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Board hears insurance audit; broker and board recommend Obsidian package
Summary
An insurance audit presented to the Spencer County Board of Education showed insured values rising from about $115 million to $181 million after schedule corrections. The broker and a board member recommended selecting Obsidian’s package for broader limits and lower wind deductibles despite a slightly higher premium.
David Brooks, the district’s insurance broker, outlined a district-wide audit of property and liability coverage and recommended awarding the property-casualty package to Obsidian.
Brooks said staff and consultants walked the system to verify buildings and contents, removing roughly $6.5 million of items that should not have been on the policy and adding about $28 million in corrected or newly insured property. He said Taylorville Elementary’s insured value was adjusted from roughly $3 million to about $28 million, increasing the district’s total insured value from about $115 million last year to about $181 million this year. "If, God forbid, a school is completely destroyed by a tornado ... we've got the full total insured value to put towards that school to replace it," Brooks said.
Brooks outlined key coverage differences across competing quotes: WSI (quote flagged around $434,000), EMC (quote received the same day, about $386,000), and Obsidian (about $414,000). He said Obsidian’s package included higher flood and earthquake limits in one option, a lower per-event wind deductible (moving away from a 2% per-location wind deductible that could equal hundreds of thousands of dollars on a major facility), and a cyber coverage component (Obsidian packaged $1 million of cyber coverage inside their proposal).
Brooks warned that some carriers apply sublimits for sexual‑abuse and molestation claims; one carrier’s sublimit of $2 million for those claims could reduce available excess coverage in such cases, he said. He also highlighted that content valuation methods differ across carriers and that comparisons must be “apple to apple.”
During discussion, Board member Mr. Record argued Obsidian’s higher premium was justified by lower deductible exposure and broader excess liability, saying it would better protect the district against a large, infrequent loss. Superintendent Dr. Foster recommended approving Obsidian for the district’s lines of insurance and proceeding with the workers’ compensation placement quoted to staff (workers’ compensation amount not clearly legible in the transcript).
The board voted to approve the recommended insurance placement as presented. The board directed staff to budget the insurance premiums into the operating fund.
Next steps: staff will finalize contracts and confirm program details (precise premium allocations and any sublimits), and will return any required contract documents to the board for final execution.
