LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
Ruston, Louisiana
REGULAR SESSION
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 6:00 p.m.
The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, August 4, 2015, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish School Board Office, 410 South Farmerville Street, Ruston, Louisiana. Members present were Ms. Debbie Abrahm, Mr. Otha Anders, Mr. Michael Barmore, Ms. Lisa Best, Mr. Curtis Dowling, Mr. David Ferguson, Mr. Danny Hancock, Ms. Lynda Henderson, Mr. George Mack, Jr., Mr. Joe Mitcham, and Ms. Susan Wiley.
Mr. Trott Hunt was absent.
President Anders called the meeting to order, and Mr. Mack gave the invocation. Ms. Henderson led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, and Mr. Anders welcomed guests to the meeting.
Upon a motion by Ms. Best seconded by Mr. Barmore, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the agenda as printed.
Upon a motion by Mr. Hancock, seconded by Ms. Henderson, the Board unanimously voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on July 7, 2015, as submitted.
A Finance Committee was held at 5:30 prior to the 6:00 start of the Regular Session. Chairman, Lynda Henderson, asked George Murphy, Business Manager, to introduce Mr. David Charpentier, Vice President with Brown and Brown. Mr. Murphy reiterated that he had been reporting deficits in the health care fund for several months. To keep the self-funded health plan solvent and available to Lincoln Parish School Board employees, the administration turned to Mr. Charpentier who has been working with them since 2001 to make changes as needed. He said Mr. Charpentier had analyzed the data from the plan that included medical and prescription drugs. Mr. Charpentier had just presented his recommendations to the Finance Committee and was asked to summarize what was discussed during that meeting.
Mr. Charpentier said the good news was that the medical portion of the health plan was running very well. When benchmarked against peers, those costs were actually running below what they should be. One hundred percent of the problem was with the prescription plan; it was 50% ahead of the benchmark of peers as far as total cost or cost per employee. He shared the following information regarding prescription costs for calendar year 2014:
1. 28 members had on going prescriptions that cost $1,000 or more per month;
2. 5 members had on going prescriptions that cost $3,000 or more per month;
3. 58 members had prescription drug costs of over $10,000 last year;
4. 7 members had prescription drug costs that ran over $50,000 last year and some of them were much more than $50,000; and
5. 1l members used a compounding drug at the end of last year and through the spring of 2015 at a cost of $12,000 per month.
Mr. Charpentier shared other statistics and gave reasons he believes prescription costs are increasing. Bottom line, he noted, there has to be a change in how one thinks about prescription benefits and prescription costs. Following are his recommendations for 2016:
1. Increase the annual prescription deductible to $250 per member, applicable to all tiers of prescriptions (this is currently $50);
2. Change the member responsibility for Specialty Drugs to 25% of the cost, maximum of $250 per prescription (from $100 copay);
3. Change the non-formulary co-pay to $60 (from $50);
4. Increase the individual Maximum In-Network out-of-pocket to $3,500 (all inclusive);
5. Increase the employee plus one In-Network maximum out-of-pocket to $7,000 (from $4,000); and
6. Increase the family In-Network maximum out-of-pocket to $10,500 (from $6,000).
Mr. Charpentier communicated that by making the above-mentioned changes, approximately $1.3 million should be realized. In addition, the ratio of 75%/25% cost share by the members should be returned instead of about 84%/16% now. Prescription costs make up about 30% now, are headed to 50%, and should be no more than 20%. Affordable Care Act grandfathering would be lost, and this would cause the Preventative Benefit to become unlimited, and at no cost to the members for the approximately 85 required services. The proposed changes should more than recoup the costs that would be incurred by the loss of grandfathering.
He also illustrated how the higher out-of-pocket would work. Instead of only the 20% co-insurance a member pays after the deductible is met going toward the out-of-pocket, with the proposed changes all of the following would apply to out-of-pocket limit: 20% co-insurance, medical deductible, drug deductible, drug co-payments, emergency room co-payments, and MRI and CT scan co-payments.
Mr.Charpentier had a caveat to the recommendations due to the RDS reimbursement that Lincoln Parish gets on Retiree Prescription Claims. The benefits have to be “attested to” by an actuary as being at least as generous as Medicare each year. There has not been time to have the changes reviewed by the actuary; however, he does have a plan in place if the changes are not confirmed.
