Flour Bluff ISD says high insurance premiums affecting teacher pay and more

Flour Bluff school leaders expect a 10% increase in their insurance premium for the upcoming school year, which they said affects things like teacher pay, building renovations and more. They, along with State Representative Todd Hunter, believe the increase is unfair.

Hunter , whom attended the workshop gave his thoughts on the higher-than-most premiums that school districts along the coast, including FBISD pay.

"It's an issue that is not being hammered hard enough and we need to. Our coastal districts are losing money because of these high insurance costs. And it's time that the budget process and the law process makes it fair to live on the coastline," Hunter said.

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Flour Bluff Superintendent Chris Steinbruck, said similar-sized school districts located inland get the same funding as coastal districts despite the coastal districts paying higher premiums.

"The main piece is the disparity between our property casualty insurance premium compared to other schools similar in size," Steinbruck said.

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What are some of those differences? Flour Bluff is looking at paying about 3.2 million premium with a 5 percent deductible. In contrast, Aledo ISD, a similar sized district near Fort Worth, will only pay a little over 1.3 million with a 1.1 percent deductible.

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"If we could free up $2 million to $2.5 million to be able to take care of our students, teachers and facilities better, who wouldn't want that opportunity? We feel like it's unfair. All of our coastal schools in Texas are dealing with the same thing," Steinbruck said.

The school board proposed two options. Reduce the premium to 2.3 million, with a 25 million loss limit, or an even lower premium at 2 million and only insure, "essential operational facilities".

While Steinbruck said they still need to discuss the options as a board, the Superintendent and Hunter agreed on what FBISD should do.

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"While I think it would be my recommendation to insure every building, but take a lesser amount of coverage on the building to get our premium where it needs to be. So we could cover some of the roof damage or issues if we were to have a storm. Every building would be covered under option A," Steinbruck said.

Todd Hunter plans to welcome Flour Bluff school leaders and leaders from other districts to Austin on Aug. 16 and Sept. 17 to continue talking about insurance increases.

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