Edgar schools won’t offer student accident insurance

Edgar School District won’t provide student accident insurance this school year so it can cut costs to balance the budget.

The Edgar Board of Education voted during Monday’s annual meeting for the school district to discontinue offering secondary accident insurance option for parents of students, in order to save the $12,551 the school district spent last school year.

Edgar schools superintendent Cari Guden said it was nice the school district offered student accident insurance last school year, but it was necessary for the school district to make some budget cuts to avoid a budget deficit this school year.

“I surveyed our neighboring school districts and not many of them offer this additional student insurance,” she said.

Scott Winch, Stratford schools superintendent, said Tuesday the school district doesn’t provide student accident insurance.

Rick Parks, Marathon schools superintendent, also said on Tuesday the school district has provided catastrophic insurance coverage with families having the option to provide individual coverages. He said the Marathon Board of Education would decide at its July regular monthly board meeting whether to renew the catastrophic insurance coverage for another year after it expires on July 31.

Guden said student accident insurance had provided parents with a secondary form of coverage, in order to help them pay for bills their primary health insurance plan didn’t cover for the treatment of their children after they were injured at school. She said the WIAA does offer concussion insurance to student athletes.

Edgar School Board president Bill Dittman noted the school district has its own liability insurance to cover itself if a student gets injured on school property.

In other news:

_ The Edgar School Board adopted the estimated amount of taxes assessed locally for education of $2,556,487 for the 2020-21 school year. The estimate tax rate is $10.72 per $1,000 of property owned in the school district.

_ Dr. Guden said right now she has budgeted for teachers to receive salary increases in the 2020-21 school year, so the Edgar School District can maintain its staff instead of losing them to larger school districts that pay better.

_ School board members voted to keep their salaries the same this school year as they were last year for their attendance at committee and regular board meetings.

_ Guden said school district administration would develop a concrete plan on returning students to school this fall based on how well things go during summer school during the next few weeks.

She wished the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction had provided guidelines for school districts based on their county’s current level of risk for coronavirus cases like the WIAA did.

Dr. Guden said Tom McCarty, Edgar middle and high school principal, receives e-mail at 2 p.m. each Wednesday from the Marathon County Health Department telling school districts the level of risk for coronavirus cases in the county. Last week, Marathon County was at a high risk for coronavirus cases based on the number of people testing positive.

Dittman reviewed the DPI’s guidelines for various plans school districts could follow on bringing students safely back to school this fall, such as some students attending school in person a few days and others on the other days each week.

“We are going to have students attend school five days a week because we don’t have as densely packed school buildings as some other school districts do,” he said.

Dr. Guden needs to speak to Mary Kay Adamski from Fischer Transportation in Fenwood to determine the busing schedule for school this fall. She said right now only 12 students would be allowed on each bus to keep them safe from getting the coronavirus. Dr. Guden said since families are allowed to remain together, possibly pods of students from each family could sit together on buses to allow more children to ride each bus.

_ Edgar School District will keep its student lunch prices the same this school year as they were last year, because Dr. Guden said the budget food service account contains a healthy amount of money.

_ School board members accepted the resignation of Mike Mroczenski as Edgar Middle School science teacher and they approved hiring Jamie Koehler as the middle school counselor/ assessment coordinator.

_ Dr. Guden reported the Edgar High School fitness center will reopen to the community this Monday, July 6, with limited sessions between 4-6 a.m. and 2-7 p.m. Monday thru Friday. The fitness center won’t be open at all on Saturdays and Sundays.

She will have posted coronavirus health guidelines in the fitness center for attendees to read. Guden said community members would need to use sanitizing wipes to clean the fitness center equipment before and after they use it. The bathroom with the shower will be closed to the public but the other bathroom will be open for use.

Dr. Guden said a maximum capacity of 25 people would be allowed to use the fitness center at one time. The morning custodians will sanitize and disinfect the fitness center equipment at 7 a.m. and she is having custodians begin working at night again to sanitize and disinfect the fitness center equipment after the public leaves for the night.

_ The Edgar School Board will hold its next annual meeting on June 28, 2021. The budget hearing will again begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by the annual meeting at 7 p.m.