Ramifications for each member will vary; some will benefit from the changes, some will have additional costs, but on average he opined it will be an approximate break even. Unfortunately he noted that this is not a one-time adjustment. Because the cost of medical care continues to increase, new high cost drugs come to market, and distortions occur in the marketplace similar to the $12,000 prescription mentioned above, the plan would have to be continually monitored with course adjustments made as needed.
Finance Committee Chairman Henderson shared the committee’s recommendation to approve the recommended changes to the school system’s health plan.
Upon a motion by Ms. Best, seconded by Mr. Dowling, the Board unanimously voted to accept the Finance Committee’s recommendation and approve the proposed health and prescription plan changes to become effective January 1, 2016, as follows:
1. Increase the annual prescription deductible to $250 per member, applicable to all tiers of prescriptions (from $50);
2. Change the member responsibility for Specialty Drugs to 25% of the cost, maximum of $250 per prescription (from $100 copay);
3. Change the non-formulary co-pay to $60 (from $50);
4. Increase the individual Maximum In-Network out-of-pocket to $3,500 (all inclusive); and
5. Increase the employee plus one In-Network maximum out-of-pocket to $7,000 (from $4,000); and
6. Increase the family In-Network maximum out-of-pocket to $10,500 (from $6,000).
Many personnel changes were shared by Dr. Doris Lewis, Human Resources Director. They were:
1. Retirement of Lisa Lagattuta, social studies teacher at Ruston Junior High, effective July 13, 2015.
2. Resignation of the following :
Stefanie Parker, teacher at Choudrant Elementary, effective July 13, 2015;
Amber DeRoche, teacher at Cypress Springs, effective June 29, 2015;
Rachel Carson, teacher at Cypress Springs, effective July 1, 2015;
Meredith Gore, teacher at Cypress Springs, effective July 20, 2015;
Greg Garner, itinerate adaptive P.E., effective July 8, 2015;
Patricia Saber, math at I. A. Lewis, effective July 19, 2015;
Aquanetta Archangel, math at I. A. Lewis, effective July 21, 2015;
Elizabeth Waldron, ELA at Simsboro High, effective July 17, 2015;
Becky Lowe, G/T art at Ruston High, effective July 14, 2015;
Dr. Byron Miller, assistant principal at Ruston High, effective July 21, 2015; and
Krista Moffett, ELA at Ruston Junior High, effective July 20, 2015.
3. Points of Reference/Transfers of the following effective August 17, 2015, unless noted otherwise:
Tina Goff from Cypress Springs to special education at Choudrant Elementary replacing Kristy Baker who transferred to regular education;
Kristy Baker from special education to regular education at Choudrant replacing Stephanie Parker who resigned;
Jay Seal from I. A. Lewis to P.E. at Cypress Springs replacing Michael Giesse who transferred;
Michael Giesse from Cypress Springs to itinerant adaptive P.E. replacing Greg Garner who resigned;
Mark Milstead from Ruston High to auxiliary coordinator of maintenance effective August 1, 2015, replacing J. P. Dunbar who retired;
Danyelle O’Neal from Simsboro High to counselor at Ruston Junior High effective August 3, 2015, replacing Susan Kelley who retired; and
Leigh Ann Williams from Hillcrest to student services coordinator at Simsboro Elementary replacing Danyelle O’Neal who transferred.
