year, second year, whatever I if you have what I would consider a catastrophic year, multiple transplants, multiple premature births, multiple cancer diagnoses, whatever within your employee group, and it is just astronomically higher than what

050we planned on. What happens in that a because not just from one person but I'm talking multiple employees that have sky-high expenses. >> Sure. Uh great question. So the way we've structured this is um year two you would remain self-insured and again we go back to kind of that pay now pay later. We have the stop-loss protection in place for those large claimments. you would renew that stop-loss protection for year two and you've got the aggregate protection. If it was appearing that you've hit the reverse lottery and have all of the worst claims and it's just going to continue, you have three m uh duchain musculardrophe patients that are going to be a million dollars in claims a year for uh the next for the foreseeable future and a few hemophiliacs at 600,000, right? Like

051these things can happen. Um, stop-loss provides a protection mechanism in the one and two-year window, but to your point, there are scenarios in which stop-loss no longer wants to cover that and you get an exposure perspective. We can start to plan for a transition back to self-fund or fully insured. if that's looking to be the mid and long-term outlook of what's going on within the plan and we add on protections for the plan on the stop loss in the next year. Right? So year one you're self-unded. Year two you would need to self-und. We would add what we call terminals to your stop-loss. that would protect you in the transition to fully insured. So you're not on the hook for any claims when 28 you switch back to fully insured. You would not have an

052open-ended exposure. So all of this is about multi-year planning and setting in place contractual protections and considerations around whether you stay self-funded or need to migrate back. There is a way to make that migration back over a two to threeyear plan. Um, I really appreciate Jen's question and I think maybe my perception was incorrect. The other board members, please feel free to correct me that we were kind of led to believe that we had a lot of these like catastrophic, if you will, claims in previous years and that was part of what was driving up costs for us. Is there a way like not right this second now, but in the near future that we could kind of predict what is coming based on the claims that you have seen from us? I don't know

053if my perception is correct or not. >> Uh, no, your perception's spot on and a great question. Predict, no. Um, model, anticipate, expect based on large actuarial models and and other um, normal curves of outcomes, right? Yes. So we can say while you've had large claim experience driving your cost up and driving renewals up, a certain amount of large claim experience is to be expected. At the end of the day, 60 to 80% of plan spend is the result of a very small small number. It's just the way all insurance works. You think your car insurance, you pay for 15 years without having a claim. My 16-year-old daughter wrecks her car in the first two months, right? Like that's how uh it all works, right? And so the question is is how many more claims

054over anticipated are we going to have and can we plan for that? Um there are actuary models that we have at our fingertips that we use to estimate that and drive the underwriting of the self-funded plan over time. Um so we could definitely provide some uh again get go back to stats class and do some bell curves of outcomes and and anticipated uh claims and kind of what you've had relative to anticipated in the past. Yeah, I don't want to speak for the rest of the board, but I think that information would be helpful for at least me when making this decision. Something that is important to me is making sure that we have a high quality plan that is stable and sustainable for our employees. And so, kind of this idea of like, well,

055if things are kind of going ary, we might switch back in a few years. Um, I I just want to make sure that we kind of have the best vision of the next 5 to 10 years as possible as we make a really important choice. Y >> I was want wanting to sort of back up um when we talked when you talked about the requirements of our um of our business office um because it sounds like a lot. And so I I think one of my questions is um you said that sometimes um there might be a phone call to HR to make sure an employee is, you know, eligible. Um, and then you also kind of talked about some of the bills that need to get paid and it seems pretty intense, but so

056it's kind of a two-part question. So the first part is like employee confidentiality is really important and I it does kind of feel like that might be that sort of that wall might be a little murky, you know, if you know if they're calling and saying, "Hey, is Jamie Reaver eligible for benefits?" Like that's something that when I just show my Blue Cross Blue Shield card at the doctor, I just know that I have a lot of privacy and confidentiality in that moment and my employer knows nothing. But now that's murky. So how so that's one concern is like how do we ensure that level of confidentiality so an employee when they go to the doctor they just know it stays between them and the doctor but it's so can you help me understand that?

