Information garnered since the start of the district’s launch of a distance learning platform due to the new coronavirus will be critical for planning purposes as the school year progresses and into the fall, if distance learning is still required, according to school officials.

Superintendent of Schools Brian White opened up a joint Board of Education (BOE) special meeting on April 30 held by Google Meet with a status update to the boards of education in Chester, Deep River, Essex, and Region 4. White admitted there was a “learning curve” when it came to implementation of virtual classrooms.

“We recognize that for all of our best efforts, there is a learning curve associated with anything new even though I think we have done a very good job, we’re always looking for ways to improve,” said White.

In addition to soliciting feedback from parents, the district reached out by survey to teachers and intends to ask for feedback from students in grades 5 to 12 regarding e-learning.

“This data is going to be critical for us to make sure we are planning the next evolution of distance learning should the need arise to do so,” said White.

Assistant Superintendent Kristina Martineau provided an overview of the parameters of distance learning at each grade level. She also touched on the results of parent and teacher surveys on e-learning, of which there were 725 responses.

In looking at the data as a whole and by school, themes emerged in the parent survey that included things that the district “could do differently that would help them as parents and would help their students,” said Martineau.

Student workload, assessments, communication, and the social and emotional aspect of e-learning were all highlighted from the responses in both the parent and teacher surveys.

Moving forward, Martineau said the leadership team is making progress in delving into the data and will continue to consider ways to improve.

“As the situation evolves, if we don’t come back to school May 20, or if something happens and we’re not able to come back in the fall, we have a lot of information here from our parent community, and from our students as well, that will help us plan what our community needs,” she said.

At press time, the state was considering steps to slowly start re-opening the state in several phases as soon as May 20, though a complete return that would see students return to classes was considered unlikely.

Martineau also reported that the district is awaiting formal declarations from the state that would inform what happens with end-of-the school year activities and that planning teams are coming together “in case there are extended school closure scenarios.”

Health Insurance

At the April 30 meeting, the boards of education were updated on the health insurance fund by the district’s health care representative, Joe Spurgeon of West Hartford-based investment and insurance firm Lindberg & Ripple, Inc., who gave an update on claims, discussed the impact of COVID-19 on budgeting, and addressed coming changes to the district’s plan.

“In our discussion, with all of our public-sector self-funded clients, the vast majority are not making any adjustments to budget based on coronavirus; that would include the year-end projections for the current fiscal year as well as projections for 2021,” said Spurgeon. “Instead, most are choosing to absorb any coronavirus-related claims in their reserves.”

Spurgeon said work was being done in the R4 District to build up a reserve fund that has been historically underfunded. He also noted R4’s $150,000 stop-loss policy, which lowers liability against an uptick in coronavirus claims.

In terms of overall net claims to date, March was the third-highest month of the current fiscal year at $561,220. The plan is averaging $515,243 for claims per month with $4,637,184 in net claims to date.

This compares with $541,399 in claims per month with $6,496,787 in total net claims for the 2018–’19 fiscal year.

“I would expect to end at or near expected if the year were going to continue on like a normal year,” said Spurgeon. “Given that we expect April, May, and June to be low [for claims], I expect that we would actually end under [the amount] expected, again, unless we do incur coronavirus claims.”

The departure of Deep River and Essex municipal employees from the R4 plan, leaving it with about 290 participants, was also discussed at the meeting.

“At 290, I would say you are still in the range to be self-funded,” said Spurgeon. “One of my big criteria for being self-funded is the ability to hold reserves and deal with variability. I know that you are in the process of building reserves and that is something that we’ll want to talk about a little bit later and talk about in the future as well.”

Spurgeon noted that there could be other funding arrangements that “might be better suited based on your size and based on your current reserve levels.”

Another area that Spurgeon highlighted for the boards was the liability of R4 to pay for claims incurred by Deep River and Essex municipal employees prior to June 30, the date they leave the plan, even if the claim is paid in the next fiscal year.

Spurgeon ended his presentation by voicing continued support for the 18 percent increase for health insurance for fiscal year 2020–’21 called for in the current proposed budget and the goal of replenishing the reserve fund balance with a contribution from all participating entities.

He also discussed a request for proposals (RFP) process for healthcare carriers that would start in the fall of 2020. For self-funded groups, Spurgeon recommended looking closely at fees during the RFP process.

“For the most part, your claims are your claims. Changing carriers isn’t going to drastically increase the health of our population, so really what you are looking at is who is the best vendor for us from a cost perspective on fees and who would provide the best service levels, and to some degree, who do you want to be a long-term partner with?” said Spurgeon.

White said that an insurance committee had been formed prior to the COVID-19 outbreak to “better educate ourselves, the board, the community about the options that are out there, obviously with an eye to future teacher negotiations. So, we’re still committed to making that work a priority area for us whether it is later this spring, this summer or next fall.”