This month, the Board of Education (BoE) met on October 11. BoE meetings begin with a public comment session, where any community member can speak, followed by the Representatives to the BoE from IHS and LACS, and subsequently the consent agenda, which at this meeting, considered a contract for the construction of a new boiler at Belle Sherman, among other items.
During public comment at this meeting, retirees spoke to the BoE about health insurance. Retirees were switched to a Medicare advantage plan with Aetna from their previous Hartford medical insurance plan in 2021, which itself was a replacement for the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan that the retirees originally had until 2018. During the switch, the BoE promised retirees that their new plan would be “better or equal to” the original plan, but retirees argued that this was not the case. The new healthcare advantage plan with Aetna, they stated, had often forced retirees to pay out of pocket due to excessive preauthorizations for treatment. The retirees also added that this is not just an issue with the Aetna advantage plan, the same issues, including a high rate of denials, poor reimbursement, and difficult appeals programs, have been documented with advantage plans across the nation. In support of their argument, the retirees cited a survey of retirees in ICSD, where 76 percent of the 250 respondents stated that the Aetna advantage plan was not “better or equal to” the original Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Active district staff members are currently on the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Retirees had previously brought up insurance issues at the board meeting in September.
The BoE responded to these allegations in September by stating that the survey cited above was not comprehensive, and disputed the statements that the retirees asserted. This month, the BoE stated that their legal counsel had informed them that the Aetna advantage plan was indeed “better than or equal to” the previous plan. They also cited legal issues in returning retirees to the original plan. The BoE added that for now, they were not planning on changing the retiree’s insurance plan, and a resolution that would offer retirees some alternatives and obtain more data failed in a 3–3 vote with one abstaining.
This month, your student representatives to the BoE commended the district for adding new days off for Jewish holidays including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The representatives also requested an update on IHS’s bathroom issues, to which the district responded that bathrooms at IHS in the G and H buildings will be fully renovated in the spring of 2022. The representatives further discussed adding RFID tags to student IDs similar to what teachers at IHS already possess, which would allow them to enter and exit the school building more easily, especially after school hours for clubs and other events. To this, the BoE responded that current student IDs have the capabilities to unlock doors at IHS if activated, although further consideration of possible security issues involved with issuing students keys to the building is necessary. The representatives to the BoE also requested that ICSD make clearer its language surrounding mental health days and excused absences on their website, which the BoE will work to fix.
Budget and voting meetings of the BoE are open to the public, and those who wish to attend should arrive at the Board building around 7pm, as the Board will likely be in executive session until that time. Additional information including the BoE’s agenda, times of meetings, etc. can be found on the ICSD homepage.