057>> Yep. Uh great question and and very fair concern. Um, HIPPA has very strict rules and requirements around who can access any protected health information and the uses of it and uh the review of set information. Um when you structure a self-employed or fully insured for that matter, um the district will have HIPPA policies and procedures in place uh that define the practices and processes for safeguarding information and only need to know uh exper or insights into what's going on with plans. Um so there are also business associate agreements and other contractual forms that go on between uh the carrier ourselves. We are HIPPA business associates where technically uh HIPPA allows for the exchange of necessary information for purposes of managing the plans. Um more often than not and almost exclusively that's done deidentified of

058information. So when we're reviewing underwriting and plan information um claimment X is $100,000 in claim claimment Y is. Um, but HR would be deemed uh a business associate and have the appropriate safeguards in place for managing those processes. Yeah, I appreciate that and and um I think we're all familiar with the HIPPA document, but that said, like there's HIPPA and we of course trust our staff here, but me as a potential employee who needs health care, just knowing that my employer, even with a HIPPA agreement in place, would could still know more more about my health than they would have if we weren't self-insured. Is that would you say a little accurate? Um I deal almost all self-unded plans. So fully insured they have same access. >> So for your current fully insured plan for

059your current fully insured plan everything is deidentified. for a self-funded plan. I think the max information that would be seen primarily would be on those weekly check registers and it would be noted the amount that needs to be paid the provider that's billing those services and typically tell me if I'm wrong there's a member name that can be associated with that check register >> both a financial and noninancial version of it. So beyond that, there should be deidentification unless there was a call with regard to their eligibility if they're an active employee, etc. That's already happening on any of your disability claims. They're processed very similarly and it has to be that way in order for that claim to be processed. So I can't imagine in most scenarios that there would be much more information

060shared or accessible than what is uh already accessed on the basis of a short or of a disability claim. for a disability claim though. Um, can you educate us? Would that involve the nature of the disability? I think what Mrs. Reaver is getting at is they'll know that they're calling because they're processing a claim is what you're saying, but will they know that I'm calling because of something underlying that claim beyond there being a claim? It's the actual health information, I think, is what Jamie's concerned about. >> I I just want our employees to have full confidence that, you know, what has always been private and between them and their provider like it doesn't enter the workspace at all. So even a phone call could be triggering for someone as well. Yeah, >> I think

061also to further extrapolate this point is um we're Emporia is not a very big community and we all kind of know who the doctors are and what they practice and that even if that like is associated with a person or the amount it doesn't take a lot here I feel like to put two and two together. Um I don't we don't need to like further go onto this point. I don't think I think that Grant has a question though. >> I have a couple questions. Um and I don't I don't know my language here or so forth, but regarding the stoploss coverage, do we as a district would we pay a premium to some company to have that stop-loss coverage then? And I don't know if that's the right words, but >> Yep. That's a

062you're using all the right words. Um you're picking it up quickly. Uh yes. Um it it is truly it's a risk transfer, right? So, um, they'll protect you at a certain threshold. If you want to take more risk, you pay less in premium. If you want to take less risk, you pay more in premium. Just like the progressive name your price tool, right, on your own deductible for car insurance. Think of stop-loss in the same way. >> Okay. Then my other question is, um, with most current insurance coverage, you you you know that you get a bill and there's the I'm going to say list price. that's not the right. But then because you got such and such insurance, the what the insurance actually pays is discounted such, you know, a certain percentage and so

063forth. Does that continue to work the same way with self-funded programs? >> Uh, yes. And if you move self-unded with blues, all of that process is going to stay the same going through the same thing, right? So, the life of a claim, um, I go to the doctor's office, I I have an MRI, doctor sends it to insurance, uh, they bill it to insurance that, you know, their their number. Um, if it's a network provider, insurance has a contract in place with that provider that says, "We're going to pay you X." And so, if they fill 3,000, but the contract says, 1500, that's a 50% network discount. So, the allowed amount becomes 1,500. All of that it happens before stop-loss where stop-loss comes in play. If I have a an ongoing complex condition, I do

06420 MRIs in a hospital stay and the sum total of all of those bills is $250,000 that the plan's going to pay. The plan will pay out the 250 to the providers uh but then be reimbursed back by that insurer, the stop-loss insurer for the amount over that threshold. Okay. So there would not be a it would not increase the actual cost that we would be paying for a particular service as such. >> Correct. Okay. >> I have a question about the stop-loss premiums because Grant kind of got to some of it for me. I was thinking of the same thing. Um in your experience with self-funded plans, have you seen many employment groups have issues with the stop-loss insurance premiums? In other words, having those bad years where they actually um use up all

