School Board Perk 101: Health Insurance Included
Oh the cost of health insurance … and taxpayers are paying for School Board Trustee perks.
Picon learned something fascinating during Tuesday’s Washoe County School Board meeting.
Apparently, serving as a school board trustee comes with something many teachers, support staff, and taxpayers might find surprising: excellent health insurance.
During the meeting, Trustee Beth Smith discussed issues involving the district's pharmacy benefits, including changes to specialty pharmacy services and difficulties obtaining certain prescriptions after changes.
And that's when Picon began asking questions.
Wait.
School board trustees get district health insurance?
Since when?
Many parents probably assume trustees receive a small stipend, attend meetings, and make policy decisions. Few likely realize that trustees participate in the same health insurance program provided through the district's administrative bargaining unit.
Meanwhile, teachers continue negotiating salaries, support staff struggle with wages, and district budgets seem tighter than a pair of jeans after Thanksgiving dinner.
So naturally, Picon did what Picon does.
We started asking questions.
Who decided trustees should receive these benefits?
Why are elected officials participating in a plan associated with administrators when trustees technically aren't administrators?
How much does the coverage cost taxpayers?
And how exactly did elected board members end up sitting at the same insurance table as district administrators?
Unfortunately, getting answers proved more difficult than finding a parking space at a school graduation.
Calls to the Washoe County School District went unanswered.
So we looked elsewhere. Clark County.
School Board Trustees get access to health insurance via the administrative union even though technically they are not administrators.
Meanwhile, district officials recently renewed a multimillion-dollar health insurance agreement reportedly worth approximately $15 million over five years.
And now taxpayers have learned that one of the major concerns discussed publicly during a school board meeting involved prescription coverage for an elected official.
Picon isn't criticizing anyone for wanting good health insurance. Frankly, everyone deserves affordable healthcare.
But when elected officials receive benefits funded by taxpayers while teachers continue fighting for better pay, people naturally ask questions.
Perhaps the next school board recruitment flyer should read:
Help shape educational policy.
Attend long meetings.
Receive angry emails.
Get blamed for everything.
Enjoy some of the best health insurance in Nevada.
Would more people run for school board if they were aware of all these marvelous perks.
No teaching certificate required.
The question isn't whether trustees deserve healthcare coverage.
The question is whether taxpayers knew they were paying for it.
As always, if anyone from the district would like to explain how trustee health benefits work, you know how you got them, Picon's phone remains fully charged.