Uinta County School District #1 board approves meet‑and‑confer package, new health plan and transfer of facility reserves

The Uinta County School District #1 Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved the district’s meet‑and‑confer agreement that the administration said totals about $4.8 million and includes multi‑year salary adjustments and benefit changes.

Matt Williams, presenting the budget and meet‑and‑confer package, said the certified staff proposal includes two experience steps totaling $1,500 and a base increase that raises the district starting salary to $61,400. Support staff will receive a new placement step and hourly increases described as raising average pay about 16 percent, Williams said. Administrators’ average increases were described as roughly 12 percent. Williams said the agreed package is designed to move the district closer to state salary averages but warned the increases create recurring costs if enrollment or state funding falls.

"The total increase is $4.8 million," Williams said. "We appreciate the funds the legislature provided; this makes the package possible." The board approved the meet‑and‑confer agreement by voice vote.

The board also approved administration’s recommendation to engage Gibson Consulting as broker and to move to a partially self‑funded health insurance program using the Sigma open‑access plus PO network with EVHC as third‑party administrator. Williams said the district’s current annual insurance cost is about $8.19 million; a quoted Aetna renewal would have raised that toward $9.27 million, while the recommended EVHC option showed an estimated district cost of about $8.2 million — an on‑paper savings Williams described as roughly $1.03 million.

As part of the package, the district will offer a new high‑deductible plan seeded by an HSA contribution this year: $1,000 for single employees and $2,000 for family enrollments, Williams said. He called the HSA “frontloaded” seed money and said the district will evaluate whether the HSA contribution can be sustained in future years; board approval authorizes the change for the 2026–27 plan year.

Administration also asked the board to approve a transfer of pre‑1997 reserve funds into a district depreciation account to specifically fund maintenance, repair or replacement of large facilities including the turf field, domes and swimming pools. Williams said the pre‑1997 reserve balance was reported in the presentation as roughly $687,000 and that the depreciation account’s balance after the transfer will be about $1.32 million. The board approved the transfer by voice vote.

All motions in the action item block were carried by voice vote; the public transcript records the board’s affirmations without a roll‑call tally.

What’s next: Williams said the final budget will be brought back for formal approval on the third Wednesday in July, and that some elements (notably the HSA seed money) could become a negotiated item in future meet‑and‑confer cycles.

Actions recorded at the meeting: the board approved listed contracts, approved policy IHBI (time distribution records) on first reading, approved the meet‑and‑confer agreement, approved the recommended health insurance services (Gibson/EVHC/Sigma), and approved the transfer of pre‑1997 reserve funds to the depreciation account.