065that insurance and still have a bill left over. Is that common in self-funded plans? >> Um we Yes. I mean, we're annually negotiating stop-loss renewals and competitively marketing uh stop-loss on all of our self-funded plans. And um we're we're living it now. It's that time of year. Uh there's there's there's strategies, contract mechanisms, and competitive bidding in place that allows for managing through challenging situations of higher than anticipated claims experience. Um I'll get extra weedsy to directly answer. Um if we have a $100,000 stop-loss deductible, so we're paying a hundred for every employee, spouse, and child. um as an eyes wide open in your decision- making process. In the industry, there is a full process called lasering a claimant where they say, "Hey, you have a Daane's musculardrophe on your plan. Um there is a

066gene therapy for that that cost $1.6 million in a year. We know that's coming. So, we're going to ensure you district at a h 100,000 for every employee, spouse, and child except this person, you're going to be on the hook for the first 1.6 million." Um that's potential. We call that the reverse lottery. Those things are so expensive by the very nature they are so rare, right? And so the prevalence of that is really low. Um we have contract mechanisms that we put in place to prevent that. Um and it's called no new laser contract provision. So for your current year premium, you can do a slight load in the premium. again shifting risk to them away from ourselves that says at renewal even if we have that person show up you can't put the

067laser on and we stay at 100. So that's one example of navigating that. Um another is just competitive bidding and this is all very top of mind. I just finalized a city renewal yesterday where we had a $1.6 million laser on a duchain. We took it out to market um and we actually got a decrease in premiums and no laser. So they all look at risk differently. They have different appetites for risk and so the competitive process around that also helps to mitigate that. Um and then lastly that reserving philosophy comes into play. Part of the use of reserve is to offset or mitigate um some large claim exposure that may come on. Um it's it's all about managing budget to appetite for risk to the premium and the deductible threshold. There's there's an art

068to that and that's where we come into play helping you all navigate that. um done right, you're you're protected over the the multiple years. And then in the worst case scenario that Miss Thomas referenced earlier, there's always the potential to pivot back to fully insured when necessary. Um in 17 years, I've moved probably a dozen from fully insured to self-funded, and I've moved one back across hundreds of plans that I've managed over that time. And another question I had is there a way to take say the last five years of claims that we've had and then show us if you had had a self-funded model. Yeah. Would there be some way that we could see that? And then we could really look at our actual employment claim history as opposed to just kind of, you

069know, thinking about it in a vacuum and then see would that have been a good year, would that have been a bad year and how sustainable would that be since we don't really have that information since we haven't done it yet to be able to make a trail of data. Um, other things I just wanted to mention to the board, I am kind of concerned about how much work that would be for the business office. We're not a large business office. Um, practically speaking, um, I think I'd like to hear more on how that would work if we went self-funded. Um, and I think the insurance committee is meeting Monday, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Pretty soon. And so I would really be curious to hear from some of those members. Um, obviously the financial decision

070is ours as the board, but I'd like to get some input from the people who are actually on the insurance plan about the Blue Cross Blue Shield versus Etna. Um, because I'm not on the plan. and I feel like I need to hear more about the people who would be impacted by those changes, if they think that's viable or not. >> I will say that's the primary reason I haven't asked a ton of questions tonight. I've just kind of been absorbing all of your great questions um is because I knew the insurance committee had not had a chance to look at, you know, all of this yet. And so I'm I'm really just kind of waiting to hear um their opinion. But of course, you make the great point that we are making the financial

071decision ultimately. Um but that's kind of why I just haven't had that many questions tonight. I will ask and I don't think this is a question for you though. Um is is we cannot be the most unhealthy district in this state. Um and I I'm very curious to know what the premium increases are looking like for other um districts our size and how are they dealing with that? And is there are there districts just contributing more to the premium or are we just not hearing about it because we're just not because we can't be alone in this. But I always hear Lillian talking about how her insurance isn't that expensive. And so, um, but it's also a single plan, I assume. Um, so it just makes me wonder what is so significantly different for our

072district than other districts. That's a uh very loaded question. Um percentage increase, it's higher than the norm of what we're seeing, right? In the fully insured world, um let me answer it this way to start. In the fully insured world, their starting trend assumption that they're using in their underwriting is anywhere from 12 to 15%. um for depending on the carrier and what I mean what they mean by that is is we think we need 12 to 15% more in premium next year across our book of business to pay for the increase in claims cost we anticipate to happen next year. So that's kind of a jumping off baseline point for consideration for you. Um but the other key I would use in terms of percent as well um sometimes high increases are indicative of

