New health insurance provider approved for WCPS; superintendent reviews safety actions

The Warren County School Board during its Wednesday, June 1 meeting unanimously approved a new health insurance provider for employees of Warren County Public Schools (WCPS), and the superintendent highlighted how the division continuously works to mitigate any incident that could jeopardize the safety of WCPS students, staff, and employees.

School Board Chair Kirsten Pence, Board Vice-Chair Ralph Rinaldi, and board members Antoinette Funk, Andrea Lo, and Melanie Salins approved a health insurance provider switch from Aetna back to Anthem The Local Choice (TLC). As of September 30, the WCPS and Aetna health insurance contract will be terminated, with the new WCPS Anthem TLC contract becoming effective on October 1 for a term of 12 months.

Ed White (left) of McGriff Insurance Services and WCPS Director of Personnel Shane Goodwin (right) make recommendations to the School Board on switching WCPS health insurance providers.

Ed White, senior vice president at McGriff Insurance Services in Winchester, Va., the health insurance agent for WCPS, reminded School Board members that due to a contract impasse in 2020,
WCPS chose to move from Anthem TLC to a contract with Aetna effective February 1, 2021, that was guaranteed for 20 months. The Aetna contract, which ends on September 30, will have saved WCPS a total of $1.28 million over the previous contract with Anthem TLC, White said.

Now, though, Aetna has indicated to WCPS that because medical/dental/vision claims are not running well, the school division could expect a possible large renewal increase in October, said White.

With that in mind, White said WCPS once again decided to solicit quotes through an RFP for the upcoming year hoping to keep the current benefit structure intact. In addition to the Aetna renewal rates, four other health insurers provided quotes: Anthem Direct, Cigna, United Healthcare, and TLC (with Anthem and Delta administering). The quotes ranged in cost from a high with Aetna of 34 percent to a low with TLC of 6.2 percent.

“All of the quotes are close, but The Local Choice is the most competitive,” said White, who noted that the combined savings from making the move to Aetna and back to TLC will have saved WCPS and its employees almost $1.7 million over the 32 months.

Equally important is that WCPS employees will be held harmless under the new contract, said WCPS Personnel Director Shane Goodwin, explaining that their current health insurance rates will not change when the provider switch is completed.

WCPS Superintendent Christopher Ballenger said that the increased premium costs in health insurance will be covered by growth in the division’s health savings account, which is expected to total almost $1 million by the fall.

During Ballenger’s report to the School Board on Wednesday, the superintendent and Warren County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Cindy Burke (above) gave a joint presentation highlighting the safety efforts of their partnership, which is designed to protect and mitigate threats to those working and learning in WCPS.

With the recent massacre last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — where a lone gunman killed 19 students and two teachers and injured others — being top of mind, Ballenger said he wanted to take time to discuss what WCPS is doing to secure the safety of its facilities.

WCPS has a crisis management plan that gets developed and reviewed with input from the Front Royal Police Department, the County Sheriff’s Office, fire and rescue, school administrators, and the local health department, among others. “There are a lot of entities involved in developing the plan,” he said, noting that the next meeting to review the plan for the upcoming school year is July 20.

“There are so many things we do when it comes to making sure our facilities are secure and a lot of that falls on the Warren County Sheriff’s Office,” Ballenger added.

For instance, Sgt. Burke directs the division’s School Resource Officers (SROs). “To be a School Resource Officer it takes a lot,” she told board members. “Not your normal Warren County Sheriff’s deputy can step into school resource. You have to have a love for kids.”

Burke and the SROs handle daily safety audits at each school in Warren County. Such audits, Burke said, include checking to make sure that windows, doors, and entry/exit points are secure.

“We’re constantly searching to make sure that there’s no way no one can get in,” she said.

SROs also check the outdoor areas around schools, as well as their camera systems, and each SRO also is issued a school radio to remain in constant contact with school administrators, she said.

“We stay pretty busy on a day-to-day basis checking the security of the schools,” said Burke.

At the same time, Ballenger said there are regular conversations between WCPS staff and SROs about what actions need to be taken to ensure WCPS facilities are safe.

One such conversation, for example, included discussions around the use of annual security grant monies, which help WCPS buy new or updated cameras and security systems, among other items.

Ballenger said that during one recent audit, he and the SRO decided that grant money might also go toward paying to expand the indoor intercom systems to the outside areas at schools. This would allow teachers and students to hear emergency announcements while they’re outdoors.

“We’re always improving and increasing the security of our buildings on a daily basis,” Ballenger said, pointing to lockdown drills that get conducted regularly, as well as updated policy for search and seizure (i.e. newly allowed canine searches), vehicle checks in the parking lots, and increased police presence during large events.

And prior to the incident in Texas, he said that training for school administrators had already been scheduled for this summer. Some of that training is going to include incident command, which is basically how to handle an emergency incident, as well as the roles and responsibilities of school personnel and first responders during an active shooter incident, for example. Specific SRO training also will be held, said Ballenger.

Additionally, Burke said there is an active shooter program held at the schools during the summertime or in the evenings twice a year “to keep our training fresh because we need to be ready.”

She added that there was “a huge shortage” this year with SROs. “But from my understanding, we will have a full house next year,” said Burke, “and there will be one SRO per school in the division.”

In other action

The School Board members at their June 1 meeting also unanimously approved:

1. A resolution authorizing the superintendent to reassign any teacher, assistant principal, or principal within the school division for the 2022-2023 school year.

2. A $55,430.59 contract award to OpenRDA for finance software support for the 2022-2023 fiscal year (FY); the contract is contingent upon the appropriation of sufficient funds once the FY 2023 budget is approved.

3. Title I, II, III, and IV grant applications, which now will be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education.

4. An $18,010 contract award to School Insites to build, migrate, and maintain a new website for WCPS. The cost of the project will be $18,010 for the 2022-2023 school year for setup, migration, and training, and then $12,960 for hosting, monitoring, and support every year thereafter, according to WCPS Technology Director Timothy Grant.

Click here to watch the School Board meeting in its entirety.  The School Board will hold its work session on Wednesday, June 15.