4. Employment of the following, effective August 17, 2015, unless otherwise noted:
Chris Jones as assistant principal at Choudrant High effective July 20, 2015, replacing Tony Antley who promoted;
Mindy Beach as special education at Cypress Springs replacing Tina Goff who transferred;
Cecelia Isaac as teacher at Cypress Springs replacing Meredith Gore who resigned;
Laura Baze as teacher at Cypress Springs replacing Rachel Carson who resigned;
Robbie Williams as special education at Cypress Springs replacing Amy Dakin who transferred to special services coordinator;
Sarah Hudson as teacher at Cypress Springs replacing Amber DeRoche who resigned;
Ashton Sistrunk as teacher at Glen View replacing Beth Hollis who was granted leave without pay;
Jasmine Lavigne as teacher at Hillcrest replacing Leigh Ann Williams who transferred;
Jared Little as P.E./coach at I. A. Lewis effective July 20, 2015, replacing Jay Seal who transferred;
Denise Juluke in a new counselor position at I. A. Lewis effective August 3, 2015;
Sean Case as math at I. A. Lewis replacing Patricia Saber who resigned;
Angelica Sanders as math at I. A. Lewis replacing Aquanetta Archangel who resigned;
Britton Oubre as assistant principal at Ruston High effective July 20, 2015, replacing Billy Laird who was deceased;
Dusty Hampton as math at Ruston High replacing Brenda Lofton who retired;
Lisa Wilmore as assistant principal at Ruston High effective July 20, 2015, replacing Dr. Byron Miller who resigned;
Amanda Graves as ELA at Ruston Junior High replacing Jathan Maricelli who resigned;
Allison Searcy as ELA at Ruston Junior High replacing Krista Moffett who resigned;
Jennifer Breeding as teacher at Simsboro Elementary replacing Haley McHale who transferred to librarian;
Anna Baines as math at Simsboro High replacing Terry Antee who resigned;
Cecilia Acosta as social studies at Simsboro High replacing Brandi Tyler who transferred; and
Keith Gray as math at Simsboro High replacing Brooke Bishop who transferred.
5. Leave without pay requests effective August 17, 2015, and for the 15-16 school year of the following:
Penny Warner, business at Choudrant High; and
Beth Hollis, teacher at Glen View.
6. Point of Reference/Transfer of Jerry Cole from food service maintenance to custodian at Choudrant High effective July 20, 2015, replacing Mance Allman who transferred.
7. Resignation of Elbert Lynn Woods as maintenance worker at the maintenance facility effective July 10, 2015.
8. Employment of the following effective July 1, 2015:
Millicente Braggs as custodian at the central office replacing Glenda Jones who transferred; and
Roger Atkins as custodian at Glen View replacing Donald Mayfield who retired.
9. Points of Reference/Transfers of the following effective August 13, 2015:
Jo Ann Castine from Hillcrest to technician at Dubach replacing Kay Houck who retired;
Tameka Patton from Simsboro High to technician at Grambling High replacing Jackie Burks who transferred;
T. J. Hargrove from Glen View to technician at Hillcrest replacing Jo Ann Castine who transferred; and
Mary Jo Torbor from Ruston High to technician at Simsboro replacing Marie Coon who retired.
10. Employment of the following effective August 13, 2015:
Patricia Underwood as technician at Ruston High replacing Mary Jo Torbor who transferred; and
Angela Hassen as technician at Ruston High replacing Lisa Roton who resigned.
Mr. Murphy said the administration had been working for the last several months with Doris Marzett, Child Nutrition Program Supervisor, to create a plan to help the Child Nutrition Fund break even. After assessing all of the schools’ needs, Ms. Marzett developed a five year Capital Needs Assessment. As time passes, if the fund doesn’t break even transfers from the General Fund may be necessary as they have been with the 5 mill maintenance fund. He commented that a $650,000 transfer hurts and doesn’t help achieve the administration’s goal of a $15,000,000 Unassigned Fund balance for the General Fund. Mr. Murphy asked Ms. Marzett to share her plan.
Ms. Marzett estimated it would cost slightly more than $400,000 over the next five years to bring in new school food service equipment for schools that had old equipment that was broken and could not be repaired or simply needed to be updated. She prioritized needs by school, and said the bulk of the monies would be spent in the next three years. Combination ovens, refrigerators (walk in and reach in), freezers (walk in and reach in) and computers/programs were included in the plan. Cooking equipment would be replaced as quickly as possible, but refrigeration would be prolonged as long as possible.
In his construction update, James Payton, New Construction Coordinator, said he would rate the progress since his last report as moderate in general with some progress being made at all schools. Contractors are really concerned about getting everything done that needs to be done prior to the start of school.
The security project, being handled by Triad, has a target date of August 14 to have most of the electronic equipment on line and usable. The elementary schools’ aluminum store-front doors and vestibules are in and being sorted by school. Most of that work will be done at night and on the weekends and should not interrupt school. One of the big gates is up in the back of Ruston High, but two more are needing to be put up.