073being a victim of your own success and good because all percentages are relative right uh when I look at your plan cost per employee per month normalized as a um that's just adjusting for if you increase employees you're going to pay more in premium right we want to see year-over-year how has planned performed you're in line with or below national benchmarks or kind of regional benchmarks from how much the plan costs. It's just as you keep premiums down but claims continue up sometimes that results in a larger increase on the premiums as a percentage basis. Right? If I put that another way, if each of your last five-year renewals were 2% higher, your 26% renewal would be a 13. And so context that context matters as well. Um, another anecdotal piece, we partner with what,

07415 schools in the broader Kansas Casey metro area. Um, and I'd say low teens would probably be the average renewal across those. So you're not alone in seeing and the last five to six years heading up into this year, we were singledigit renewals for sure. We're absolutely seeing an uptick in plan cost increases across the country, across the region. Not alone there. So there's a lot in that. Um and and we can give kind of some benchmarking around from a cost perspective and an increase perspective. The underlying plans that you cover matter substantially. Um, a lot of times what we'll hear is, "Well, my plan's a lot cheaper." Well, yeah, you also have a $3,000 deductible and a narrow network and you don't get to see as many providers, both of which keep premiums down,

075right? So, there's a lot that plays into it. >> Yes, please. I was also going to add we talked last year about the rich richness of your plan designs because you have the embedded co- insurance with the lower maximum that does impact your renewal as well where the ETNA proposal removes that embedded co insurance amount more burden to your employees from an out-of- pocket standpoint but because the benefits are so rich those renewals are higher can be higher combined with the utilization that you guys have had. So there is an element of consideration in that as well. And I would say in echoing what Cody shared, we see employee only rates, family rates that are lower than what the district has and also higher. Again, that goes back to the plan design, the out-ofpocket maximums,

076and then the utilization by those members as well. So, I know that you've u been a part of the committee meetings in the past and we've talked about that a little bit. So, I wanted to just mention that again. It has to be a consideration when you look at your current BlueCross plan design and compare to the Etna option because it it does have some um some impact to what your decision is would be. Um, I'm not sure if you have a more presentation, but I think this is a request that I actually have of Josh in our business office. Um, it's been detailed tonight like the responsibilities to to administer a self-funded plan. So, I think I would need to see a plan from you to let help me see like how our business

077office could manage this. Um, it seems like a little bit more work than we thought and I you know, we've had some attrition in the business office. So, do we actually have the capacity to to take it on? So, you could >> we'll find out for sure some of those key. The question would be what are those exact processes? >> How much time does each one take per month, per week? Is that kind of >> Yeah, that's Yeah, I I think that would be really an important part of my decision. >> I had another question. you reference referenced it a little bit earlier, but what are you are you seeing much movement from fully funded to self-funded plans or >> um school districts? >> Yeah, that's a great question. We've moved several of our local

078peers or a couple of them recently uh self-funded and one particularly was in a similar scenario was a really high fully insured renewal and that was the jumping off point kind of that buy high. Um, national benchmark wise, uh, we're actually seeing a plateauing of plans that are self-funded because it's been a steady increase over the last 15 to 20 years to where those that are going to selfund are already self-funded. Um, 100 to 500 employee range. Uh, the benchmarks are somewhere in the 65 to 75% uh, that are self-funded in that. But I will caveat that drastically. your 100 to 250 are in that and they're less likely to to self-und and unfortunately I don't have benchmarks of the 250 to 500 but that 250 to 500 are going to be up in the

079the high 70s probably to 80% range. Um so plateauing but really high. I think some number like 85% of all people in the country are covered under a self-funded plan of some sort because all of your jumbos and others are as well. But it's a very common strategy. Um, we still see plans transitioning that direction and and again only the one that I know that's gone the other direction. And I do want to add what I think probably lease was going to chime in um just from our perspective and we'll help pull together that here's kind of a list of additional tasks in a month um and potential hours to it or time to it. Uh but we'll also add in there that's what we're here for. We we are a full team that supports

080and and we do the monthly or bi-weekly touchbased calls with the team, provide the reminders, provide the guidance. Really, it's our job to make that lift pretty minimal and pretty easy for them. And so, we'll add that context into that analysis. >> So, I have a question. Sorry, you go ahead. >> If I may add really quick and then I'll stand back. It's important to me to clarify with you the question that was asked previously with regard to the confidentiality of of PHI. Whenever the stoploss carrier reaches out, and I was trying to think through this to see if there were any exceptions, they're really just asking is this person still actively at work. They're not ask they're not they don't see any information. They're not asking any information. Just like your disability claims, they

