Good afternoon. The time is now 4:00. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education special regular meeting for Monday, March 23rd, 2026 will please come to order. Will the clerk please call the role? Colleagues, Heidi Kedar >> here. >> Sheila Prior >> here. >> Alicia Little >> here. >> Paris Bendy >> here. >> Valentina Ays >> here. >> Dan Janestra. Dan Janestra is present. Milan Sahony >> present. >> Chase Anderson >> here. Thank you. We have a quorum. The first item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda items. Consent agenda items are considered routine in nature. and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so requests in which event the item will be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed. The consent agenda item is listed in the materials. The recommended action is to approve the agenda and the consent agenda item. Is there a motion to approve? >> I so move. >> Second. Moved and seconded. Will the clerk please take a roll call vote? Colleagues, Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Sheila Prior, >> yes. >> Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, Dan Janestra, votes yes. Alicia Little, >> yes. >> Milan Sahony, >> yes. We have an agenda. The first item on the agenda is the admin reports and recommendations. Benefits and wellness manager Joanne Fields will first recommend the authorization of health and hospitalization insurance rates 2026 2027. Joanne All right, members of the board, Superintendent Anderson, um thanks so much for allowing us to present uh tonight the recommendation for employee health and dental insurance plans plans rates for 2627. Um, I'm going to turn this actually over to Joanne, uh, who's our benefits expert to we prepared a few slides, um, to help summarize the recommendation for this evening. So, Joanne Fields, Seth, take it away. >> Thank you, board members and Chase for allowing me to come today to talk about our health and dental um, insurance plan rates for 2026 and 27. Um, I'll just kind of highlight some of the things on the slides, um, just to update for those of you who maybe have not heard a lot about our insurance plans, but the district is self-insured and we've been that way since 2000. So, what I always like to just remind people is the difference between being self-insured and self-funded. Um, what we do as an employer is we pay for the claims and any other plan costs and we carry the risk of claim fluctuation. and our stop loss is also purchased to help us cap that risk. If we have a great year and claims run better than expected, um we can use that funds to build up um offset future renewals. If we have a bad year, it goes the other way and we have to maybe take out of our um fund balance to help to kind of cover some of that and see if we can make the adjustment not as painful. Um that's all part of our reserves. So the plan which is us, we're the employer, we manage those reserves um as self-unded plans some benefits. We don't have to pay certain taxes and assessments and we also assume the risk between the normally anticipated claim level and stop loss coverage level. So it's been a really successful plan for us over these 25 years. Um, it works well because we're able to customize things for our members. Um, as well as figure out what kind of needs or healthcare needs, dive into analytics enough to see what kind of things are we spending our money on and what kind of needs our specific employees in our district have. Our health insurance or health benefits committee um has a great group of people. This is shows you on the screen just a breakdown of the membership. There's five from the teacher group and then one from every other group from custodial cafes oretta kids of principles admin professionals and paras unaffiliated and then also representation from um both Dave and Trevor and myself um on that committee. We also have a consultant that we work with who is phenomenal. Um, and he assists us through all of the process of our analytics, our RFPs, and just basically overall data of all of our plans. Um, any all of our insurance plans in total. So, how we got here today, um, and what we're looking at is the approval of both our health, um, insurance and our dental insurance rates. So, I just did a couple little highlights on the screen of what the committee went through this past year. Um, we always review the medical plan performance. We really focus on claims, what actual claims are, what future claims might be, um, using some of our best guesses of what from the data that we gather monthtomonth of where we are and versus past years. Um, we have a couple different uh, prescription plans uh, programs that we're working with. We started paid health a year ago. Paid health is a mandatory program that helps people with really highcost specialty meds. So in order for them to get that discount that they have and funding options that they have for that, they have to work with them, fill out an application. It's kind of like a grant, but it um if they sign up for it, they get great discounts on those heavily priced specialty meds. We also started last year, just this year now, this current year, implementing international sourcing for a lot of medications that we could get from international sources. Um, this is an optional program for members, but if they do choose to participate in this, we reach out or they're reached out to individually to tell them about these cost savings. And if they choose to do that, it is does save money in both their pocketbook and the plan by them choosing to go on that plan. But again, it's optional for them to do that if they want to. Other things our district uh committee did was a lot of research and a lot of