Colfax school district health insurance rates to increase by 4.9 percent for 2020-2021
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Health insurance rates for the Colfax school district are expected to increase by 4.9 percent for the 2020-2021 school year.
Without the health insurance cooperative, the increase would probably be 30 percent, said William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator, at the Colfax Board of Education’s April 21 meeting.
The Board of Education approved joining the Northwest Public Entities Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative in March of 2018.
The health insurance cooperative has about 20 schools, covers 2,000 to 3,000 people, and is the largest health insurance cooperative in the state, Yingst said.
“It was a good move financially for the district and for the employees,” he said.
In the time that Colfax has been part of the health insurance cooperative, the district has saved $840,000 on health insurance premiums, Yingst said.
The increase in health insurance premiums is expected to be 4.9 percent, and the school district budgeted for a 12 percent increase, he said.
“It’s definitely much better being in a co-op,” Yingst said.
Instead of one company bidding on health insurance for 70 employees when Colfax is operating alone, multiple companies bid on providing insurance for the several thousand people in the cooperative.
Organizational meeting
Prior to the regular school board business on the agenda, the Colfax Board of Education held its organizational meeting.
Incumbent school board members Kenneth Bjork and Jodi Kiekhafer, along with newcomer Jaclyn Ackerlund, were sworn in to serve on the school board.
Bjork, Kiekhafer and Ackerlund were elected to the Board of Education in the April 7 election.
Todd Kragness was once again elected by the board to serve as president of the school board, and Ken Neuburg was elected to serve as vice-president.
Andrew De Moe was elected by the board to serve as clerk of the school board, and Kyle Knutson was elected to serve as treasurer.
The Colfax Messenger was designated as the school district’s official newspaper.
The Board of Education approved holding monthly meetings on the third Monday of every month, except in April and October.
Wipfli LLC was approved as the school district’s auditor, and Weld Riley was approved as the school district legal firm.
Former school board member Christie Hill served as the Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 11 delegate, and Ackerlund said she was interested in the position.
The school board approved Ackerlund as the representative on the CESA 11 board of directors. CESA 11 will hold its annual meeting in June.
Ken Neuburg was once again approved as the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) representative.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Board of Education:
• Learned that the school district workers’ compensation experience rating is 1.09. A rating of 1 is average, while a rating below 1 results in a credit on workers’ compensation insurance and a rating over 1 results in a higher insurance premium. Several recent workers’ compensation claims in the school district were unforeseen and unavoidable, Yingst said.
• Learned that the school district received a lottery and gaming credit from Dunn County of $77,663 and received a lottery and gaming credit of $15,490 from Chippewa County.
• Learned that the school district has a positive balance in the food service fund and does not need to increase hot lunch prices. The school district also was exempt last year from filling out the Paid Lunch Equity tool because of a positive balance.
• Approved updates to the following school policies: the policy on bylaws and policies to reflect that the school board does not have to go through two readings of changes to bylaws and policies but can approve those changes on the first reading since the changes are recommended by Neola (formerly known as North East Ohio Learning Associates); the policy on voting to allow the school board to have virtual meetings, although it does not cover closed sessions; updates to the policy on nondiscrimination and equal employment opportunity and includes a list of additions to the retention of investigatory records and materials, such as e-mails, text messages or social media posts; the policy on the fund balance, which puts Colfax in compliance for the auditors preparing to do the annual audit and includes changes such as fund balances will be reported in the categories established by the Government Accounting Standards Board Statement 54 (GASB 54) and in consultation with the school district’s auditors and the bookkeeper, rather than the school board treasurer; and a policy on the audit, which establishes that the audit shall be conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and the Wisconsin Uniform Financial Accounting Requirements of the DPI (WUFAR).