LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD

Ruston, Louisiana

 

REGULAR SESSION

Tuesday, December 5, 2000   6:00 p.m.

 

The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, December 5, 2000 at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish School Board, 410 South Farmerville Street, Ruston, Louisiana.  Members present were Mr. David Wright, Mr. Billy Abrahm,  Mr. Otha Anders, Dr. Marty Beasley, Ms. Lisa Best, Mr. Curtis Dowling, Ms. Mattie Harrison, Mr. Jim Kessler, Mr. George Mack, Mr. Joe Mitcham, Mr. Rob Shadoin (arrived after the meeting began), and Ms. Jo Tatum.

 

No board member was absent.

 

President Wright called the meeting to order and the invocation was given by Mr. Anders.  Mr. Wright led the Board in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag and welcomed special guests, members of the official staff, and media. 

 

Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Mr. Mitcham, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the agenda with an addendum.

 

Upon a motion by Dr. Beasley, seconded by Ms. Harrison, the Board unanimously voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on November 14, 2000 as distributed.

 

Mr. Shadoin arrived at the meeting.

 

For the fourth time since 1992, the Board recognized Ruston High School coach, Dave Anderson, for preparing the boys 2000 cross country champions.  Dr. Charles Scriber, principal, said athletics is one of the areas in which the school excels and it is due to practice, hard work, and excellent coaching.  He introduced the coach to the Board who thanked the board for the opportunity to work with the young men.  He indicated that the boys had an average GPA of 3.0-3.5, a perfect score in the district meet, and were undefeated this year.  He introduced the twelve members of the team to that Board.  Superintendent Gerald Cobb expressed his and the Board's pleasure and presented a plaque to the coach and young men.  Mr. Wright also congratulated the boys and their parents for their encouragement.

 

Finance Committee Chairman, Mr. Mitcham, reported that the Committee met the previous day, December 4, 2000 at 4:00 p.m. to consider group health insurance plan and premium changes to become effective January 1, 2001.  He turned the floor over to Juanita Duke, Business Manager, and Dr. Cobb.  Dr. Cobb quickly summarized the need to remedy the self-insured health plan financial deficit situation and discussed increased premiums to be paid by employees if the Board approves the administration's recommendation.  The last premium  increase was in 1995 and was 8%.  Since 1996 the Board has been unilaterally covering the needed premium increases at an accumulated cost of $1.3 million.  Hopes that health care cost would stabilize were unfounded and the Board cannot continue to cover the growing premium deficit.  He proposed that the Board continue to pay approximately 60% of the needed increase and the employees will contribute the remaining 40%. 

 

Ms. Duke shared suggested premium changes.  Single coverage for active employees has been provided at no cost but would begin to cost $20 per month.  An employee or retiree with one dependent would pay an additional $25 and active or retired employees with two or more dependents would pay increased premiums of $35 per month.  Monthly increases for retirees with single coverage who qualify for Medicare would be $15 and without Medicare would be $20.  These increased employees' premiums would bring in an additional $331,140.  The Board's portion of premiums would add another $212,308 to the insurance fund.

 

Dr. Cobb introduced Denny Bass, CEO of Benesys, Inc., who was in attendance and said that in addition to rising costs for all categories of health care and prescription drugs nationally, Lincoln Parish employees' coverage has some unique problems.  Over half of the people covered are over the age of fifty and are requiring more care.  The current plan history shows a per employee per month cost of $324 this year while five years ago that was much less. He asked if there were questions regarding the premium increases Ms. Duke mentioned. 

 

Following a few, Ms. Duke briefly reviewed two health insurance plan options: Option 1, aggregate coverage with no plan design changes, requires increased funding of $2,095,796; Option 2, no aggregate coverage with eight plan design changes, requires an increase of $725,471.  The eight plan design changes included in Option 2, which represent a 10% claims cost savings of $448,979, are: 

 

 

 

If plan recommendations are approved, total maximum annual out-of-pocket expense in PPO for a single plan member in the area, excluding prescriptions, would equal $1,150 which is an increase of $400.  With the same specifications, a family's maximum annual out-of-pocket would be $3,450 or $1,200 more.  To complete the 16.97% approximate increase in total premiums needed to generate $725,470 to fully fund the Option 2 plan for the 2001 year would require $182,022 from the Lincoln Parish School Board fund balance reserves.  Ms. Duke stressed that this is generally not an acceptable means for payment of recurring costs, but in order to alleviate the burden of more drastic cuts in benefits and higher increases in employee premiums, it seems to be the prudent thing to do for the 2001 plan year. 

 

Superintendent Cobb noted that when the parish went to a Self-Funded Insurance Program more than ten years ago it was to keep premiums lower than that of the State and to receive better and more prompt service than that which the State provides.  He thinks that looking at a chart of comparisons between the two proves that these goals are still being accomplished and with the proposed premium and plan changes and the thoughtful cooperation of all of the employees that the Board can continue to do just that.  The only other option in his opinion is to return to the State Employees Group Benefits Program with its higher premiums and delayed services as shown in an attached newspaper article.

 

Mr. Mitcham said the Finance Committee unanimously voted to recommend the administration's proposed changes to the full Board.  The Board unanimously voted by roll call to approve the implementation of funding Option 2 to support the self-insured health plan for the 2001 plan year through increased employee and employer premiums and plan design changes as described in the attachments and finally that the fund balance in General Funds be reserved in an amount of $182,022 for the 2001 plan year only for the purpose of funding health claims on an as needed basis, noting that further funding and plan design changes would more than likely be necessary in subsequent plan years to ensure adequate funding of the self-insured plan. 