discussion on do we raise our deductibles and our out-ofpocket maximums or do we look at just raising premiums or is there anything we can cut from our plan? Do we try to go down to smaller networks? Lots and lots of discussions on things that really what is the balance that keeps one our plan healthy fiscally and two that our employees feel like they have a good insurance plan. The reality of all of this is that the cost of medical care and pharmacy spend has inflated more than ever in the last past 18 months. It's atrocious and it's worldw United Stateswide I should say. Um that it's tough and we're looking at the majority of our surrounding districts looking at between 10 to 22% increase in general. Um, if you look at just even private corporations and businesses, looking at what they spend, we're looking at an average deductible and out-ofpocket max for families, $6,000 per person or $18,000 for a family for their out-of- pocket max. We're sitting at 27.50 individually or 80,000 whatever for the family, which is a lot for us, but yet we're still in the game. You know, we're still in the mix even though any increase is is really hard. And I think that was the hardest part with our members and our committee. And our committee meeting went longer than it usually had in in my 19 years. It was the longest committee meeting I think we've ever had because we really wanted to come to a great thoughtful fiscally responsible decision and it was tough. Um but we did come to a unanimous decision amongst all of us on what we thought um we could live with for the next year. This slide also just again kind of summarizes what I just said about how we do a deep review. We're mindful of our plan reserves. Uh we take great pride in the district having an average over the last 25 years. Um 6.13% is our average increase for health insurance over 25 years. I think that's phenomenal. Um again it talks about medical trend the 13 to 15 average increase and we're looking between 10 and 22 for all the other around us. Um and again with this knowledge we unanimously supported the 12.755 recommendation um for health insurance this year. And then just as a reminder from that that's the overall premium and then each group's contract determines the actual premium responsibility of employees. Um dental insurance I'll go to that even though we'll we'll talk about them a little separately. With our dental we do it through Delta Dental. Um, it's also based on claims experience, but it doesn't have as many variables and pieces as the medical has. We've maintained a 2% average over the past 24 25 years for a dental. And this year, with our current balance and our fund balance and the committee reviewing our claims, we decided that we did did not need to do an increase at all. So, we recommend a 0% increase for that plan. This year, our all of our other district insurance, life, long-term disability, vision, our voluntary products of sub life, and critical illness, hospital care, all of those rates are locked in until June of 2027. So, there's no changes um as far as premium or overall coverage to those plans as well. >> Thank you, Joanne. So, again, um I think I misspoke at the front of this. I said it's our pleasure. It's definitely not a pleasure, right, to bring this forward. Um it was a very very challenging you know discussion. I just really appreciate all of our our uh uh benefits committee members that that took you know it very seriously. We went around and around a number of times exploring all options and in the end we knew an increase was was inevitable. Um we have to cover costs. It's a responsible thing to do uh to ensure that that we can again have a a sustainable model moving forward. So, um, a really challenging conversation, but again, I do appreciate, uh, Joanne and and all her efforts and, um, our consultant George and and our benefits committee members, uh, who made that tough decision, um, which again, we all got to the same page by the end of the meeting. >> Okay. Thank you, Dave, and thank you, Joanne. So the recommended action is to approve the recommendation of the health benefits committee to accept the 12.5 or 12.75% renewal rate for the district's self-funded health insurance plans for the 2026 2027 plan year. Is there a motion? >> I move. >> I second. >> Moved and seconded. Is there a discussion? one question. So, uh we're not changing the benefits. We're keeping the network same. Everything stays the same, right? And then there is potentially new option for drugs or prescription medicine. Is that correct? >> There are absolutely no changes to any of our plans. The design itself like networks, deductibles, out of pockets, any of those all remaining the same. It's just the premium overall premium cost. Yep. And we did start both of those far the one pharmacy plan the um paid health is in its second year. The international funding we just started this year. So we constantly try to update and add to that as we go. We do carve out I should have said we also carve out our pharmacy plan from our healthcare plan. So that's with clear script. So that's a separate kind of contract because that's less expensive to do that than put it under the um United Healthcare bucket as well. >> Okay. So anyone who's undergoing any treatment anything there is no access to care none none of those issues they'll be able to continue with the same doctor same hospitals it's all correct yep all contracts at the moment remain in force of course they can always negotiate per clinic but yep and no absolutely no change of type of care level of care primary providers anything like that >> okay thank you >> thank you >> then oh your light was on sorry You have a question? >> No, I was going to do the roll call