The hot, dry weather has caused things to progress better on the Choudrant High track project. The concession/restroom building’s slab had been poured, and materials are on site. Construction on the building should start tomorrow. The foreman estimated another week and one-half of hauling and smoothing dirt for the track.
The teacher parking lot on the south side of Ruston Elementary was complete but still needs stripes. They are roofing four classrooms and will proceed as the contractor removes the old roof from other classrooms. Inside the school, fourteen classroom’s new cabinets are 5” too short. The contractor is building a shelf to pick them up and put them in.
Massive drainage work at I. A. Lewis was complete. The next big item is to lay the parent pick up driveway. Setting forms for that was hopefully done earlier in the day. Unfortunately he noted that school food service 18-wheel-trucks were not going to be able to drive on it, but they would come up with an alternative plan to get food to the cafeteria.
Work was progressing in the gym and in the library with regards to the air conditioner and carpet at Hillcrest Elementary. The slab has been poured for the five-classroom-addition in the back of the building. They are awaiting the delivery of materials and supplies. The hallways are finished.
All of the remaining work on the new classrooms and library at Glen View is interior. They have electricity, and the air conditioning is on. They are painting and putting in ceiling tile and lights. Flooring remains to be done but the contractor says he’ll be finished by September 1, 2015.
George Murphy delivered the sales tax collection report for the period ending July 31, 2015. Sales tax collections for the first month of the 15-16 fiscal year were more than doubled the same month last year with $2,725,232 being collected. He said when collections really increased last November, the administration recommended watching those closely until May when a 15th check was given to employees in the amount of $3,000 for certificated and $1,500 to support. He believes it would be premature to discuss the same after only one month of sales tax collections, but noted some of the money is being used to pay the employer’s portion of premiums for the health care plan. That will allow the General Fund’s Unassigned Fund balance to increase, which will help with Standard and Poor’s. He hopes the tremendous increase in sales tax collections because of oil and gas exploration continue, and if so, he’ll come back later in the year with a recommendation. Recoveries through audits were $19,681 which was down 24% compared to the same month last year. In the ’67/’79 sales tax fund $1,238,743 was collected, and $1,486,488 was collected in the ’93/’00 sales tax fund.
As noted earlier in the meeting, the current financial condition of the health plan caused changes to have to be made even though there was an increase of $225,434 over expenditures for the month ending June 30, 2015. According to Mr. Murphy, year-to-date through six months, the fund was down $795,049; however it was down over a million at the end of May. Although he predicts the health care fund will show a deficit through December 2015, he is hopeful that the changes to be implemented in January 2016 will make a difference and cause the fund to at least break even.
Grambling High Foundation President, Gordan Ford, was next on the agenda with an update on the Grambling lab schools becoming a charter school. He communicated that the Foundation would be operating the schools for Grambling State University for the 2015-2016 school year, and the school would become a charter school for k-12 grades for the 2016-2017 year. According to him, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) had conditionally approved that plan, and it is on BESE’s agenda for their next meeting. Mr. Ford said they plan to partner with the Lincoln Parish School Board and ask for services on a fee basis.
Forethought had recommended two policy revisions that Mary Null asked board members to review until the next meeting. They were: Complaints and Grievances – GAE and Student Records – JR.
Construction of a French drain on the northwest section of the track to take care of an active spring that had surfaced comprised change order #3 on the Choudrant High School track project. Approval of the same would add $2,375.67 reported James Payton. He was also requesting the addition of eighty-six adverse weathers days on the contract time.
Engineer with Riley Company, Paul Riley, said the great rains had stopped but a spring began bubbling about two weeks ago. It was his opinion that a French drain should be installed and tied to the catch basin. Although one hundred twenty-six rain days had been noted, some bad weather days were built into the contract.
Upon a motion by Mr. Hancock, seconded by Ms. Best the Board unanimously voted to approve change order #3 on the Choudrant High School track project increasing the contract price by $2,375.67 for the drain and adding eight-six adverse weather days to the contract time.
