Tioga Central School District – Health Insurance and Special Education Cost Savings (2020M-84)

Issued Date

November 13, 2020

Audit Objective

Determine whether Tioga Central School District (District) officials could achieve cost savings by offering health insurance buyout incentives and providing select special education services in-house.

Key Findings

District officials could achieve cost savings by:

Offering an acceptable health insurance buyout incentive in lieu of health insurance coverage.
- Savings could range between approximately $10,000 and $251,000.
Providing select special education programs in-house.
- Savings could be approximately $39,700.

Key Recommendations

Consider offering a health insurance buyout incentive to help reduce costs.
Consider providing select special education services in-house to help reduce costs.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.

Background

The District serves the Towns of Tioga, Nichols, Barton and Candor in Tioga County. The seven-member elected Board of Education (Board) is responsible for the general management and control of financial and educational affairs. The Superintendent of Schools is the chief executive officer and, along with other administrative staff, is responsible for day-to-day management under the Board’s direction.

The District is a component unit of the Broome-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BT BOCES) and a member of its health insurance consortium.

Quick Facts
2018-19
Special Education Costs	$1.2 million
Health Insurance Costs	$3.4 million
Enrollment	892
2019-20
Appropriations	$20.3 million

Audit Period

July 1, 2018 – December 31, 2019. We expanded our audit period through January 21, 2020 to review health insurance program options available to employees.