vote, but if we have other questions, Heidi, >> I just have a comment. This is definitely not a pleasure to have to vote on. Um, but I will say that this is not something that Weisetta is struggling with alone. I know that this is a statewide issue as well and is um being talked about quite a bit um in our session and our legislative session right now as well. Um, so I just really I appreciate the effort that the committee put in. Joanne, I know that you work your tail off year in and year out to make sure that our our district and our employees and our staff have the best and um and that you're balancing it with the fiscal responsibility that that is is expected. Um so it's tough, but I appreciate it and um and thank you again. >> Thank you. This this is definitely not my heart choice. This is my mind choice obviously to to do this kind of a change and I think for our members that was a struggle at our meeting too is that we really wanted every one of their voices to be heard and we can hear that we know that it's a struggle with anytime we deal with finances and what you take home from your pay. So it was a tough decision but again I feel the best one we can make. >> Okay. So no other questions. I have a question for you for either one of you. On the first slide, you talked about stop-loss coverage through insurance. In the 25 years of or so, how often have we had to do that? Do you reach out to insurance because we claimed more than we said we would? >> If you don't know, that's fine. I mean, it just >> we've had stop loss. We have we keep that all the time running stop loss. Do you mean have we made changes to it? Like we've we've changed the amount the aggreate amounts or >> no how many claims how many times >> oh how many people hit the uh high the max you mean the >> how many times have you gone to the insurance company and said we have spent more than we should have but insurance covers that right >> right so we call we call it kind of kind of a hard claimment list and so we manage once people hit the aggregate amount that we have set so when they hit that amount there's we've hit it every year there's always between typically I'd say 5 to 10. More recent years we probably had an increase of 12 to 15 which comparable to one of my neighboring districts who has almost 50 on their list. I feel pretty good about that. So, but every year we hit it and every year they look at it and we've only had to do one laser. I think I might have talked about that last year that we had one laser on our plan for somebody who really went way above our our cost. Um but that um individual is no longer on our plan. So, we no longer have that laser. Um, and that's the first time again we've had laser in the 19 years I've been here. Um, but again, we watch those every month to see. Um, and the insurance company, again, we are the plan. So, we're the ones that have to just negotiate that and go back to our stop-loss carrier and just make sure we're still solid. And >> so, that's on an individual basis. >> So, I'm just thinking about this like auto insurance, right? Or health, you know, other insurance that we have. If we homeowners insurance, if the roof gets blown away, they cover that. But guess what? they somehow want to recover that through an through an increasing premium. So is that something similar here? Are they >> so they would they would monitor how many individuals are going above that threshold? Um I would assume that's considered when they're looking at you know future future costs of the plan. >> Yep. So how often have you had to do that? Is there kind of some kind of a data that we have? So if I don't cla on my homeowner's insurance, if I don't claim a loss of a roof for 15 years, my premium typically stays almost, you know, the same, maybe a little bit increased. So is that something that we have seen also in our stop-loss coverage, meaning we have less risk, so the premium is increased at a lower level. Correct. >> Um I believe so. I I mean this is constantly looked at um with with the district with our um our um consultant that we utilize etc. We're we're constantly looking at the data and how that data might inform you know future projections. So the short answer is probably yes. There's a more technical answer in there somewhere that Joanne might be able to to provide or or uh George who we work with definitely, but I believe it's more of a uh you know a continuous look at assessing the where we're at within our plan um and what the projections are should we stay on that trajectory through the end of the year. I think that's the number one thing that they're looking at is where you're at currently and how do you think we'll finish the year? Um, and that's kind of the assessment that they utilize for the next year's premiums. >> So, thank you. So, I asked you guys a question this morning. You satisfied satisfactory answered it. So, I'm just going to make a quick comment here. So, this is a significant increase, right? And I do not take that lightly. However, based on the explanation provided, the current healthcare market and our district's self-insured claims experience, I appreciate the committee's work in reviewing options and bringing forward what appears to be the most fiscally responsible recommendation under the circumstances. For that reason, I will support the proposal. Thank you. All right. Right. I'm going to read the recommendation again. Is to approve the recommendation of the health benefits committee to accept the 12.75% rate renewal for the district self-funded health insurance plans for the 2026 2027 plan year. This is a roll call vote. >> Colleagues, Sheila Prior, >> yes. >> Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. Dan Janestra. Dan Janestra