081have to verify that person's eligibility and that's the extent of it. So, I just had a lot of conviction. I needed to come back up here and clarify that so you didn't have that worry when we left. >> Well, thank you. But I also thought you like you alluded to like the bills that we would pay and so it felt like there was a little bit more information that was being would be shared and so it wasn't just that phone call. That was just one example, but it sounds like there's a like a pay like a bill that comes that we have to pay that might have more detailed information. So technically self-funded plans own all of the data and HIPPO allows for access and rights to everything, right? But it can be set up

082to where reporting and financials and check registers are financials only and deidentified and PHI and so with the with stated desire of that that's the way the setup would occur. >> So I'm sorry I know you've answered so many questions and we appreciate that. Um, just from I I have a little bit of a background with employee wellness and and um do you going back to what you said checking in with the business office assisting them? Do you help um either directly doing it directly or indirectly implement any sort of education too? Because I go back to the whole emergent or urgent people don't I wish everyone in America was required to take a class to find out what qualifies and then symptoms you need to worry about versus don't and all of that. They

083they don't. Um they might Google it, but um so I know that one company I worked with um they made it mandatory. It was on the clock. They were paid, but they made mandatory sessions where they would break down the different topics like when do you go to the ER versus urgent care versus your regular, you know, provider. And they had to go, they had to answer questions to prove they had learned, you know, and it it was just very very um hands-on, very direct. And most of them in liked learning that they they liked feeling equipped to make better decisions like if my child is complaining of this, you don't want to overreact. You don't want to underreact. And either of those could cost you in in a financial way or in a tragic

084way. And so I'm just wondering again if you help provide any of that or guide them with providing it. >> That's my favorite question of the night. Uh and absolutely yes. Uh and that when you'll see the five-year scenario that we pulled together of the self-unding, we've modeled two different things. One is unmanaged, one is managed, and one basically just takes the claims you've had. We do underwriting as though you were self-funded and we compare that to the fully insured. It's relatively in line. The other assumes we do a huge chunk of our job of what we're brought in to your question of helping to really diligently and actively manage the plan and that looks like a lot of things. One is wellness programs, whole health programs. One's employee engagement and communication uh that helps

085improve behaviors and understanding of the plan. Um I actually am speaking at a national conference in about a month on health literacy and improving health literacy within populations and within plans. Uh that's squarely in our wheelhouse. Uh and then the other is in kind of plan setup and plan design. And that's a a less known benefit of self-funding when done right. Uh we are huge proponents of win-win benefit setup. uh where if we do and incentivize something in the plan to help change behaviors and drive better uh patterns of use in the health plan um covering things at no cost for employees so that they do X or wellness rewards or those type of things that then save money in the long term that results in the plan performing better over that fiveyear and so

086when we say managed that's what we're talking about all of the above what you were listing those kind of strategies and solutions um that's what we're here for that's we bring >> I would think our wellness program would really kick up in terms of what we do, how we do it, what we require um if we move to this kind of plan because there there needs to be more self accountability but it's amazing how you start holding each other accountable when I mean everybody's in this pot together so to speak and so um and you don't want that to ever turn ugly or judgmental or anything like that but um just in a positive and encouraging And again, that just positive accountability, it it really does start to matter more, I think. >> Yeah. And

087you hit it the kicking it up. Every dollar invested in a wellness program is investing in yourself when you're self-funded, whereas that's that's just hoping that claims are better fully for the fully insured vendor. Um, that's I I always preface that's my finance hat, not my HR hat. I mean, at the end of the day, wellness programs are directed at improving the livelihood and and well-being of your population as a primary thing, but when we think financially, right, it's an investment and it bears fruit. >> Okay. Is there any do we need to look at any more slides or we we pass that time? >> Yeah. >> It's probably a separate Casey that would have a flow the flowchart to it. This this picture and really this was one for us that when we looked

