ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orange County School District is grappling with budget-busting health care costs this year and a possible deficit of almost $150 million in its employees’ health care fund for next year.
What You Need To Know
School district leaders plan to add $61 million to their Employee Benefit Trust to cover health care costs for this year
School Board Member Angie Gallo says the district will likely have to raise premiums and deductibles on employees’ plans
Gallo says if the district makes no changes to its current plans, it will have to add $145 million to its fund next year
The district had $25 million in the Employee Benefit Trust Fund at the beginning of this school year, and district officials say they plan to put an additional $61 million into the fund to cover this year’s health care costs.
However, the district will face a huge challenge for next year unless it makes big changes to its health care plans.
Melanie Williams is an Orange County mom with four children who attended Orange County public schools. She hopes the district can offer affordable healthcare to teachers.
“We want employees that are happy and doing good at their jobs, of course, because they spend so much time guiding our children,” Williams said.
Orange County School Board Member Angie Gallo says if the district does not make any changes to the current healthcare plan it offers teachers, administrators and staff, the district will have to put $145 million into the Employee Benefit Trust for the 2026-2027 school year to keep the fund afloat.
“The only way to make the insurance fund solvent is to raise our premiums and our deductibles, and the burden that will place on our teachers, I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be really hard,” Gallo said.
The school district has almost 24,000 employees, and it has to keep three months of reserves in the Employee Benefit Trust Fund for future claims to remain self-insured.
Some parents are asking how the district ended up with this financial challenge.
“We were projecting like a 10% increase in health care costs,” Gallo said. “That has gone up to 23% in health care costs. So, we got here because health care for everybody is unaffordable.”
Gallo said the millions being transferred to pay for employees’ health care all come out of the district’s general fund. That is the same budget that pays to teach students in the classroom and for teachers’ salaries.
Williams hopes the district will get some help for teachers.
“It’s going to be hard for them, some of them to meet the needs of their families, especially if they’re the sole bread winners,” Gallo said.
The good news is teachers and staff can get free virtual visits, and a program called PeopleOne Health offers them free doctor visits, some free screenings and savings on more than 200 medications. But the costs of claims districtwide are still climbing.
Gallo said the school district is looking at several different programs to lower health care costs, and contract negotiations with the union, including healthcare benefits, will continue this Wednesday.