By Lee Reinsch
Correspondent

DE PERE – Medical expenses from an accident last year involving a substitute teacher who fell on West De Pere School District grounds played a role in a rise in insurance costs for the district this year.

The cost of insurance for the district was among the matters touched on by the West De Pere School Board at its most recent meeting Dec. 19.

Rates for property, liability, boiler, auto, crime and worker’s compensation insurance went up by more than $28,000 this year, from $172,469 last year to $201,082, said West De Pere School District Business Manager Kevin Hanson.

“Some $24,000 of that (increase) is due to a worker’s compensation claim,” Hanson said.

The substitute teacher tripped over a threshold transition section and broke a femur, said Hanson.

The bill for the teacher’s medical expenses totaled around $132,000, he said.

The state of Wisconsin sets those rates, Hanson said, adding that the district’s modifier went up from .71 to .87, with the industry average as 1.0.

The modifier is based on a three-year rolling average of local claims compared to industry-wide standards, and it’s how the state sets its worker’s comp rates, said Hanson.

Rates for last year were lower than usual, however, and Hanson said he thinks the district will see this year’s rates dip back down in future years.

“This was a very, very unusual situation,” he said of the teacher injury.

The board voted to name Hanson deputy clerk for elections, nominated by board member Tom Van De Hei.

In other matters, a number of school-related issues will be on the ballot at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards 2019 conference next month in Milwaukee.

The issues range from whether to decrease the number of school board members in a district to whether to increase the reimbursement rate for special education programs.

Other issues on the ballot include funding for school libraries, changing student poverty and revenue limits, an exemption to the mental health revenue limit, licensing of clinical counselors within the Department of Public Instruction, funding for behaviorally challenged or expelled students, and funding for the Early College Credit and Start College Now programs.

The issues that will be on the ballot can be found in their unabridged format at www.bit.ly/2019WASB.