Question:
To my understanding the district doesn’t hire anymore contract part-time employees. My question is……why can’t part time employees that work 30 hours that are not on a contract get insurance through the district? If we are paying for it on our own why don’t you offer that for those that work 30 hours?
Response:
Let’s talk a minute about contract employment. It would be optimal if all employment with the school district came with health insurance, retirement benefits, life insurance, vacation and so on – regardless of the number of hours required per week, month or year and regardless of the licensure or skill level requirements of a given position. This scenario is absolutely what we wish we could provide. In point of fact, there are countries which provide universal health care and similar benefits to all. There are diferences of opinion on this, but the reality is that we do not live in one of those countries.
Although we recognize that all positions have critical responsibilities (or they would have been eliminated by now), contract positions have time commitments and tend to have license, training or supervisory requirements that hourly positions do not. Benefits offered by the district are then associated with those commitments and requirements.
On the business side, the question is specific to health insurance. Granite School District contributes a very large portion of the insurance premium for insurance eligible employees. For example, a full-time single employee pays $21.90 per month for medical, while GSD pays $416.40 per month for that employee. The cost is considerably higher when insurance is extended to spouses and other dependents – “paying for” family insurance is more than $12,000 per year with the district paying for more than more than 90% of the cost and the employee contribution less than 10%. Consequently, the health insurance benefit has long been associated with, and reserved for, contracts.
Having said all this, hourly employment is a great opportunity for an employee to get a good look at the district and for the district to get a good look at the prospective contract employee. Hourly employees who are interested in a long-term contract relationship with the district are encouraged to take advantage of training and similar opportunities available through the district to position themselves with the expertise and experience to compete successfully for contracts.