School employees will see insurance hike

CENTERVILLE — St. Mary Parish School employees will pay more for insurance as early as January.

The school board approved an insurance renewal and mandatory direct deposit at its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday.

The group health insurance plan was up for renewal effective January 2017.

If no changes were made to the group health plan, premiums would have increased by 9.6 percent, said DJW Insurance Agency Inc. spokesperson James Perez.

And with no additional contributions from the board, the overall increase to employee payroll deducted premiums would have been 24 percent.

The preferred care and BlueSaver plan renewal approved by the board include changes in benefits to help mitigate what could’ve been a larger increase.

The new plan most employees will see is a 2 percent increase billed to premiums, Perez said.

The preferred care plan deductible is $2,000. And employees’ prescription benefits include a closed formulary deductible at zero cost.

Closed formulary means only specific drugs are covered. The new covered drug list is effective Jan. 1, 2017.

If there is a medical need for a drug not on the covered list, doctors can request coverage of a non-formulary drug. Certain criteria must be met before the drug may be covered.

The BlueSaver deductible is $4,000. Employees on this plan could possibly see a decrease in cost. It will vary based on coverage.

Last month, the board began discussion about direct deposit options. It was reported by chief financial officer Alton Perry that parishes such as Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, Vermillion and Iberia employ direct deposit as a mandatory payroll option.

At the time, 93 percent of St. Mary employees participated in direct deposit, Perry said.

After last month’s meeting, a letter was issued to employees asking them to consider the payroll alternative for next school year.

As a result, around 40 employees signed up for direct deposit and no one has yet to report opposition to it, Perry said.

Mandatory direct deposit will be effective for the 2017-18 school year.

In other news, the board evaluated Superintendent Leonard Armato as discussed in executive session, said board President Ginger Griffin.

Overall the results are favorable. The board will continue to support and accommodate Armato’s leadership of St. Mary Parish Schools, Griffin said.

Armato reported declining student population numbers.

“Our numbers continue to show a drastic decline in student population,” Armato said.

“We will be 370 students down from last year’s Oct. 1 count. Our MFP number will be at 8,451 students.

“Our total number of students parishwide including pre-K is 8,846, which is down from last year’s number of 9,253.”

The district will receive K-8 progress data and school performance scores in November.