School board set to discuss health insurance

Fulton School District school board officials will hold a meeting to discuss employee health insurance today.

"This committee focuses on health benefits," Superintendent Jacque Cowherd said. "Health benefits are handled by each individual district."

According to Cowherd, the healthcare benefits offered by the district are all in line with federal policy.

"It's pretty good," he said. "It's comparable and follows all the federal requirements and has unlimited on all components of the Federal Healthcare Act."

The district also completely covers healthcare for employees, while offering an opportunity to add on dependents for a price, Cowherd added.

"We cover all employees who work over 30 hours," he said. "All employees are paid for and have the ability to cover dependents. We offer the same benefits as many companies."

Health benefits are paid by local, state or federal tax revenue, depending on the classification of the employee.

"They're part of the employee's compensation paid by our local budget," he said.

School board member Kristi Donohue said today's meeting will be an information-gathering meeting.

"I don't know that we're making any changes at this time," she said. "We're going over the current benefits."

Donohue said representatives will be present from each building in the
district. The purpose of the meeting, she added, is not to make any changes to the healthcare plan but to hear the opinions of those present.

"We wouldn't make any decisions until we brought them to the board as an option," she said.

The committee will also have the opportunity to discuss a new mobile app containing employee's healthcare information, Cowherd said.

"They have a mobile app," he said. "You can tell what your explanation of benefits is, what you owe the doctor, that kind of thing. It's pretty cool."

The meeting will be at 4 p.m. today at the Fulton Board of Education Office, 2 Hornet Drive. It is open to the public.