votes yes. Alicia Little, >> yes. >> Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Milan Sahonyi, >> yes. The motion passes. Thank you. >> Okay, I'm going to you you're done with the dental explanation, right? Or do you want to say something more about that or? >> Yeah, just to add this is a positive one that we get a 0%. So, it's much smaller and and we understand that, but we'll take we'll take it. Right. So, thank you so much and the recommendation is in front of you. >> Okay. >> I just wanted to say one more thing too because I didn't mention their names, but I do want to read the names of the committee members if we can just because I think they deserve a lot of recognition for this year especially. So I know they're on the um board sheets that you have, but from our WA and Nammen, Linda Langford, Samari Eugene, Cheryl Butler, and John Zetszman from our CL clerical group and Bullio from custodial, Ron Rogers from the principles, Ashley Paul, Weisetta Kids, Jessica Sorenson, Weisetta Cafe, Mara Stall, our unaffiliated group, Leslie Myron, and then of course Trevor um and Dave as well. So again, I'm very appreciative of their work and it was a tough again a tough year and they were showed up. they were dedicated. Um, they took the work back to their groups and asked questions. Um, and they also share the duty with me of, you know, getting this message out again to say why we had to do this and that we really were thoughtful about it. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. So, the recommended action for this one is to approve the recommendation that the district's self-insured dental plan rates for the 2026 2027 plan year remain unchanged reflecting a 0% overall increase. Is there a motion to approve? >> I so move. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Is there a discussion? >> All right. Looks like 0% is is acceptable. Okay. Um, so this is again a roll call vote. If you can please Dan. >> Colleagues, uh, Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, Danestra votes yes. Alicia Little, >> yes. >> Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Sheila Prior, >> yes. >> Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Milan Sahony, >> yes. The motion passes. Thank you, Dan. >> Thank you. And we do look forward to we're working on another new program. So we look forward to um bringing that to your attention in a future meeting as well of what we're looking to help us forecast this year. So thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you for all your work. Yeah. >> Okay. The second and final item on this afternoon's agenda is the approval of the superintendent contract. Following the review and negotiations, the superintendent contract committee is presenting a finalized employment agreement for Dr. Rob Virgin for consideration and approval by the full board. The committee consisting of Heidi Kedar, Valentina and myself work diligently to develop an agreement that is competitive, equitable, and fiscally responsible. In doing so, the committee reviewed regional market comparisons, considered the responsibilities of the position, and aligned the bo uh proposed terms with the board's goals for stable and effective district leadership. The committee believes the agreement reflects a thoughtful and balanced investment in the district's uh next superintendent, Dr. Rob Virgin, in the next superintendent, Dr. Virgin, has approved the contract as negotiated. The recommended action is to approve the superintendent employment agreement between the school board and Dr. Rob Virgin as presented and authorize the board chair and clerk to execute the agreement on behalf of the board. Is there a motion to approve? >> I so move. >> Second. >> Move and second there. Is there a discussion? I just wanted to take again time to thank you committee for all your hard work and again same with Dave. Um there have been countless hours uh that you guys have been working behind the scenes and um I'm not just speaking from the contract standpoint but even when I look back and look at the process that you all have gone through to go through that initial assessment bring us you know the next set of candidates for her for us to interview. So just wanted to again appreciate all your help and support and thank you. I think we as a board we have the right candidate moving forward. So obviously we are all excited and looking forward to work with uh Dr. Vjin but again just wanted to acknowledge your efforts as well. So thank you. Go ahead. Yes, I was in that committee. Although sometimes I had to go uh because the committee um took longer uh longer time when we had a meeting uh I had to go to uh work. Um I listened to proposals and to uh the numbers. I have to I I am struggling. I'm struggling with uh to be honest that we have Chief Anderson who had been working for 18 years and we paid him um less than we are offering right now. Uh but at the same time listening to that we would like uh we need to be um competitive on the market and to um be able to attract um professionals. I think that um hopefully Dr. I understand would appreciate that I'm mentioning because as I said I'm having a bit hard time cuz um obviously experience also brings um um I I personally feel like if for uh if you work uh for many years your pay should be adjusted but at the same time I hope that you also realize that um because of the budget cuts and all. I suspect uh I think at one of the year my understanding you yourself did not uh take the um you refuse from taking a race and based on that um we know what is the baseline being offered to Rob Virgin. Um there are going to be other benefits but as I said at the same time I after long thinking I decided I will go with what experts and