Kennewick schools cut hours for substitutes, blaming new health insurance costs

Kennewick school officials are cutting hours for many substitute teachers as they try to avoid a big medical insurance bill.

Slashing hours for substitutes is a poor decision, said Kennewick Education Association President Rob Woodford.

“Given the shortage of certificated teachers in the substitute pool, the Richland and Pasco school districts will likely be pretty happy to pick up the slack caused by the Kennewick School District’s short-sighted policy,” he said.

Kennewick school officials say they sent out the notice last week because they are stuck paying for a state-mandated change in health insurance benefits.

“As a district we highly value our substitute teachers. Recent changes to school district administration of health insurance under the state-managed School Employee Benefit Board program have resulted in the district having to evaluate the scheduling and use of staff,” the district said in an official statement late Tuesday.

As a result, the district’s new policy that took effect on Sunday says substitute teachers must work at least two days a month but no more than eight days. It’s unclear how many substitute teachers are affected by the change.

The new policy doesn’t affect substitutes filling in on a long-term basis, such as for a teacher on maternity leave, according to the memo signed by Doug Christensen, assistant superintendent of human resources.

“We are aware that there will be scenarios where exceptions will need to be made,” he wrote. “The overall goal is to be more intentional in our planning and usage of substitute time.”

The district plans to monitor the impact on a month-to-month basis. Officials said they will adjust their strategy if they see problems in the quality of the education that students are receiving.

While they aren’t changing the $135 daily rate for a substitute teacher, they are trimming a half hour out of the amount of time the substitute can be in the classroom. And the district is eliminating half-day schedules and moving to an hourly system.

“Some jobs may now appear to be two hours or five hours or whatever time is needed,” the memo states. “You can continue to select these jobs as well, just as you have been selecting jobs currently.”

Health insurance changes

The change comes as the School Employees Benefit Board just wrapped up enrolling 145,000 people across the state into a new health insurance system.

That included substitute teachers and part-time employees who weren’t eligible for medical benefits before.

The move provides any employee who works more than 630 hours a year the same health insurance as their full-time counterparts receive. That averages to 17.5 hours a week during a 180-day school year.

“The state mandated the change, but has not provided additional funding for benefits for substitutes,” district officials said. “The district is exploring implementing potential different strategies to manage its substitute pool.”

The amount the district could be on the hook for ranges from $1,275 to $6,000 per employee per school year, depending on how many hours the employee works and whether the state contributes any money toward that employee’s benefits.

The Washington State Health Care Authority is managing the medical insurance changes and maintains it provided some additional money for the costs that weren’t covered.

The law that put this in place was passed in 2017, and they have worked for two years to reach this point, said Dave Iseminger, the employee and retirees benefits director.

“This is a historic moment to have the similar benefits for everyone across the state,” he said. “We’re really excited about getting to this point.”

Budget shortfall

The Kennewick district planned for some of the additional insurance costs by trimming positions and moving more people to working full time.

The district is trying to manage that cost against a backdrop of lower than expected enrollment and a decrease in the amount of property tax revenue it receives. The result was a projected $10 million deficit for the 2019-20 school year.

The district pulled $5 million from reserves and trimmed another $5 million from the budget to make up the expected shortfall.

But the district also agreed to larger than expected salary increases for teachers following a strike at the beginning of the school year. They had budgeted for nearly 3 percent raises and ended up agreeing to 6.9 to 7.7 percent increases.

Other school districts

Richland’s 500 substitute teachers and Pasco’s 250 substitutes don’t have to worry at the moment about their districts taking a similar step.

Pasco’s Director of Public Affairs Shane Edinger said the district is just starting to understand the impacts of the new requirements, and plans to continue studying the issue during the next few months as they put together the 2020-21 school year budget.

Richland’s Communication Director Ty Beaver said the district has no changes planned.