Health insurance cost a major factor in teacher contract talks

The seemingly ever-rising health-care costs that spur complaints at most companies are also affecting local school districts. As several districts push through negotiations for new contracts with teachers this summer, finding a way to cover the hefty price of health insurance - while keeping employees happy - is a common problem.



According to the Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit, Blackhawk, Riverside and Western Beaver school districts are all in the process of negotiating new contracts. Ellwood City Area in Lawrence County and Moon Area in Allegheny County also are negotiating new contracts.



District administrators and teachers' associations agree that salaries and benefits are always the two biggest concerns when it's time to negotiate a new contract. But with such dramatic increases in health-care costs during the three or four years since most schools signed their last contracts, negotiating benefits has taken on a new importance.



Plus, in most districts, teachers and other professional employees have not had to contribute money to the cost of their health insurance under previous contracts. That cost, however, is becoming harder for districts to handle on their own.



"Health insurance expense is an issue in every facet of society, and it's no different for us," said Blackhawk Superintendent Alan Guandolo.



Guandolo said under the current contract, which will expire Aug. 31, the district covers the entire cost of health insurance. He declined to comment on whether the district will cover all the insurance in a new contract because the district is in the early stages of negotiations. But Guandolo did say health insurance costs jumped 20 percent this past year, an increase he says has been tough for the district to absorb.



John Yarai, a sixth-grade science teacher and president of Blackhawk's teachers' association, said a professional mediator has just been hired to help with the negotiations.



"We've been in negotiations since January, but it's hard to say if the end's in sight - we're just cautiously going about them," Yarai said. "I will say both sides have been very professional."



Riverside Superintendent David Parry said while he is not actively involved in contract negotiations sincethe district has a professional negotiator, Riverside's health- care costs have increased similar to other county schools. Teachers did not contribute to their health-care costs under the last contract, which expired June 30, Parry said.



Ellwood City teachers' contract expired June 30, and Superintendent Frank Aloi said negotiations there began in the middle of the school year. Aloi said health insurance costs are "definitely a concern," as they increased about 15 percent during the past year.



Aloi said the district has also hired a professional negotiator, but said he could not make any other comment about the negotiation status at this point.



Superintendents at both Western Beaver and Moon Area were away on vacation last week, but their secretaries said negotiations are ongoing, with salaries and benefits being the main issues. Moon secretary Nancy Peck said the old contract expired June 30: the intermediate unit said Western Beaver's contract will expire Aug. 21.



Even at schools where contracts don't expire until next year, teachers and administrators are already thinking about balancing the cost of benefits.



Dennis Johnson, superintendent for the Cornell School District, said the district's contract expires next summer, but he expects to begin negotiations for a new contract by January. Johnson said the district may be exploring some form of a co-payment for health care because although the district's health insurance cost dropped about 1 percent last year, it increased 28 percent during the 2003-2004 school year.



Kenneth Voss, superintendent of Ambridge Area School District, said it would be premature to speculate on next year's negotiations, but said that benefits will be an important issue. Health-insurance costs have increased as much as 30 percent in recent years, Voss said.



Mary Catherine Knafelc, president of the teachers' association at Ambridge, said teachers and the district had begun negotiating salaries and benefits earlier this spring, but meetings were stopped after the board members on the negotiating committee did not win nominations in the May primary election.



"It's been a little frustrating- our last meeting was April," Knafelc said.



Knafelc said under the current contract, teachers' health benefits are fully covered by the district, but that teachers do expect they'll have to make some contribution in the new contract.



"We expect we'll have to give something back, but we'll want to minimize that," Knafelc said. "Still, as a taxpayer, I recognize that these (school) boards are being left in a lurch, with rising costs and not as much help from the state."