Bulletin Number 1--Health Care Here are some bulletins from the WEA. More information will be coming to you as soon as it is available. No decision has been made with regard to the insurance yet. That is because the Association has requested that Western Health Advantage provide a bid for our group. The recent survey indicated that we have about 200 members who take Health Net. Of these 200 or so, over 100 of the self-proclaimed Health Net users want to change to WHA even if they lose Sutter and about 60 of the self-proclaimed Health Net users want to keep their Sutter doctors at all costs. The district is proclaiming that it is too much work to have two brokers, so they want the unit members to continue the carry the cost rather than help them find a better solution. The district cap is $433. The following are the options as the health care committee see them so far. 1. CalPERS BENEFITS--lower premiums for the same plan and includes Sutter DRAWBACKS--no history making it difficult to leave the plan and the premiums have been increasing.
2. CVT BENEFITS--lower premiums for the same plan, options that fall below our district cap of $433 DRAWBACKS---no history making it difficult to leave the plan, AND there are a number of unit members who would lose cash-in-lieu--a negotiated item 3. Stay with Health Net that includes Sutter at a 17% increase over last year and a high payment of nearly $1900/mo for retiree with family and $1700/mo for an "active" family.
4. Change to Western Health Advantage with a lower premium (This amount should be back to us in about a week.) It will not have SUTTER. 5. We could retain the High Option in Health Net (with the 17% increase) and create a very low plan ( with an out of pocket deductible of $3,000 to $5,000 -- depending on the one created) that would come in at around $500 to $600 per month premium. This kind of plan would mean the unit member pays for everything up to the deductible, THEN the insurance pays. This would mean that you would pay out your deductible and the difference between the district cap ($433) and your premium every month. The committee and the Association are still working on this and CTA is also now involved. BULLETIN #2-- Next Year's Dues
Next Year, the CTA dues increase will be approximately $21. for the year. There has been a New Business Item filed to have that dues amount suspended in light of the current economic state. The recommendation was that the item be presented to committee. I do not know where it will go from there. I do not have any information on the NEA dues amount. The WEA amount for next year and the following year will remain at its current level, unless some now unforeseen need comes up. A New Business Item was filed with CTA and fast tracked to approval will allow locals to retain current levels of dues and still qualify for crisis funding and arbitration. BULLETIN #3 --
The secondary ALS testing is under review. Teachers and administrators should be involved soon with the process of making this test more useful, especially with the addition of DATA WORKS. BULLETIN #4 -- The NEW WEA OFFICERS FOR 2009-2010 are as follows: President--Adelina Perez; Vice President: Bobby Rogers; Secretary/Treasurer--Carol Mathisen; Directors-at-large: Traci Edwards, Gayle Hawke and Hellen Campen. BULLETIN #5 -- Board Meeting UpdateThe Board of Trustees issues have increased over the last few weeks as you might well imagine, but you might not have imagined it quite this way. ~~~The Superintendent Search continues, but there is very little said or done, to my knowledge, at this point in time. The goal is for the board to interview the candidates on April 23 or 25 and take a recommendation to the board at the first board meeting in May. I am not sure why the board interviews, makes a decision regarding recommendations, then votes. There is a week scheduled between the determination of the recommended candidate and the board approval to "negotiate a salary." In addition, the Board has directed Administration to seek further involvement with a company who will orchestrate a bond going to the voters in a near election to pay for a number of items our district needs--some of them were included in the last list of items that were to be covered by the previous bond. The District Office Building was on the first list, but not on the most recent one. It will not surprise me if it reappears. There is also some talk of shifting things off of one plate to put them on the bond and asking for more rather than less.
BULLETIN #6 -- There will be no true bumping when teachers/unit members are placed from the two closing schools. No one can point at a currently held position and say "I want that one." Stay tuned. Karen |