what um our board members suggested. >> Thank you. Sheila go ahead Sheila. Um, yes. I would also like to thank the committee and all the time that you put into this and the thoughtfulness of it and also Dave Loots to thank him and Joanne who reviewed all of this to make sure we were um, you know, in alignment and making sure everything was not above board, but you know what it should be to to make sure we're following all the rules. Um I you know it's within the range that we advertised when we put the the position up. Um and you know it needed to be within that. Uh I appreciate that we stayed you know I know that we had um to be financially responsible like we had a I know that it was discussed that there was a a kind of a limit that we didn't want to go over and you guys did an amazing job you know keeping it within that range. So, thank you. Um, I believe that, yeah, it's it's appropriate for the job at hand that we're expecting the new superintendent to do. Um, we have high expectations and we also, you know, I I have high hopes and I think it's going to be good and I yeah, I will be supporting it. So, I have to say this was a journey. That was a lot. It was a lot of a journey to hire a new superintendent and to come to agreement on a contract. And I will say um that as we negotiated the contract with uh Dr. Virgin, you don't get to know somebody really well until you go through a negotiation for a contract. And I am very excited that Dr. Virgin is the person that we all came to agreement on and and chose. Um we're going to have great things happen in this district over the coming years and I'm really really excited to get this transition going. So thank you Dr. Anderson for all you've done over the past 18 years to build us up to this point and we are going to be standing on your shoulders and moving forward in in goodness. So thank you. Sorry. Thank you. Um yes, I I totally agree Heidi. Um it was a lot of lot of number of hours both in the committee itself during the negotiations and one thing I personally again my opinion recognized or realized is is Dr. Virgin is a very humble person. Okay. very very humble person in the way he negotiated and he realized that he had to look at his contract in comparison to others as well. I'm not going to name who he mentioned or what he said but my I came out of that meet those that meeting you know three-hour meeting realizing that he is definitely an honest and a very humble person. So I also want to reflect briefly on the process the committee of the board consisting of Heidi, Valentina and me used in arriving at this point. The committee was guided by working with Dr. Virgin in a way that is fair, fiscally responsible and aligned with community expectations. In developing this contract, we reviewed comparable superintendent contracts and compensation in neighboring and similar districts to ensure that our offer reflected fair market value. We wanted to be competitive enough to attract and retain highquality leadership while also remaining thoughtful stewards of public resources. I believe the result is an agreement that is balanced, reasonable, and fiscally responsible. It reflects confidence in Dr. Virgin respects the standards of the market and honors our responsibility to the community. I also want to note that the discussions throughout this process were professional, respectful, and collaborative. We appreciate Dr. Virgin's thoughtful engagement as we worked toward terms that serve both the district and its superintendent well. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not share the committee's appreciation for the support provided by Dave Lutz, Joanne Fields, and Trevor Peterson and the district's legal council. So, I thank you everyone for the participation. I'm pleased to support this agreement and recommend its approval. Are there any other comments or thoughts? Yes, J. I know I don't get a vote on this in my ex official board member status, but I just wanted to say thank you for all the great comments tonight in support of Rob Virgin as the next superintendent for the school district. Um, I believe you've made an outstanding choice and I just wanted the board and community to know that uh I have already been uh in communication and conversation with Rob and we plan on having a number of meetings moving forward and I'm committed to doing everything I can to help ensure a smooth transition and getting Rob off to a great start. And um I know I don't get to cast a vote, but I just wanted to at least be able to say I fully support your selection and will do everything I can to help ensure a smooth transition. And I wanted our community to know that as well. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. So again, the recommended action is to approve the superintendent employment agreement between the school board and Dr. Rob Virgin as presented and authorize the board chair and clerk to execute the agreement on behalf of the board. This is a roll call vote. >> Colleagues, Heidi Kedar, >> an emphatic yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, Danestra votes yes. Alicia Little, >> yes. >> Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Shayla Prior, >> yes. >> Milan Sahony, >> yes. The motion passes. Congratulations Dr. Virgil and thank you Dan. This concludes the Visetta public schools special regular board meeting and the school board work session will begin at in about let's say 7 minutes at 4:40. The time is now 4:33. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> I so move. >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Nay. The motion carries. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education special regular meeting for Monday, March 23rd, 2026 is adjourned.