Board debates options for property-insurance procurement after agent reports lower premium this year
Summary
Board discussed whether to continue with the longstanding insurance agent after a staff presentation that current layered coverage and agent negotiations produced a premium drop to about $1.55 million; members raised transparency and market-access concerns and asked staff to return with options.
The Acadia Parish School Board spent an extended portion of its Dec. 9 meeting discussing options for property-insurance procurement and the district's relationship with its insurance agent.
An insurance-staff presenter described the district's current approach as "layered coverage," explained how the district's agent negotiates with multiple carriers, and said the board's agent produced a premium reduction last year of about $467,000 — lowering the annual premium from about $2,016,000 to about $1,549,000. The presenter also said the district's schedule of values for property is roughly $259,000,000 and warned that market assignment (a process proposed by some brokers whereby agents are limited to specified carriers) can complicate apples-to-apples comparisons across agents.
Several board members and community speakers raised transparency and competition concerns. One board member asked, "How do we know we're getting a good price?" and said taxpayers' money should be scrutinized; another suggested the board consider obtaining quotes from other brokers (for example, naming Gallagher) but the presenter cautioned that many brokers would seek quotes from overlapping pools of carriers, and that whoever reaches a carrier first commonly receives the quote. The presenter said multiple agents are possible but can make layered coverage negotiations more difficult.
Participants discussed local firms and whether exclusive outlets for certain carriers should be permitted to bid. One commenter referenced Jeff Davis school system's recent broker change as an example of a local district that moved to a different agent.
The presenter recommended the board consider its options and advised there is time before the board must decide (the presenter said a decision could be targeted around March). No final procurement decision was made at the meeting; the discussion concluded with board members asking staff to return with options and additional information.
The transcript records multiple agent-name variants in discussion (Dupree Carrier/Gotshaw, Gotcha, Dupri Carrier Gotshul, etc.); the meeting record did not standardize those spellings.
