School Board Meets Tonight

Here's the agenda.  The meeting begins at 6PM in the School Board meeting room in Gallatin.

Noteworthy items include the presentation of the Board's evaluation of Dr. Del Phillips AND the Board's consideration of a recommendation to change the health plan offered to employees.

The change would mean both teachers and classified employees would be in one health plan, and initial reports indicate that the plan has the same or better coverage than current plans for both groups and has lower premiums.

Should the Board adopt, the proposal would go to eligible employees for a vote, though it is not clear whether that vote is binding.

The health insurance issue is of interest because the County Commission had to bail out its poorly managed insurance trust late last year. If all school system employees went to a single plan, the school system's classified employees, currently in the County Trust, would no longer be paying premiums into that plan.  Of course, they'd also no longer be subject to the poor management of the County Commission.  They would, however, have to depend on the School Board or system employees to provide management of the insurance plan. 

Some have questioned whether the County Trust can survive without the contributions from the School System to insure its employees.