The Garden City Telegram
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GCCC looks at health insurance options
Published 9/11/2008 in News : GCCC
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
There still are too many unknowns to determine whether Garden City Community College President Carol Ballantyne will recommend the Board of Trustees re-open negotiations with the college faculty to discuss health insurance, she said after a board meeting Wednesday night.
The board met with Ballantyne in closed session to discuss the issue, but no action was taken when the board returned to open session.
Ballantyne had provided the board on Wednesday with a letter from Kay Davis, president of the GCCC Higher Education Association faculty union, requesting re-opening of talks on its three-year contract, which is intended to last through the end of the current academic year. The board is free to grant or deny the request.
Davis wrote that "it is the intent of the faculty to negotiate an increase in the amount contributed by the Board of Trustees toward health insurance premiums to reflect the same dollar amount as staff."
In the summer's budgeting process, the board voted to cover a full, single health insurance policy for each of about 125 staff members. Staff are the college employees who don't teach, while the 70 or so who do are considered faculty.
Full policies cost $429.09 to $449.39 per month per staff member, depending on the options chosen, but Dee Wigner, dean of administrative services, said GCCC has heard from its provider, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, that the premiums will go up by about 26 percent at the start of October.
Faculty, meanwhile, have been continuing under the contract that went into effect in the fall of 2006, with talks over a new three-year contract set to start in the spring. Under their current agreement, the college pays $301 per month toward each faculty member's health insurance, according to outgoing Human Resources Director Cathy McKinley.
Ballantyne said she had anticipated that faculty would request in a new round of negotiations health insurance benefits comparable to staff's, starting in the 2009-2010 academic year.
It's hard to say, however, whether the college can afford to do that in the current budget year, especially since GCCC is considering switching to another insurance provider soon, she said.
She reported to the board that Maverick Consulting, Wichita, is reviewing all aspects of GCCC's insurance plans to determine whether it would be best to re-bid the insurance, move toward a self-insured program or change the benefits college employees receive.
It will be too soon to make a change before Blue Cross and Blue Shield rates rise in October, but Ballantyne said she hopes the college's insurance will be less expensive by January.
"It's getting way out of control," she said. "We have people who can't afford it."
Ballantyne said she hopes a GCCC insurance committee will receive more information from Maverick within a couple weeks so it can start making decisions.
GCCC is paying Maverick on an hourly rate, with total payment to be capped at $7,200, Wigner said.
In other business, the board voted 6-0 to approve:
n Purchase of annual maintenance and support for ImageNow software from Perceptive Software, Kansas City, Mo., for $22,020.
n Hiring of Whitney Corley as an assistant women's basketball coach, Mark Leslie as an assistant men's basketball coach, Nora Salazar as a Perkins transition adviser and Cindy VenJohn as an agri-business instructor.
n Resignation of Roy Guitron, custodian; Melinda Harrington, financial aid adviser; Brady Jasper, assistant women's basketball coach; Vic Trilli, athletic director; and Amanda Worthington, agri-business instructor.
n Transfer of Cathy McKinley from human resource director to dean of continuing education and community service; and Steven Thompson from instructor to business and information systems director.
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