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Canutillo ISD trustees hear proposal to raise district health contribution; HB2 retention allotment limited to classroom teachers
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Summary
Canutillo ISD trustees on June 24 heard administration and consultant presentations showing a projected 15% increase in health-plan costs (about $804,000) and a staff recommendation to raise the district premium contribution from $623 to $723.
Canutillo ISD trustees on June 24 heard administration and consultant presentations laying out health-plan performance, 2026 cost projections and proposed compensation steps tied to new state funding. Staff said the district's claims experience through April shows lower monthly spend in 2025 compared with 2024, but projected a 15% plan-cost increase for 2026 equivalent to roughly $804,000 and recommended raising the district premium contribution from $623 to $723 effective with a July rate change.
The consultant told trustees that the district saw a net drop of about 200 employees on the plan between 2024 and 2025 and that large claimants are a major driver of costs: in 2024 the plan had 24 large claimants totaling about $4.4 million; the district was reimbursed about $1.8 million under its stop-loss reinsurance. So far in 2025 the consultant said there were three large claimants totaling under $300,000.
Staff also explained how new state dollars under House Bill 2 are being applied. The teacher-retention allotment provides $2,500 for teachers with three to four years'experience and $5,000 for teachers with five or more years, the presentation said, but that allotment "only applies to classroom teachers that are coded 87" in the district payroll system, language that follows the bill. A separate support-staff retention allotment can be used to increase base pay for nonadministrative staff including counselors, librarians, nurses and hourly support, but staff said the law and TEA guidance limit some flexibility and do not fund associated fringe benefits (Medicare, TRS contributions).
That eligibility language prompted questions from trustees and staff about the treatment of therapists (speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists) who in Canutillo ISD are on an administrative pay scale. Pam Perez, the district's lead speech-language pathologist, told the board the therapists provide direct services to more than 773 special-education students and deliver more than 25 hours per week of direct therapy; she asked trustees to include therapists in salary increases when the district implements HB2-related raises. "I was disappointed to learn that therapy staff will not be included in this package," Perez said, and she urged the board to use local discretion to expand raises beyond teachers where possible.
Administrators responded that the HB2 statutory language and TEA guidance limit which positions the specific allotment will cover; they said the district's current budget assumptions include the $100-per-employee state assistance reported as part of HB2 and that the superintendent has incorporated the recommended district contribution increase into the draft budget. Staff said they will return to the board in August with additional claims data through June, at which time trustees will have more information to finalize health-premium and compensation decisions.
During the June 24 meeting a trustee moved to approve the 2025'—6 annual budget as presented by administration and later moved to adopt the 2025'—6 temporary/noncontractual and supplemental pay schedule; the transcript records the motions but does not record seconds or final vote tallies for those motions.
Board discussion also covered longer-range budget assumptions such as a projected fund-balance item (presented as a 12.6 figure in the slides) and a possible modest one-time sale of district property estimated under $2 million to support current-year cash flow. Administrators cautioned that some new allotments do not include fringe funding and that further TEA guidance or legislative amendments could alter the district's implementation plan.
Trustees directed staff to return with additional data in August and did not take a separate vote at the June 24 meeting to change insurers or employee contributions beyond placing the proposed contribution and compensation assumptions into the draft budget for later final action.
