BLANCHESTER — Blanchester Local Schools announced Tuesday it has identified new insurance broker services that could potentially lower the district’s costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Due to the structure of current insurance plans, in the past two years Blanchester Local has experienced increases to its coverages of 25.8% for single plans, 32.1% for family plans and 2% increases for vision and dental plans. This has exploded the districts costs alone by roughly $984,000,” stated school board member Jeremy Kaehler in a news release from the district.
“For the past five months I’ve been actively researching alternatives. Recently, with the help of outside consulting, we have discovered options that range in savings from $300,000 to $600,000 per year, and eagerly look forward to presenting them to our BEA and OAPSE unions for approval moving forward. Our goal is to maintain great coverage, without major financial changes to our employees, while saving enough money to improving the financial health of our district in the future.”
Kaehler was nominated by his fellow board members as a 2020 Ohio School Board Recognition Recipient for his work with student lunches and insurance options.
2 new hires
• The district announced the hiring of Intermediate School Principal Jen Molitor.
She received her Master’s in Elementary Education and principal’s license from the Miami University. She was employed with Mason City Schools from 2000-2006 and has been employed with Clinton-Massie Schools since 2016 as a K-5 Gifted Intervention Specialist and Instructional Coach.
Molitor is the author of “The Happy Teacher’s Handbook – From Overwhelmed to Inspired — Helping Teachers Embrace Resiliency”, and a national presenter across the country.
“Finding an instructional leader and a personality that would work well with our current administrative team were two very important attributes we were looking for in our next principal,” said Curriculum Director Raechel Purdon. “Mrs. Molitor’s resume and interview clearly convinced us we found our next principal, and a quality individual.”
Lynch added, “We are blessed to have such a high-caliber educator come work in our district; the interviewing committed did an excellent job in their selection.”
• Brad Ballinger has been named athletic director. For more on the 2001 Blanchester grad, see Sports inside, and wnewsj.com.
