There was a bit of good news when it came to Kingfisher Public Schools’ insurance for 2025-26.

The board of education last Wednesday voted to approve a contract with Oklahoma Schools Insurance Group (OSIG) to provide that coverage with a premium cost of $571,128.

The move was made during a special meeting.

Despite the district’s property values increasing about 4 percent this year, the new premium is about $40,000 (or 7.5 percent) lower than the previous year.

It’s the first time in several years that the district’s premium has dropped.

When KPS voted to return to OSIG in June 2021 as its previous carrier - Oklahoma Schools Risk Management Trust (OSRMT) - became insolvent, the premium that year was $270,537.

It continued to starkly rise annually. Last year’s amount of $617,820 was a 10 percent bump from the year before.

Pat Cheap of Cheap Brothers Insurance, the local OSIG agent, told the board last year the biggest factor in increased premiums was the surge in property values.

In 2022, the KPS property values were about $98.5 million and they escalated to just a shade under $121 million last year.

Those values moved up to $124 million this year, but it didn’t increase the premium.

Cheap, who was at Wednesday’s meeting, said there’s another factor.

“Basically, OSIG had a lot of claims from the periods of 2022 to 2024, so the rates have to make sure that they cover the losses,” Cheap told board members. “Since then, everything has kind of leveled out, so the actuaries are able to lower the premiums back down.” OSIG is essentially the only option for schools in Oklahoma.

OSRMT was a self-insurance pool that started in 2009 as an alternative to OSIG, but large numbers of claims and declining membership forced its dissolution.

“I would love to tell you there’s other markets out there that’s writing schools, but at this time, there’s not,” Cheap said.

“And like I said, I have access to every large property market in the United States and we have tried - I know a lot of agents have tried - and as of right now there’s no other option.”

“Well, you’re telling me you’re the only game in town and it went down. I don’t know how I’m supposed to be mad,” said board President Mike Copeland.

Cheap said OSIG is working to be as equitable as it can.

“They really are trying to be as fair as possible,” Cheap said of OSIG. “They really are.”

Board members Dana Golbek, Charles Walker and Bill Reitz joined Copeland in voting to accept the new annual contract.

Brad Wittrock was unable to attend the meeting.

Board members also voted to seek quotes on lawn services for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The new contract would begin July 1.

Instead of one bid for all services sought, Superintendent Andy Evans asked the board to seek separate bids for each. They included: • Mowing once a week from the last week of March to the first week of October on a per week/as-needed basis;

• Weed eating once a week from the same time period, again on per week/ as-needed basis;

• Flower bed maintenance every two weeks/ as-needed basis;

• Flower bed establishment and remediation at each building.

On top of the obvious mowing and weed eating, Evans said the flower beds need attention.

“Our goal is to get the flower beds back to where they look like they’re supposed to,” he said. “We’ve got beautiful structures and they need to function like they’re supposed to because our kids, our community need to be able to walk up there and see that, especially the flag plaza.”

After about a 40-minute executive session, board members also approved a number of personnel moves. (Note: See the Sunday, May 25, edition for all personnel action taken by the board.)