SPEAKER: Debra M. Hendricks, Superintendent and Lizett Aguilar, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services As discussed at the board meeting on September 24, 2019, Sylvan's property and liability insurance coverage renews on October 1, 2019. Sylvan was in a joint pool with Stan Union and Modesto City Schools (MCS) purchasing our property and liability insurance coverage commercially from an insurance broker. MCS has administered the program and we have been able to benefit and obtain value pricing with this partnership. Stan Union decided to opt out of this partnership and is looking into joining a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to obtain their coverage. In light of this and also with an increase in premium renewals, MCS informed us this month that they were also looking into joining a JPA and reached out to three (3) of the largest public schools Property and Liability programs in the state, Northern California Relief (NCR), Alliance of Schools for Cooperative Insurance Programs (ASCIP), and Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC). MCS has been quoted very substantial savings if they join NCR and is planning to take a recommendation to their board on September 30th to join NCR. We have been working with MCS staff and the current insurance broker to look at our options and consider what our renewal would look like if we had a policy without MCS. We also looked into options for a 1 or 2 month extension of coverage from our current broker and that was denied. Anticipating increases to our policies with our current insurance broker, we also looked into multiple JPA options, including NCR, Central Region School Insurance Group (CRSIG) and SISC. Only NCR was able to offer a full quote of property and liability coverage at this time. NCR provided quotes for 1 full year of property and liability coverage as attached, with an annual (7/1/19-7/1/20) cost of $346,850 and a pro-rated (10/1/19-7/1/20) cost of $260,137. Both CRSIG and SISC require more time to appraise our property and provide a quote and CRSIG required more time to quote the liability coverage. SISC provided a quote for liability coverage (excluding property coverage) for 10/1/19 to 6/30/2020 at a cost of $285,999, which is higher than the pro-rated quote received from NCR (and NCR's quote includes property coverage). We currently do not have pricing for all options in order to remain with our current commercial coverage, but the preliminary numbers we do have indicate that the annual cost would exceed $400,000, with coverage limits largely remaining as they were in 2018/19. Given all of this information, staff recommends joining Northern California Relief (NCR) to obtain property and liability insurance coverage. In order to join the NCR JPA, the Board of Trustees must approve the attached JPA agreement and Bylaws attached prior to our October 1st renewal date. Joining NCR is a three (3) year commitment. Given this, staff has made inquiries with existing districts who are members of NCR and has received positive feedback from these districts.
Also attached is the presentation from NCR which outlines several of the benefits that Sylvan would receive in joining the JPA, including cyber liability coverage and staff training programs like Keenan Safe Schools. In addition, Sylvan's retention limit (deductible) for liability coverage will be lowered to $100,00, previously $125,000 under the current commercial coverage. In addition to the coverage that would be provided by NCR, Sylvan will retain excess liability insurance (for claims from $5 to $50 million) from a commercial carrier that renewed July 1, 2019, and will remain in place through June 30, 2020. For our renewal on July 1, 2020, NCR will provide a quote to include this coverage and has indicated potential savings on this premium of $10,000 for the year. Based on all of the above, staff recommends the Board of Trustees approve the attached JPA agreement and Bylaws to join Northern California Relief (NCR). |