Mineola school district employees will have to start pitching in on their health insurance.

The school board voted Monday to continue paying the same $408 per month for the basic plan, which rose by $34 per month to $442.

“We can’t keep offering one plan for free,” Business Manager William Bjork said.

School districts are required to pay at least $225 per month toward employee health insurance, he explained.

About 30% of districts surveyed pay the minimum, while Mineola is in the top 10% of districts.

Higher plans offered by the district will cost $456 and $519 monthly, with the district paying the same $408 toward those plans.

Bjork said it would cost the district about $93,000 to pick up the increased cost.

Bjork presented the board its first look at the 2023-34 school budget.

He said that most funding requests were met last year, but that might not be the case this year.

The additional requests total $776,000.

Among those are a vehicle for the vocational agriculture department, $130,000 in road work, and increased costs for the Wood County special ed co-op of $175,000 and a $65,000 increase in the district’s share of the Wood County Appraisal District.

He said the number of students in the co-op has grown tremendously.

Bjork said the district will be able to continue offering the same free student meal program as last year.

The board will look at the budget again at its July and August meetings before adopting it officially on Aug. 31.

The district is still awaiting the final budget from the state of Texas as well as final property values which are scheduled July 25.

“We don’t know where that’s going to lead,” Superintendent Cody Mize said of the ongoing debate on how to address school taxes at the state level.

The board presented a resolution from the Texas House of Representatives honoring the late John Abbott to his widow, Janell.

Mize said the Mineola board is also being nominated as the Region Seven school board of the year, and that application is also in Abbott’s honor.

Abbott served the district in several capacities from classroom teacher to superintendent and was set to begin another term on the school board, where he was serving as president.

The board accepted resignations from teachers Kayla Henton at the elementary and Kaela Brewington at the high school and hired Kylie Banks for the high school staff.

The board gave Mize the authority to make hiring decisions from June 20 to Aug. 14.

The board approved an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation for a deceleration lane on NE Loop 564 in front of the new primary campus.

The district will pay for the work.