School District 43 managers and support staff retiring after Dec. 31 of this year will not receive health and dental benefits when they leave their jobs but the money saved will put School District 43 on a better financial footing.
Tuesday, the board of education was told it has a roughly $13-million surplus and will be able to fully pay down a $23-million liability for employee future benefits, which had been sitting on the district’s books for years.
“We’re putting our employees on equal footing,” SD43 secretary treasurer Chris Nicolls later told The Tri-City News.
He explained that teachers don’t get their health care, dental and MSP paid when they retire while the change doesn’t affect retirees who are already getting these benefits.
By axing the post-retirement benefits for next year’s CUPE and management retirees, the district was able to release $27 million to cover the remaining $23 million on the books, leaving $4 million for the surplus.
It means soon-to-be retiring workers who were expecting to get health, MSP and dental benefits from the post retirement group benefit plan will lose them while the district socks money away to cover future sick leave, vacation and pension for staff.
FUTURE NOT IN DOUBT
Nicolls said the large pool of funds required for employee future benefits wouldn’t be needed unless the district quit operating — a situation not likely to happen. But the funds needed to be accrued anyway to meet generally accepted accounting principals.
In all, the district expects to have about $8.5 million in surplus funds, Nicolls said, while about $3.2 million of the $13 million in extra cash will go towards employee future benefits again this year if it’s required.
Still, it could be November before the surplus is doled out, once the district has a clearer picture of its current needs.
Under policies approved by the board, about 40% is supposed to go towards one-time needs and the balance split over three years.
But trustees say they might want to re-think that plan given the size of the surplus.
“This is a larger surplus then we’re used to having,” Coquitlam Trustee Barb Hobson said, noting that services for students are needed especially in the area of mental health. “How can we best utilize it?”
MORE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Board chair Kerri Palmer Isaak agreed that there may be other uses for the funds. “The board is going to go back to the table,” said the Anmore/Belcarra trustee, although the district’s top administrators will get a first look and make recommendations.
In addition to the closing of the post-retirement group benefits that added $4.5 million to the surplus, international education contributed $4.8 million because of higher than expected enrolment (1,988 students compared to 1,750 the previous year), and $3.6 million was added because the district underspent its budget, largely because managers weren’t able to follow through on previously planned programs because they were working on implementing the restored collective agreement.
