Cave Creek Unified approves 2025-26 medical benefits and 1% base pay increase for staff

Cave Creek Unified School District governing board President Greer Busby and members approved the district's 2025-26 employee medical benefit package and a 1.0% increase to the base salary for certified and classified staff during the board's April 8 business meeting.

Why it matters: The vote maintains district-paid health coverage for employees while the district absorbs a proposed premium increase. The IBN team presented a separate but related compensation proposal aimed at making modest, ongoing increases to employee pay and continuing one-time state funding distributions that had been phased in after the 2023 allocation.

Dr. Hendrickson, the district presenter on medical benefits, told the board the district's major carriers include the district medical administrator (referred to in the presentation as "Asbates" through "Meritanes"), Delta Dental for dental coverage historically, Colonial Life for supplemental benefits and VSP for vision. He said the district's overall monthly premium for many employees rose from roughly $618 to $660 this year, a 6.7% increase that the district plans to absorb rather than pass entirely to employees. "We were able to determine that that…