The Columbus Education Association claims its members were "held hostage" by Columbus City Schools' mistakes in its health insurance crisis and had no choice but to go along with an agreement reached Sept. 28.
At a special Sept. 28 Joint Insurance Committee (JIC) meeting, district unions and the administration came to an agreement to ensure health insurance continues with a capped 8% premium increase to participating members in 2027, alongside plan changes to the health benefits plan. The vote, which was unanimous, avoided steep health insurance surcharges for employees starting in January 2027.
The Joint Insurance Committee meeting was held to address an insurance "disaster" caused by a bad deal between CCS and Aon, a London-based insurance consultant
that cost the district millions and forced them to dip into their self-insurance fund reserves.
In a statement, CEA President John Coneglio said that the Columbus City Schools Board of Education "has lost the trust" of CEA members following the agreement. The union cannot strike in the middle of its current contract and the district shouldn't confuse the health care agreement with consent, he said.
"The way it has handled its own mistakes, and its callous attitude toward teachers and their families, has been deeply damaging to trust," Coneglio said. "Columbus families deserve a school board leadership that collaborates with parents, students and staff and takes their job seriously, they need to stop passing the buck."
Following the Sept. 28 agreement, Superintendent Angela Chapman said she was "grateful to our labor leaders and the teams representing our many CCS union members for working closely with us to ensure quality health benefits for CCS employees in 2027."
Coneglio said there was "nothing collaborative" about the process.
"Columbus teachers and their families were functionally held ransom for mistakes they did not make," Coneglio said. "The district never told us how the vendor was behaving until it was too late. We were then handed an impossible choice."
The Sept. 28 meeting was planned after the Columbus Education Association, which represents district teachers and other educational support staff, voted at the district's Sept. 23 Joint Insurance Committee meeting to reject plan changes, which the district said would lead to higher insurance charges for district faculty and administrators.
District leadership had warned that the health insurance premiums would increase between approximately 19% and 25% in 2027, but the district had proposed a solution that would only increase benefit costs by 8%. If the committee did not approve the changes, district employees would pay 100% for everything above 8% as an employee surcharge.
The Dispatch reported on July 27 that CCS was considering firing a human resources administrator after it found she had improperly signed contracts and failed to maintain records regarding her dealings with Aon. The health insurance consultant helped the district navigate its employee health insurance benefits package in 2024.
An external forensic audit of the dealings with Aon found the district overspent as much as $40 million more than expected for the benefits plan produced by Aon during 2025 and 2026, and that Aon "generally treated the district as a taxpayer-funded cash cow."
However, at an Aug. 4 meeting, CCS board President Antoinette Miranda said the cost overrun was detected by human resources personnel, and no money has come from the district's general fund in the past two years. She said describing the underfunding "as a district failure is inaccurate."
The district did lose $22.5 million to the underfunding problem, but Miranda said that it was only underfunded by $1 million in the first six months of 2026, meaning the actual loss to the district has been $23.5 million. She said it is not likely the cost will reach $40 million.
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: CCS teachers union says it was 'held hostage' in insurance agreement