George Murphy called attention to the revised budget for 2014-2015 in order to adjust the original budget to the actual amounts. When the budget was prepared in 2014, he expected to end the year with a $1.3 million loss because money was being expended on various projects in all of the school districts. Next year that won’t be budgeted in an attempt to return the Unassigned Fund balance to $15,000,000. The school system actually ended the year with a surplus of $153,000. An anticipated loss of 1.7 million in the General Fund also didn’t materialize. Thanks to increased sales tax collections, only a $230,000 loss was incurred. Some expenditures were moved out of the General Fund as far as the employer premium amounts in the Health Care Fund and into Sales Tax Funds. Fifteenth checks were also paid to board-hired employees. Overall, he noted, it was a great year. In the 2015-2016 beginning budget the administration plans to budget the same sales tax collections as last year in order to be conservative. Mr. Murphy asked for approval of the 2014-2015 revised budget.
After one question, upon a motion by Ms. Henderson, seconded by Mr. Barmore, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the revised 2014-2015 budget.
Two qualified bidders submitted bids for the second round of bids on the elementary schools’ playground project. They were opened on July 30, 2015, and Traxler Construction Company, Inc. was determined to have submitted the lowest bid. James Payton asked for acceptance of their bid.
Upon a motion by Mr. Hancock, seconded by Mr. Dowling, the Board unanimously voted to accept the bid of $539,000 submitted by Traxler Construction Company, Inc., and award them as contractor for the elementary playground project.
Board members were reminded by George Murphy that each fall schools are allocated monies from the 1979 sales tax fund to provide supplements for additional library supplies ($2.50), classroom supplies ($3.75), office supplies and equipment repair/purchase ($4.00), expenses for student services ($3.75), debate and speech ($2.00), band allotment ($3.50 at I. A. Lewis, $3.85 at junior high, and $10.00 at high school), and kindergarten ($120.00 per teacher). These funds are distributed on a per pupil basis and sent directly to the schools to be disbursed by the principal. He recommended sending the per pupil allotments shown above which were the same amounts as last year. If approved, the total amount to be disbursed to the schools would be $112,663.50.
Upon a motion by Mr. Barmore, seconded by Mr. Mitcham, the Board unanimously voted to approve the fall allocations of school instructional supply money as outlined on the schedule disseminated by Mr. Murphy.
In a Report of the Superintendent, Mr. Milstead:
1. Called attention to a school calendar and an updated organizational charts with positions and names that had been included in packets because of numerous recent personnel changes.
2. Announced the Back-to-School meeting in Ruston High School’s auditorium is scheduled for Monday, August 17, at 8:00 a.m. He invited and encouraged board members to attend.
3. Noted that the district’s ACT results, as reported in the paper, placed Lincoln Parish number one in north Louisiana and number eight in the entire state with an ACT average of 20.3. Considering that every 11th and many 12th grade students are taking the test, including special education students, that is staggering. He is very proud, but his goal is to reach 21.
4. Communicated that this coming year the School Performance Scores (SPS) have to do with calculations in grades 3-8 one way and grades 9-12 another way. Those calculations are based on standardized testing. The State Department of Education had mandated that the same social studies scores would be used two years in a row. He called Superintendent John White and expressed his disagreement with that concept because that would be taking one set of students and comparing them to themselves the next year based on the same data. They explained because social studies was being field tested, they didn’t want to use that test, so instead they’re using the same data for two years. Also, if a district had more than 10% of their students opt out of the test, they would not be assigned an SPS. Again, he expressed to Superintendent White his displeasure with that because as a parish the administration works very hard to minimize the opt outs, and in fact, had fewer than 50 for the entire district. Mr. White said they were rethinking that, and it was possible that changes would be made. Mr. Milstead asked for a one year moratorium on School Performance Scores for all schools because of the uncertainty with how they will be calculated next year. He surmised that out of the 12 to 13 years they have awarded SPSs, they have probably changed the way they are calculated 10-11 times, and then they try to compare one school to another and one year to another without it being mathematically sound. He did note that he is proud of the very rapid response from John White to his emails or phone calls. Mr. Milstead closed with the admonition to keep in mind when the figures come out in December how they were calculated different from last year and how they will be calculated next year.
There being no further business, upon a motion by Ms. Best the meeting adjourned at 7:08 p.m.
_____________________________ ______________________________
Mike Milstead, Secretary Otha L. Anders, President