Superintendent: OPEB trust will be exhausted within months; district weighing Medicare-supplement plans

Superintendent Matt Gross told the ISD 318 school board during a workshop that the district’s other post-employment benefits (OPEB) trust will be depleted “in the next 1 to 3 months,” and staff are exploring Medicare-supplement plans and other options with the goal of making decisions in early October.

The OPEB liability covers retiree health benefits the district currently pays out of a trust established after 2007. Gross said the district now pays about $5,500,000 annually for retiree health coverage and that the last actuarial valuation, dated February 2025, put the district’s total OPEB liability at about $126,000,000. He said the trust was initially funded after the district issued $35,000,000 in bonds and that the trust funded roughly 53% of the liability; the trust has paid out about $52,000,000 in premiums since inception.

The district must shift from the existing trust-funded model to a pay-as-you-go approach because the trust is nearly exhausted. Gross said that move will require the…