Tonight the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board will hold a budget work session.
Interim Superintendent Sean Dusek explained that the main focus will be on the rising cost of healthcare.
Dusek: “Right now we’re budgeting a 13% increase for FY16, for next year. We always continue to look for savings, there is no doubt about that, but we do have some Affordable Care Act issues that we are experiencing. One of them is called transitional reinsurance. That’s the bill that we get charged to help people as they move into health insurance programs through. In December we were charged by the federal government $200,000.”
There’s also the possibility that part-time or substitute teachers will also be offered district health insurance under the new national mandate.
Over the past five years, the District’s healthcare costs have risen from $15.4 million to $23.1, a 15% increase.
On the agenda for this evening’s regularly scheduled school board meeting is the approval of the structure of the KPBSD’s six year plan which organizes major maintenance and capital improvement projects.
The budget work session begins at 3:15 pm and the school board meeting discussion begins at 5:00 pm in the Borough Assembly Chambers in Soldotna.