USD 489 School board has called a special meeting for Monday. The meeting was originally a scheduled work session. Board President Greg Schwartz told Hays
Post in an email, “We need to finish the insurance issue and a couple of other issues before school starts.”
Monday’s agenda includes a discussion on renewal of the district’s multi-peril insurance coverage.
“We do not have a grace period (on the insurance) per se,” said Schwartz. “We have not received a bill yet, it is my understanding Until we receive that we do not need to take action, but if we wait, we could receive a cancellation notice giving us ten days to pay. Until the 10-day notice and that time runs we have coverage under our policies.”
According to the agenda for Monday’s meeting, “The school district received the new quote for Multi-Peril Insurance and Worker’s Comp Insurance from Insurance Planning (IPI) for 2013-14. Larry Caspers of IPI reported that Liberty Mutual was going to cancel the district’s Worker’s Comp insurance, forcing the district to the Kansas State insurance pool at an even higher cost.
Caspers negotiated with Liberty Mutual to keep the policy and lower the original premium proposal.
According to Casper, the reason for the increase was the school district’s 77% ratio of premiums to claims paid. The district still pays more premiums than amount paid out in claims. However, work Comp Insurance Co.’s feel they must stay at or below 60% to make money after considering their administrative costs.
Work Comp Insurance Co.’s by State law are also allowed to include an increased amount of claims (up from $5,000 per claim to $10,000 per claim) into their experience ratio. This increase per claim allowed in the experience ration will continue over the next 3 years. The school district’s property insurance increased because of recent national disasters (tornados, floods, East Coast Hurricane, etc.) and adding on the six new classrooms at Hays Middle School, the Hays High baseball field Astroturf, and new transportation vehicles, etc. “
USD 489 Administration is recommending the approval of Multi-peril Insurance and Worker’s Compensation Insurance from Insurance Planning in the amount of $454,516, for the 2013-14 school year.
O’loughlin’s alternative to the closing of VictoryDrive, the Roosevelt Air Conditioning Compressor, and the Financing agreement with Astra Bank are also on Monday night’s agenda.