Members should know their contractual rights and possibly save money each month.  Every year PPS employs a few educators who work a .5 FTE position and also substitute teach the rest of their workweek.  Those individuals have the unusual position of being in both PAT units, and work under both PAT/PPS contracts.

If you are one of those individuals, and you have earned insurance under the PAT Substitute CBA, you are entitled to select a health benefit package from either the PAT regularly employed unit, or the PAT substitute educator unit. 

Recently the PPS Benefits department informed .5 FTE educators who also earned substitute insurance that they could not select insurance under the substitute CBA.  That is absolutely incorrect.

The PAT/PPS CBA for regularly employed educators states in Article 13.1.6 “The District shall make a contribution of fifty percent (50%) of the composite rate for professional educators having a work schedule of fifty percent (50%) up to seventy-five percent (75%) of a full-time professional educator.”  In addition, Article 13.1.4 also states, “Professional educators may opt out of medical, dental, vision, prescription drug benefits, and additional life insurance.”

The PAT Substitute Educator CBA offers the same Kaiser and Providence Major Medical and Dental plans as the .5 PAT regularly employed benefit package, but the monthly cost per member is lower.  Keep in mind, there are additional benefits included under the regular PAT CBA, but if a PAT member only wants medical and dental insurance, and that member is eligible for insurance under both contracts, the substitute educator health plan is an option those members may select. 

If you are one of the PAT members who is eligible under both CBAs, contact the benefits department if you were denied the option to select either plan and let them know that you might want to make a change.