By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
Yukon Public Schools’ board members have approved administrators’ recommendation to reject the lowest price offer for the district’s workers’ compensation coverage.
The YPS Board of Education, at its June 5 meeting, renewed a contract with CompSource Mutual Insurance Co. with a $188,695 annual premium – a $11,748 increase.
CompSource is the school district’s current workers comp insurance carrier, and the current $176,947 premium expires June 30.
YPS officials solicited price quotes from eight companies, according to a premium summary included in board meeting documents.
The lowest was $178,510, which was $10,185 below CompSource. Other quotes ranged from $210,000 to $450,681.
The new policy term will cover July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.
Diana Lebsack, YPS assistant superintendent of human resources, recommended the YPS board approve the renewed agreement with CompSource through BancFirst Insurance Services.
The company that offered the cheapest price is “outsourced out of Dallas” and does not have a local representative “to individually serve us like we have with CompSource,” Lebsack told YPS board members.
CompSource “really gives us the ‘white glove’ treatment, if you will,” she added. “When visiting with our representatives from BancFirst, they said we are with a much-better company. The continuity is huge as well.”
State law requires the Yukon school district to provide workers comp insurance for its employees to have coverage for accidents or disease arising from employment.
YPS Superintendent Dr. Jason Simeroth referred to competitive bidding laws that allow the board to award a contract to a vendor that doesn’t have the lowest price but “has a better product or service” or is “just a better company.”
Simeroth concurred with Lebsack that CompSource is the preferred option.
“The thing that I appreciate most is the way they’ve help us increase safety in our sites just by the walkthroughs and personal service,” he told the school board.
YPS district administrators offered further explanation of their reasoning in a memo to board members:
“We have again had a tremendously successful year thus far in respect to claims costs and claims resolution, as well as collaborating with both CompSource and BancFirst to continue monthly savings walkthroughs and continue to work toward resolution of our existing claims from previous providers,” the memo reads.
“The consultant assigned to our accountant, courtesy of BancFirst, has 25 years of experience handling workers’ compensation claims, including four years as the director of claims for CompSource. We have worked very closely with him beginning in FY19 and have found him to be a tremendous asset and advocate.”
CompSource’s coverage breakdown for 2023-24 is based on estimated payrolls of three employee classifications: Bus driver and garage ($897,874), professional/clerical ($43,512,048) and all other ($1,866,517).
Previous workers compensation insurance premiums for YPS have been: FY17 ($378,328), FY18 ($185,262), FY19 ($236,523), FY20 ($233,628), FY21 ($310,459), and FY22 ($246,385).
“The experience we have had with BancFirst and CompSource leads us to believe that we are in the continuing stages of a partnership to impact our claims in a positive direction on a long-term basis,” the memo reads.
YPS formerly employed a safety consultant via a rebate program through the Oklahoma School Assurance Group and, for years, used a third-party claims management company.
OTHER CONTRACTS
As the school district prepares for a new fiscal year, the YPS Board of Education approved 14 annual contracts under a business consent docket at the June 5 meeting.
This included renewing the district’s Oklahoma Schools Insurance Group (OSIG) contract for property and casualty insurance coverages.
The $1,121,031 premium will be a $42,902 (4%) increase.
YPS officials opted to increase the deductible from $100,000 to $250,000 per occurrence.
“We wanted to keep that premium down and we’re fortunate enough to have a building fund excess that we could cover that deductible pretty easily,” Dr. Simeroth explained. “We thought we would do that to minimize the cost of the premium.
“It will pay off for itself if we happen to have an occurrence.”
The regional and national markets are experience a more than 25% increase in premiums and Yukon’s loss ratio is 23.42%
Also of note, YPS board members approved renewing a contract with the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office for a full-time, commissioned deputy to provide security at Surrey Hills Elementary and Redstone Intermediate. These are the two YPS sites outside Yukon city limits.
The YPS will pay $82,719 to the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office to cover the annual salary and benefits for one deputy. That is a $8,545 annual increase.
Total contract cost is $88,514, including a 7% fee to cover other expenses.
