VENTURA : District Retirees Fear Medical Benefit Cuts

Retirees of the Ventura Unified School District have formed a 12-member task force to work with the district to try and come up with ways to reduce spiraling health-care costs.

About 200 district retirees, ranging from former administrators to clerks, met for more than two hours Tuesday at Ventura High School to discuss the health-care issue and to voice their concerns about the possible loss of benefits.

“There’s a lot of apprehension and fear among the retirees,” said Loretta Burton, a former elementary school employee and an organizer of Tuesday’s meeting. “People are not willing to make any concessions at this time.”

Burton said retirees are afraid that the district wants to reduce or take away their medical benefits.

Burton said a meeting with district officials has not yet been planned.

Supt. Joseph Spirito said Tuesday that the district is looking for ways to reduce health-care costs but does not plan to eliminate retiree benefits.

“Our intention is not to scalp them or take benefits away,” Spirito said.

The Ventura school district has long sought to slash spiraling health-care costs, particularly for retirees who now receive lifetime benefits. The retiree program has threatened to bankrupt the financially squeezed district, district officials say.

Last month, the district’s 600 teachers approved a new three-year contract that asked them to forgo lifetime benefits in favor of special buyout packages.

Teachers already receiving lifetime benefits and those who plan to retire this year were not affected by the terms of the contract.

Last year, the Ventura district spent $8.9 million on health and welfare benefits, with more than $3 million going to pay for benefits for the district’s 740 retirees.