Grand Jury Reports on Newbury Schools
An California grand jury released a report stating that 17 of 22 school districts in Ventura County, including the Conejo Valley unified School District in Newbury Park, have unfunded liabilities as part of their healthcare plan.
“The grand jury concluded that the substantial unfunded retiree healthcare benefit liabilities, combined with the funding reductions for the state of California, and the steady decline in enrollment over the past five years create a serious financial dilemma for the county school districts and should no longer be ignored,” the report said.
The grand jury concluded its investigation with eight recommendations, ranging from prefunding benefit plans to calling upon all 22 districts to act as one bargaining unit when selecting health plans for employees.
New Conejo Valley superintendent Jeff Baarstad agreed with most of the jury’s findings.
“I think we’re in an okay place,” said Baarstad, who nonetheless agreed with the grand jury’s recommendation about becoming more proactive in funding the district’s plan.
“I think in the future, whenever funding gets restored (by the state), that we need to start moving toward pre-funding some of that,” he said at a recent school board meeting.
Baarstad claims that unfunded liabilities in this district are not as bad as those faced by neighboring schools.
“Our liability is among the smallest in the county when it’s compared to the size of our budget and the number of employees that we have,” Baarstad said.
However, the neighboring Simi Valley Unified School District has a smaller amount of liability. Additionally, the district and the Simi Educations Association, the local teachers union, have agreed that employees with start paying a small amount of healthcare premiums, which were previously free. Also, the district will no longer pay for spouses who can get medical insurance from their employer for less than $250 a month.
Discuss this in the Newbury Park Forum.
