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A long-held health insurance benefit for Stafford school employees could disappear this month, and teachers are making sure it doesn't vanish quietly.
Waving protest signs stating "Health Proposals Equal Discrimination" and other slogans, about 20 teachers and school workers attended last night's School Board meeting to express their anger and angst over the proposed change.
At stake is a benefit employees have enjoyed for about 30 years: a 100 percent paid health-insurance premium for individual employees. For family, spouse or child coverage, staff members pay a steep monthly premium, often hundreds of dollars.
To balance the cost between employees with individual coverage and family coverage, an employee committee has recommended that the School Board change its district health-care plan.
Among the changes, employees with individual coverage who want to keep the same plan would have to pay $40 a month starting next year. However, employees could also switch to plans with different coverage and a lower monthly premium.
Losing the benefit has riled employees, who collectively spent an hour last night trying to persuade the School Board to vote against the change. Only two people spoke in support of the new plan.
Several teachers said the benefit should not be considered free. Instead, the paid premium is a hard-won benefit, they said.
"I always looked at it as something I worked very hard to earn," said Amy Mueller, a third-grade teacher at Rockhill Elementary.
Duane Graysay, a math teacher at Colonial Forge High School, used Census 2000 data to make a point. The median household income in Stafford County is $66,809, while starting salary for teachers hovers around $32,000.
School employees are having an increasingly tough time living on their salary in Stafford, Graysay said, and taking away a benefit will only increase their hardship.
Stafford Education Association President Karen Clore noted teachers and staff are publicly applauded for their hard work and success, but said words need to be backed up with financial considerations for teachers.
Earlier during the meeting, principals and assistant principals were awarded banners heralding their schools' status as fully accredited under the Virginia Standards of Learning. Banners were also awarded to schools that met the yearly progress benchmarks for the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"Praise is always nice, but as my mother always said, you can't take that to the bank," Clore told the School Board. "Please go to bat for your employees. Let the [county] supervisors know you expect adequate pay raises for your employees to cope with the high cost of living in this county."
Guidance counselor Robin DiPeppe asked the board to consider "grandfathering" current employees, requiring only new employees with individual coverage to pay a health-care premium.
Doug Schuch, assistant principal at Rodney Thompson Middle School, was one of two people who spoke in support of the changes. Schuch, a member of the employee committee that created the proposal, said it offers more options, a better dental plan, and financial relief for employees with families and children.
"I think when you look at it from a purely statistical standpoint, we need a change to the way things have been. That is clear, that is obvious and there is no disputing that," he said.
The School Board will vote on the changes Jan. 27.
Also at the meeting, Jean Murray, superintendent of Stafford County Public Schools, said teachers have been advised to consider handing out exam study guides and review sheets today, since snow is a possibility for tonight.
In other business, the School Board unanimously elected Patricia Healy as its chairwoman and Robert Belman as vice chairman.
To reach KELLY HANNON: 540/374-5436 khannon@freelancestar.com