WISE — The Wise County School Board on Tuesday adopted a budget for next fiscal year reflecting about $3.5 million less in funding than the current year.
The board will meet again Thursday to choose a health insurance provider for employees.
The budget of $60,415,000 for next fiscal year is a drop from the current fiscal year’s $63,943,300, reflecting a decrease in state funds of $1,396,900, a cut of $2,233,700 in federal funds, and $700,000 less from the county.
State funds are projected to be $30,965,000 next fiscal year compared to $32,361,900 this year. The decrease is partially due to the continuing downward spiral in student attendance that figures prominently in state funding. Basic state aid is expected to drop $1,047,600 next fiscal year.
The federal budget sequester gets the lion’s share of the blame for a decrease next fiscal year from just over $8 million this fiscal year to just over $5.77 million next year.
All county departments are being cut 6 percent, including funding for schools, largely due to plummeting coal severance tax revenues. The total county share for next year is under $13.2 million compared to nearly $13.9 million this year.
The board recessed until 4 p.m. Thursday in order to enable the administration to continue health insurance negotiations and give board members more time to consider the options.
Schools Superintendent Jeff Perry revealed on Tuesday the school division will keep a fully insured program as opposed to the self-insured options the administration had been considering, at least for another year.
Ways to save on soaring health insurance costs were the greatest factor in budget shortfall considerations up until Tuesday.
Perry said cost differentials between the fully and self-funded options proved out not to be worth going the self insured route this year.
The board went into a closed session of almost two hours to consider insurance options before going into a public hearing on and deliberations over the budget. During his public presentation before the board on Tuesday, Perry said 19 national insurers were approached and 11 provided quotes to the school division.
Of those, the administration zeroed in on three fully insured programs before settling on two that are now under the board’s review.
No matter the options, higher out of pocket costs to employees have been a consideration to help balance the budget from the start. The programs now under consideration will have the deductible set at $500 for single coverage or $1,000 for family coverage, compared to the current $250.
The health insurance programs now being considered will be 80/20 proposals rather than the current 90/10, although the maximum an employee must pay out of pocket will be $2,500 for single coverage and $5,000 for family coverage.
The current payroll deduction of $93 for single coverage will go up to about $135 a month, to about $272 for dual coverage and about $409 for family coverage.