088at this there would be first question is would we move to be self-funded or do we stay fully funded? So the no would be does a district switch and then the colors are what would be compared. Um the red would be that if we stayed the current plan design it's a 26% increase. And then the two reds down below are using the same plan as I in that self-funded. The reason why there's two percentage differences is one that 8.6% this kind of goes back to Corey's 5050 how much risk you're taking on. That's a the expected cost and then if you want the 17.8 it represents that fully that max cost premium. But um to cover that max cost is that increase compared to the self that moderate one. Anyway, those are the three that

089would be compared. I think we're also picturing for the the um health insurance committee to look at why those the red the purple and the blue because that really looks at do you do you want money into a premium increase or would you rather absorb that into a plan design change. Um so we feel like that's probably more of the discussion for that health of the insurance committee and then this group would really be focusing on that no or that yes those two pieces but we were trying to figure I mean really that's help for us. It was a way to see what kind of decision needs to be made in two weeks. Um so really that's the final qu any questions on how that design looks or what kind of pieces will be decided

090on in in a couple weeks. Okay. >> Just just want to clarify make sure that um we're saying this all right and we all have this the same understanding. It it's not up to the insurance committee whether whether the district takes on the risk of a self-funded plan versus a fully funded plan. That's a board of education decision. It is up to the health insurance committee to inform the board as to what they would prefer if they went with a stayed with a fully insured plan. It is still the board's decision as to which of those fully insured plans we would actually go with. Is that >> okay? >> One more. Just kidding. >> Thank you all. Yeah. Thank you so much. And >> that's going to bring us to 7A board policy update first

091and second reading. >> Uh yes, Dr. Erica Mickelson is here to uh talk us through. We've had a little bit of discussion about uh this policy change that was made recently and some concerns that um we had as we come came into the district new, you know, and uh want to talk through that with you. We have a recommendation. >> So, I usually don't read um but I'm going to read this because I don't want to get it incorrect. Uh based on the recommendation of current administration and the USD 253 policy committee, the board of education is reconsidering the policy change made on August 13th regarding policy GBO uh resignation. This district approved benefits plan after their employment ends. Um employees who have uh resigned and currently pay premiums uh to participate in the district

092benefit plans will be allowed to remain on said plans through December 31st which is the end of the current plan period. They will not be allowed to enroll to participate in district approved plans in place effective January 1st 2026. This revision does not impact employees retiring from the district and entering a statewide capers plan. the USD 253 policy committee reviewed the policy change and request board approval. So anyone any of our our staff who resigned um and are on the plan have agreed to be on the plan will still be able to be on the plan until the end of the calendar year. We will not accept anybody who resigns um additionally to be on the plan. So that's kind of what we're looking at. And the whole idea of this initially was the the

093hope that we could have people added to the plan that would in hopes bring that plan down. And we haven't I know we haven't done this for very long, but it just doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. And so really looking at this um we want to be mindful of that and and it's timely as we're talking insurance that we make this plan change. I did want to reiterate too our conversation, you know, about that scenario of potentially um a policy like this could encourage a very difficult to insure individual to seek employment with the district for benefits with the full intention of getting on our plan, being able to resign, you know, very shortly after and have the opportunity to stay on the plan at their cost. but they would at

094least have access to, you know, quality health care um through our plan um ultimately driving the costs up if if they were hard to ensure to begin with. It's not that you would deny them because they're hard to ensure, but it's just a risk that we take the way we have this written currently. >> Um I have a I have a question. So, um I actually have a couple questions. So, I'm glad that folks from IMA are still here because they might have some answers, too. So, I know that like when an employee leaves, um, they're eligible for COBRA, >> correct? >> So, and that's 18 months. >> Uh, 18 months. Yes, >> I'm getting head nods. Yes. >> Okay. So, and they would just pay the premium anyway, right? The same premium. So, this

095So, we're just go saying we're not going to let you be on our insurance for as long as you want, but there would be time limited. Oh, I think someone has an answer. >> And then the next question I would have kind of along the same line. So, if someone it like leaves and they take Cobra, does that hit our plan numbers also or is that kind of a separate policy or they still under our umbrella drink Cobra? >> Great question. I'll answer that one. I need you to repeat the first one. I didn't hear it as I was walking up. So, >> how long is COBRA coverage basically? So basic COBRA coverage in the event of termination of employment or a qualifying event is 18 months. There are additional COBRA limitations depending on um

