Nicolet School Board Discusses Benefit Modifications

The Nicolet School District, Board of Education held a special public meeting on Wednesday evening to deliberate and solicit public opinion on a big issue that is draining tax dollars away from the classroom.

Other Post Employment Benefits, or OPEB, is a benefit offered to all teachers, administrators, and many support staff.  For teachers, it currently works like this. If a teacher has completed 15 years of service in the Nicolet District, the teacher can retire at the age of 55 and the district will continue to pay the identical health insurance benefit for seven years.

So, let's do the math. The current annual cost for health insurance is $20,000. If seven teachers retired in each of the last seven years (49 retirees), which means the district is diverting nearly $1 million each year to former teachers and away from the classroom. That's just the teachers. Remember, administrative and support staff also receive this benefit, albeit with slight modifications.

OPEB has been part of the collective bargaining tool chest for decades. That changed last year when the State of Wisconsin implemented Act 10. School districts across the state are now modifying the way OPEB is administered.

The Nicolet School District is seeking consensus on modifications to the benefit package. The following options are under consideration by the board:  a) increase the required years of service to 18, b) increase the qualifying age to 57, and, c) reduce the years of eligibility to five. OPEB would still exist in the district, but the modifications would reduce the overall cost of OPEB by approximately 5 to 15 percent annually.

The changes that will be made based on this philosophical discussion that will continue next week, boil down to the teacher/taxpayer social contract. The teacher is employed to educate students and in return, the taxpayer pays a salary. Over the decades, the teacher has negotiated additional benefits, such as health insurance, sick days, vacation days, pensions, in-service days, OPEB, early retirement, tax sheltered annuities, and others.

The decision for the Nicolet School District is; can the taxpayer modify the benefits, or even eliminate them, without breaching the social contract? What is your view? The Nicolet Board of Education tabled the issue until the next regularly scheduled Board meeting on May 14. It will again be open to the public and should be an interesting meeting.

Shorewood Citizens for Responsible Government also welcomes public comment on this and other issues, through our website and on Facebook.