 

The Board served as a Committee of the Whole and the following Personnel Committee agenda items were discussed:

 

            Assistant Superintendent, Ronnie Suggs, presented both agenda items:

 

                        1.    Leave for the second semester of 2000-2001 school year effective January 16, 2001:

 

                                    Laurie Ann Scott, teacher at Glen View, requesting a sabbatical.

 

                                    Jennifer Green, French teacher at Simsboro, requesting a leave without pay.

 

                        2.         Employment of the following:

 

                                    Sharon Petch, English teacher at Choudrant High effective November 27, 2000, replacing Keith Beard who resigned.

 

                                    Jane Atchison, French teacher at Simsboro effective November 16, 2000, replacing Jennifer Green who requested extended sick leave.

 

                                    Birdel Barker, in a new itinerant home school interventionist position, effective December 1, 2000.

 

Upon a motion by Dr. Beasley, seconded by Mr. Mack, the Board unanimously voted to approve the recommendations of the administration.

 

Juanita Duke, reported that November 2000 sales tax collections were up 10.79% compared to the same month last year because some vendors did not make their payments last month and an increase in car sales.  Sales tax collections equal 42.82% of 99-00 year-to-date totals at this time and 5% over year-to-date collections this month last year.  She told the Board that $304,849 was collected in the '67 and '79 fund and $182,909 in the '93.  Collections in the new 2000 sales tax fund were $182,909 for the month which brought the balance to $971,068.  This was used to pay December 1 sales tax supplement checks.  Audit recoveries were $5,570 for the month of November.

 

A financial report for the month ending September 30, 2000 was also presented by Ms. Duke.  The general fund balance has a hefty balance, $3,136,000, which has been building over the summer.  Nine and ten month salaries are now being paid.  The balance will drop substantially until January. The 5 mill maintenance fund includes a $60,000 transfer earlier this year.  She noted that '67, '79' and '93 sales tax balances usually increase during the year but these monies are now being placed in employees' monthly checks instead of twice a year supplements.  District maintenance & operation funds have been depleted and utilities will be paid out of the '93 ad valorem tax fund until after the first of the year collections. 

 

After calling attention to the fund balances on the October 31, 2000 financial statement, Ms. Duke noted that the report was not much different than the September report.  Another operating transfer of $60,000 was made to the 5 mill fund, as expected.  Sales tax funds were also comparable to the previous month. 

 

Following continued negotiations with the City of Ruston concerning a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with them pertaining to the Greenwood School, Superintendent Cobb reported that the City would rather purchase the school than lease-purchase it as previously discussed and approved by the Board.  The terms would be the same except the City would own the building and pay the purchase price of $60,000 to the Board over a period of twenty years.  He requested approval of the revised Cooperative Endeavor Agreement.

 

Following questions, upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Mr. Kessler, the Board unanimously voted by a show of hands to approve the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the City of Ruston regarding the purchase of the Greenwood School and authorize President David Wright to execute the necessary paperwork in order for the City of Ruston to purchase the school.

 

Mary Anne Lewis, Executive Director of the North Central Louisiana Arts Council (NCLAC), and the NCLAC have recently submitted an application for a grant entitled Meet the Composer/New Residencies Grant as reported by Ron Suggs.  The grant would permit a very famous composer to come to Ruston and work with students from all parish high schools on several aspects of composing music and other areas of fine arts.  He also would be working in conjunction with the LA Tech School of Performing Arts and the NCLAC on various community projects.  The grant would run for a period of three years and total cost to the Board would be approximately $7,000.  He provided additional background information on the composer and his past activities, including work last year at Ruston High School, and asked the Board to approve the project and to allow the Superintendent to sign the necessary paperwork if Lincoln parish is chosen.  Notification of the site selected to receive the grant should be received by mid January.

 

Upon a motion by Dr. Beasley, seconded by Ms. Tatum, the Board unanimously voted to approve the project as described and allow the Superintendent to sign a collaborative agreement with NCLAC, the LA Tech School for the Performing Arts, and the Meet the Composer/New Residencies Grant Application Committee if Lincoln parish is chosen as the preferred site.

 

The final matter of New Business for the Board to consider was a resolution proposed by the Superintendent opposing the redirection by the Legislature of Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funds.  He warned that the proposal is being considered by some in order to provide for teacher pay raises because of the failure of constitutional amendments two and three in the last election and the pressing need to raise the salaries to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) average.  This would mean an approximate $3,000 per teacher pay raise from the parish's existing MFP funds.  The change would deplete Lincoln Parish's operational funding by approximately $1.5 million which would be catastrophic to the system, according to Dr. Cobb.  He asked the Board to approve the resolution.

 

Upon a motion by Ms. Tatum, seconded by Mr. Abrahm, the Board unanimously and fervently approved the following:

 

                                                                 RESOLUTION

RESOLVED:  That the Lincoln Parish School Board hereby urgently requests the Louisiana Legislature to preserve the MFP as structured by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and to refrain from redirecting funds within the MFP to fund teacher salary increases.

 

RESOLVED:  That the Lincoln Parish School Board does hereby implore Governor Foster and the Louisiana Legislature to actively pursue all funding possibilities and provide the additional funds needed to raise teacher salaries to the SREB average.

 

RESOLVED:  That a copy of this resolution be sent to Governor M. J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., the members of the Louisiana Legislature, and the members of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.  

 

Following brief comments and questions, the meeting was adjourned at 7:36 p.m.

__________________________________          _______________________________

Gerald W. Cobb, Secretary                                     David Wright, President