096a spouse's death etc that are greater than that 18 months but for just a typical qualifying event is the 18 months. And then now the second part of the question >> um the second part of the question was >> so are they still under our umbrella? >> Yes. Yes. those claims still count toward your utilization >> knowing that there's a time limit if it's you know someone who uses our plan extensively. So I mean I it's easier for me to like approve this only because people can still join >> CORA. >> And just to kind of ask then so when you are looking at premiums then because you just said this. So then when the all the factors get factored in do you know that that person's no longer employed here? Like are you factoring

097them out? Like if they're on our Cobra, but we know they're done in six months, are they being removed from our calculations? >> Yes, that is our job. >> Okay. >> To make sure that we're looking at all of those scenarios and communicating clearly with the individual or the underwriter at the carrier. >> Thank you. I really appreciate that. Do you have a question? Um, so my next question is, um, I do see that you said that the the revision does not impact employees who are retiring from the district, correct? >> And I believe that's in the negotiated agreement. >> It is. Yes. >> And also, is that pretty standard among school districts to let retirees? >> Typically, yes. It's it's not I mean, it's I wouldn't say it's half and half, but I mean,

098typically you districts would allow retirees to to continue on the plan. And we we looked at numbers. So this this had it's a it's a handful of staff who are taking it. So we have a couple that um two staff asked to stay on the district health insurance and then four to five are on the vision and dental. So, you know, when we look at usage, you know, we do have a handful of staff that this or previous staff that this will impact um and and we will make contact with those um previous staff members to let them know of this change. >> I really appreciate you having those numbers for us so we know what the impact is. Thank you. >> And I really appreciate just your willingness to act quickly once we've sort

099of discovered that the plan had some flaws in it. So, I I just really appreciate everyone being nimble. >> It's just it it's not going to benefit us the way that we thought it was going to be and what we anticipated um and what was communicated to us. So, we thought this was the best plan of attack. >> I make a motion to revise board policy. GBO is presented, removing the option for staff who resign to remain on the district's health, dental, and or revision plans effective immediately. Those resigned employees that are currently enrolled in paying premiums to participate in the district's health, dental, and/or vision plans will be grandfathered and allowed to continue on the selected plans through the 31st of December, 2025, at which time our current benefits plan period ends. >> I

100second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. That brings us to item 7B, board reports. >> Not a whole lot to report for the Emporia Recreation Commission. We uh approved a bid for some um pool repairs. Um seems like an annual thing actually. if you know anything about our pool. Um, we also I think uh since the last meeting there was news about the Doge Sports Complex renovations and that Stormmont Veil was a community u partner that donated quite a bit of money. So, we're really appreciative uh to that partnership. Um, and then probably the only other big change that we had was that we um discovered that with credit card transaction fees, we were spending about $58,000 a year because the ERC was covering that.

101So, we did raise the um we include a percent now in digital transactions with cards uh to make up that balance because that is quite literally the cost of like a person's salary. Still probably going to be some expense there, but just trying to be um you know, conscientious about cost cutting and spending taxpayer dollars wisely. >> Okay, thank you for that update. Uh item 8A, superintendent report. >> Uh yeah, just real uh quickly. We have a few um things to uh update you about. Uh teacher recognitions. Last week uh we were able to um do a lot of recognizing of teachers for that were nominated for various awards. We had our Kansas teacher of the year elementary nominee Alex Bashultz from village village fifth grade teacher. She will be our elementary nominee for the

102Katoy um award. And then our KTOY 2027 secondary nominee, Sarah Bae, one of our high school vocal music teachers. And then the 2026 Kansas Master Teacher of the Year nominee, Kathleen Gilland, one of our high school math teachers. Um, our 2026 Horizon Award nominee. This is for uh new bright and shining star teachers, Alyssa Mchugh from Walnut. And then we also had our nextgen under 30 2025 honore Emily Magna uh who's one of our student support specialists. So very proud of of all those teachers and as as we uh talked about and shared when we were doing our KOV KVOE uh spotlight with with these folks. Um they're just they're just a small sample of all the great teachers that we have in our school district. So we're proud of them. Um just to touch

103on high school gymnastics. Um, as you're aware, this is the last year for our high school gymnastics program. Uh, the Kansas State High School Activities Association's actually um no longer sanctioning it as a sport after this season. And so, um, they were having a special recognition of coaches and and gymnasts. This week, I was able to to get out there and the district did a high school did a really nice job of recognizing our gymnasts and then our coaches as well. just a little bit about, you know, Barb Clark was there. Um, you you guys might know Barb. I got to meet her the other night. Started the program in 1985 and coached that team for 26 years. Our co current coach, Angela Potaric, got it. Assisted under Barb initially and then took over that

