New Teachers’ Agreement Reduces Health Insurance Costs

Article 5 shows big savings in Year One

February 16, 2016 • Saved under Town Meeting
By Robin Heins, Andover School District

The Andover School Board and Andover Education Association (the teachers) worked tirelessly for months to reach an agreement that satisfied both sides and would be agreeable to the Andover Budget Committee and to Andover voters.

Voters are used to seeing a warrant article for a collective bargaining agreement that has large amounts of money being raised and appropriated in both years of the agreement.

However, this year the School Board and teachers took a different approach to settling Year One. In an attempt to keep costs down overall, the two groups looked at changing health insurance plans. The proposed new agreement has the teachers changing from an HMO to a consumer-driven high-deductible plan. The cost savings in Year One are significant.

The anticipated savings in health insurance allowed the Board to offer a higher pay increase to teachers than they normally would. In doing so, the Board was able to absorb most of the entire Year One increase in the insurance savings and is only asking to raise $3,564 in the first year of this agreement.

This change in health care insurance should also help mitigate typical annual increases in premiums seen with HMO plans and bring future savings to the school district. Health insurance costs may still increase each year, but not at the same rate.

Additionally, the Board was able to increase Step One (starting pay) for Andover teachers. This pay grade has not been changed in at least five years, and that has had a negative impact on the district’s ability to fill vacancies in teaching positions.

We hope the public will support this proposed agreement, as the Board believes it to be a fair and well thought-out agreement.

Article 5 on the warrant at School District Meeting on Tuesday, March 1, covers the cost items included in the collective bargaining agreement: $3,564 in the first year, $34,471 in the second year. Article 6 is on the warrant as a safeguard. If Article 5 fails, then the district has the option of calling a special School District Meeting to address Article 5 cost items only.