BY PAMELA GOULD

Spotsylvania County school employees could see a decrease in their take-home pay next year if the School Board approves a plan recommended by division staff to address state retirement and health insurance demands.

Chief Financial Officer LaShahn Gaines recently provided the School Board with three scenarios for balancing the fiscal 2013 budget.

The one she recommended would give employees a 5 percent cost-of-living raise for the 2012-13 school year but also require them to pay the full 5 percent of this year's Virginia Retirement System contribution.

That scenario would also require insured employees to pay 2 percent more in health insurance premiums. The system faces a total increase of 17.3 percent in health care premiums for the next school year.

In examples presented by finance department staff at a work session on Thursday, employees would see a decrease in take-home pay of between $14 and $47 per month, depending on position.

But after the work session, Superintendent Shelley K. Redinger said staff would continue looking for other options.

The board meets tonight to continue working to finalize its fiscal 2013 budget. The budget is scheduled to be adopted next Monday.

Requiring employees to pay a 2 percent health insurance premium increase would cost someone with family coverage $117 per year. An individual would see an increase of $21 per year.

Health insurance premiums are increasing dramatically after the first year of the division's self-insurance plan because of higher-than-anticipated claims this year. Those claims chiefly came from health issues of spouses and dependents of school division employees, an Anthem representative explained to the School Board recently.

He said the division's health care plan is so good that when families are deciding which spouse's plan to choose for coverage, they are opting for the school division's plan. That translates into increased claims for serious illnesses.

In its original budgeting, the division had anticipated an increase of 10 percent in the cost of health care premiums. The additional 7.3 percentage-point hike will cost about $2.1 million in fiscal 2013, which begins on July 1.

Spotsylvania, like divisions across the state, is trying to figure out the best way to implement a new state requirement that employees pay their 5 percent state retirement contributions by July 1, 2016.