The Roaring Fork School District Board of Education approved the final recommendation on the 2025/26 Colorado Employer Benefit Trust health insurance benefits which includes covering 100% of an employees base plan. 

The board unanimously approved the recommendations they received from an advisory Interest-Based Bargaining committee on Wednesday evening after months of careful deliberation. 

“The team is making its final recommendation that RFSD make the PP09 the ‘Base Plan’ and cover 100% of the plan for eligible employees,” the committee said in their final recommendation staff memo. “Additionally, the team recommends that for employees opting for the less expensive HDHP 5 plan, the district would invest the difference in cost of the two plans (about $328/employee/year) in a Health Savings Account for the employee.”

The RFSD employee will cover 100% of any additional family member added onto the plan. 

The advisory IBB committee was made up of certified, classified, administrative staff, and board members, getting voices from every corner of the staff. 

During Wednesday’s meeting, certified IBB team member and longtime Glenwood Springs Middle School science teacher Autumn Rivera admitted that the process has been a rollercoaster, and although they haven’t reached the point they wanted to be at, the bottom line of a 100% covered copay stands out. 

“There have been a lot of ups and downs throughout the process,” Rivera said during the meeting. “We are able to offer a free plan that has an actual copay which we didn’t think we were going to be able to do a month ago. We are happy that we have the ability to do that, but it still isn’t perfect.”

The board’s May 14 unanimous decision was the second time the board has discussed the upcoming health insurance policy in the past two months. The IBB team originally brought forward their recommendations during the April 9 RFSD board meeting, which was also unanimously approved. The team then wrangled a plan fitting their “covering 100% employee base plan” recommendation. 

Fourth grade Riverview School teacher and certified IBB team member Nina Asher underlined how important getting a no-cost-for-employees plan was. 

“There is definitely a silver lining at the end of it all,” she said. “That silver lining being the zero dollar plan. There really aren’t many districts in our area that can say the same thing. I have talked to other representatives in other districts and they are shocked to hear that we have a zero dollar plan.”

She continued to say that this delves into a deeper conversation, one that doesn’t just include RFSD. 

“We had a discussion in the health committee about how this doesn’t just fall on us. It’s all of our surrounding districts, and what pressure do we have to start putting on the legislature? I think we are going to carry this momentum into next year and be able to dig deeper for some better options. There are some good parts about this plan, but it isn’t where we want it to be.”

For more information about the 25/26 health benefit plan, visit the e-table that defines the plans structure. 

There is one more regularly scheduled RFSD board meeting before summer break begins in June. The last scheduled board meeting is slated for Wednesday, May 28 at the Carbondale District Office, 400 Sopris Ave.