School Trustees Vote Themselves Insurance Benefit : Perks: Board votes 3 to 2 to provide health coverage for departing members who have served at least 12 years.

A divided Bellflower school board has approved health care benefits for any retiring board member who serves 12 years or more, triggering protests from district employees.

Under the new policy, which the board approved last month by a 3-2 vote, board members who serve 12 years or more will continue to receive a full package of medical, vision and dental insurance from the date of their departure until they turn 65.

Three of the current board members have enough seniority to qualify for the health insurance package. Employee health packages cost the district $4,000 to $6,000 a year per person, said Mike Pratt, district spokesman.

Board members who approved the extended benefits said they are a legitimate reward for long hours and years of service in a position that offers little financial compensation. Board members receive $240 a month, the maximum allowed by law for a school district the size of Bellflower Unified, which has about 10,400 students.

Board President Jay Gendreau, 35, who has been a member since he was 18, stands to benefit the most from the new coverage. If he departs when his term expires in two years, the district would pay for his health coverage for 28 years.

“If we’ve done a good job, what’s wrong with that?” Gendreau asked.

He said his relatively young age has helped fuel the controversy. “I have a feeling that if I were 50 years old we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” said Gendreau, who also said he has not decided whether to seek reelection. Board members Larry Ward and Phyllis John joined him in voting for the plan.

Ward, 50, who has his own telecommunications business, is eligible to receive the insurance package. “I made this my life for the past 15 years and I don’t have any retirement benefits from my other job,” he said. “I think we are passing something for our own benefit but I don’t think it’s at the expense of other people.”

John, 46, a homemaker who has been on the board since 1987, would have to serve six more years to become eligible.

Critics said board members are giving themselves a perk a few months after the district reduced library and custodial services to balance its budget.

“Six thousand dollars buys a lot of paper,” said John Burritt, executive director of the teachers union, the Bellflower Education Assn. “It buys a lot of pencils. Basically it would buy a fifth of a teacher. It could buy all kinds of things beneficial to kids.”

Board members Justine Miller and Harold Carman opposed the plan. Miller, 46, has served 12 years and is eligible for the package, but said she will not sign up for the insurance when she leaves the board.

“That wasn’t something I thought the district should commit themselves to,” Miller said. “It could turn out to be a lot of money.”

Carman, 33, said the added coverage will cost “a small amount, but it could pay for an additional aide or two, additional books, additional materials. It could mean providing an after-school program.”

He said he did not sign up for the district’s health-care coverage when he joined the board two years ago because he is covered in his job with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The state Education Code allows school districts to pay premiums for retired members who have served more than 12 years, but Gendreau and others also pointed out that it is rare for board members to serve more than 12 years.

“There are not going to be 100 people running around that are going to qualify for this,” Gendreau said. “First of all you have to have survived the process to be reelected.”

In the last three decades, only two former board members of the Bellflower board have served more than 12 years, according to the district. The new policy is not retroactive.

The board’s attorney, Eric Bathen, said other districts have approved similar policies, but declined to name them.

In the Southeast area, neighboring districts ABC and Long Beach do not offer health-care benefits to departing board members, and officials said they have no plans to do so.