104program and coached for 25 years. And then our assistant coach, Tara Machado, who actually was a participant in the program at one time, was assisting them for eight seasons. So, you know, kind of a kind of a sad, happy situation out there, but uh certainly going to be um you know, club opportunities and other opportunities for for um our gymnasts to continue to uh do what they like to do. It just won't be a part of the high school sanctioned program any longer. And then I just shared u I think I think all of you have been contacted at this point but at our government matters meeting uh the other morning they were talking about the uh school board and city commission candidate forum that will be held at Flint Hills Tech College on October

1056th and uh board for for everybody that might be be uh watching our school board candidates will go first. So, if you want to hear from the school board candidates, uh that's at 5:45. Um, of course, you have the fortune of running uncontested. So, but people may still want to know and ask you questions and so, uh, you get to do that. That'll that'll be about 30 minutes and then they need to leave the rest of the time because we've got several, uh, several folks that are running for city commission. Um, there was something on the last agenda item that I was going to go back and but like Jamie, I I since we've talked about something else, I've forgotten what it was. So, we're going to keep keep it right there. >> Okay. Thank

106you. That brings us to item 88, Kansas Avenue updated contract and addendum approval. >> Yeah. So when I entered the district, this was one of the uh one of the items that was uh ongoing. And so I did my I did my research uh back to the um May 14th board meeting. Did see that the board had u approved conceptually to sell the Kansas Avenue property to this particular buyer. At that time there were contingencies in that presentation that the board listed as as as being um acceptable as a part of that. It has just taken us this long for one for me to grab it and get caught up and then some back and forths uh between the attorneys getting them involved to actually get a contract a basic real estate contract. And then

107rather than go in and start redlining uh that base contract, uh we had our attorney write up an addendum to that contract to ensure that everything was addressed uh the way that he he felt that we needed it addressed as a school district. We have reached a point in time where we're happy with the base contract and the accompanying addendum and would uh recommend approving that. Any questions from the board? >> I can do it. >> Sorry, I was going to call you up if we had questions, but there you are. >> I'm here behind me. >> I I do that. >> Matt's been uh patient as I got caught up and then uh I' I've been patient as he keeps sending our stuff over to the buyer and we get it back and we've

108gone back and forth a few times, but we've got it figured out. I move to approve the contract and accompanying addendum for the sale of Kansas Avenue 315 Market Street as submitted. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, >> thank you guys. >> Thanks. >> That takes us to item 9A, executive session, consult with attorney. >> And I'm all over this one because it's exactly 7:30 almost, which means I don't have to math that hard. Um, I move to enter executive session for 15 minutes for the exception for matters which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship under the Kansas Open Meeting Act, and that we return to open session in this room at 4

1097:46 p.m. Superintendent Dr. David McGee, Attorney Tammy Simoji, Attorney Mike Norris, and Attorney Doris Chester are invited to join the board for this session. >> Sorry, Doris Chester will not be attending. I'm gonna take her off of there. >> Thank you. Right. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. 7 0 to return to regular session. >> It's been moved and seconded to return to regular session. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. I move to enter into executive session for 10 minutes for the exception for matters which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship under the Kansas Open Meeting Act and that we return to open session in this room at 7:58 p.m. Superintendent Dr. David McGee, Attorney Tanny Samoji, Attorney Mike Norris are invited to join the board

110for this session. >> Second. >> It's been moved to seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Hand vote, please. Motion passes 7 0 move to return to regular session. >> It's been moved and seconded to return to regular session. Please cast your vote. work. Jeremy >> mo motion passes 70. >> Thank you. That brings us to item 9 C executive session superintendent evaluation. I move we enter executive session for 15 minutes to discuss the superintendent evaluation pursuant to the non-elected personnel exception under coma and will return to open session in this room at 8:15 p.m. and superintendent Dr. McGee is invited to join the session. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Can we do a hand vote? Motion passes. 70. Thank you. to return to regular session. >> Okay,

111it's been moved and seconded return to regular session. All those in favor, please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> On future board calendar dates, we have Wednesday, October 1st at 4:30 p.m. we have around the world at Walnut Elementary School and Friday, October 3rd is the EHS homecoming at Welch Stadium at 6:30. And then our board meeting, next board meeting will be Wednesday, October 8th at 6 PM here at Mary Herbert. And I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote.