As the temperature outside the high school auditorium fell from a weekend record-setting heat wave, hundreds of angry teachers and other school employees raised the temperature inside with angry shouts at members of the Bayonne school board, who they blame for violating the terms of their union contract.
In its move to keep next year’s proposed $122 million 2009-2010 school budget from increasing taxes, the Bayonne Board of Education voted on April 29 to lay off 20 employees, eliminated full-day pre-k classes at Vroom School, postponed the expanding of gifted and talented classes at P.S. No. 14, and changed the health benefits plan for most of its 1,100 employees.
Alan D’Angelo, president of the Bayonne Teachers’ Association, said the health cuts are a violation of the teachers’ contracts and that the matter will be taken to court.
Board President Will Lawson, however, said the board does not see the change of insurance coverage as a violation of the contract, but said the school district will meet with union officials to work out the differences between the former plan and the new plan before the insurance changes start on July 1.
D’Angelo, who held a union rally while school board members went into closed session, suggested that teachers might suddenly suffer their own version of the “Blue Flu,” or a work slowdown, in protest.
While the board voted to lay off 20 employees, including two full-time tenured social workers, the central issue involved a change of health benefits.
Health benefits change
At the prompting of Mayor Mark Smith, who chairs Board of School Estimate, the school board voted to switch from the current self-insured health care program to a state program that would save the school district more than $8 million in this year’s budget.
In Bayonne, where the public does not get a direct vote on the budget, a Board of School Estimate – made up of the mayor, two City Council members, the board president and another school board member – makes the final decision on how much the budget will be. This body can recommend areas of the budget where cuts can be made. But the final decision is made by the Board of Education, which must somehow cut the budget to match the amount approved by the Board of School Estimate.
The city of Bayonne switched its uniformed services to the state plan in 1999, after the city briefly explored self-insurance. Currently, the school district covers itself in a modified plan that is administered by Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The new plan would still be administered by Horizon, but the overall cost to the district would drop.
School Board President Will Lawson said the school board had considered other options, but decided to go with Mayor Smith’s recommendation after the district was hit with an even higher potential increase in rates than originally estimated.
School Business Administrator Cliff Doll said the original increase was estimated at about $3 million to $4 million, but the most recent estimate showed an increase in premiums of $8.3 million, not including prescription or dental.
This year, the district pays slightly over $12 million to provide health coverage, Doll said. But because Bayonne Medical Center – to which many of the school employees go for medical services – no longer has a contract with any provider, insurance underwriters have boosted the school district’s premium to slightly over $20 million.
Lawson said by changing the plans to the state program, the overall increase in premiums would be spread out among public employees throughout the state.
Currently, the district pays about $11,000 per employee to provide health coverage. The increase would cost the district $17,108.
By going to the state plan, the district would continue to pay just over $11,000 per person.
The school board also moved to change the prescription plan from the current system to the state plan, reducing the per person cost from the current $2,994 to $1,649. Despite a 3.9 percent increase for dental coverage, the school district is not changing carriers and will pay $782 for each employee.
Doll said in this way, the district will pay about $13,500 to fully cover each employee rather than the expected jump to $20,884 for medical, prescription and drug plans.
“We used to have no limit, but now the limit is $1 million.” – Alan D’Angelo
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D’Angelo, however, said the state plan provided inferior coverage as compared with the exiting plan.
“We used to have no limit, but now the limit is $1 million,” he said, noting that this may seem like a lot, but could be wiped out by a catastrophic illness such as cancer.
Currently, employees pay prescription co-pays of $2, $6 and $10, he said. The new co-pay will be $25.
The new plan changes the cost of maintenance drugs from the current $2 for a 90-day supply to $25. But D’Angelo said that some of the drugs considered maintenance for ongoing conditions may not be considered maintenance drugs under the new plan. So employees could end up paying $25 for each 30-day supply.
“So that is $75 per month instead of $2,” he said.
Under the existing plan, employees can turn in their receipt for co-pays to the medical insurance carrier and would receive 80 percent of the cost back, but not under the new plan.
Under the current plan, an employee’s out-of-pocket expenses are capped at about $800.
D’Angelo said that if the problem is Bayonne Medical Center, then the school board should focus on that issue and require employees who go to BMC to be responsible for the difference in the larger bill. This would encourage employees to seek medical treatment at hospitals that do have contracts with the current health care provider.
“That would solve their problem,” he said.
In his comments to the employees, D’Angelo seemed to endorse a possible work slow down.
“You know how you always tell them you give them 120 percent,” he said. “I think you should give them about 50 percent. You won’t realize the devastation until it happens to you. This is terrible. We’re really getting it – as bad as I can imagine.”
D’Angelo told board members that this is a violation of the contract terms, and if the school board can violate the contract now, how can the union feel confident in future negotiations or that the school board won’t violate other aspects of the contract?
“If you want to make a change, then do it a year from now when we’re negotiating a new contract,” he said.
In a letter issued to the Board of Education, Mayor Smith admitted that the new plan had points that were better than the old plan and some not as good, and encouraged the board to set up a fund to reimburse employees the difference in costs they incur.
Doll said the new budget sets aside $2.5 million for this purpose.