AWSP Blog

Last session, the Legislature created the School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB). The SEBB will help ensure K-12 employees get the affordable, high-quality benefits they deserve. Washington state public employees have long been the beneficiary of a great health benefits program through the PEBB, and it's great to see similar benefits coming to school employees across the state.

The introduction of bills has slowed markedly as committees now focus on having public hearings. Then bills are moved out of their respective committees through action in Executive Session. February 22 (policy bills) and March 1 (fiscal bills) are the cutoff dates. Bills that have not advanced by then, ‘die’.

The School Employees’ Benefit Board met for an all-day meeting and covered, as usual a wide range of topics. (Read the full post for the whole summary)

Fred Yancey, a retired principal and superintendent, represents AWSP on issues related to health care and retirement. Check out his summer conference update linked here with updates about the School Employee Benefit Board (SEBB), the Public Employee Benefit Board (PEBB), and pensions. Fred can be reached at fyancey@comcast.net if you have questions.

The SEBB held an all-day meeting on 3/15/18 that covered a great deal of information including preliminary impacts on the state and local school districts. The caveat is that David Iseminger, the Director of the Employee and Retiree Benefit Division (ERB) stated, “Because this change is new, we are not going to get everything right.” At this point, without enrollment figures, claims history, etc. ERB is involved in making educated guesses with assumptions that may come to be or not.