WPS Benefit News

• Employee Health Enhancement to Enrich Your Customer Service Experience
• Safeguarding Your District Technology
• Hootie's Tip: Bind Health Plan Maternity Resources
• Updates on COVID Leave Reinstatements
• LGBTQ+ Resources on ComPsych EAP Website
  
• Employee Benefits Contacts: Who We Are & How We Can Help
  

Effective July 1st, Employee Benefits has made some changes to our Employee Health design. Nicole Heizelman has been your main benefits contact for all things medical leave, FMLA and maternity, parental and adoptive leave.

We have now split our Certified and Classified staff between Nicole Heizelman and Jeana Melton. Jeana has been with us for the last year or so and managed the COVID hotline while also working closely with Nicole.

Classified staff's contact for all things medical leave will now be Jeana Melton, and Nicole Heizelman will handle all Certified staff. This redesign will allow us to further improve our case management and therefore provide an enhanced customer service experience to employees and sites.

CLASSIFIED STAFF:

Jeana Melton

jmelton@usd259.net

(316)973-4458

CERTIFIED STAFF:

Nicole Heizelman

nheizelman@usd259.net

(316)973-4632

SUPERVISOR OF EMPLOYEE HEALTH, WELLNESS & DISABILITY PROGRAMS:

Boni Burkhart

bburkhart@usd259.net

(316)973-4737

While much of our staff is off contract at this time, there are many employees still working through the summer on projects and preparing for the new school year. That means use of district technology is still in full swing.

Many may not know the role of Employee Benefits when it comes to district technology. Risk Compliance Analyst Douglas Mumma handles claims regarding loss or theft of district technology as part of our Property & Casualty insurance management program.

At the beginning of each school year, every WPS employee must agree to proper use and safeguarding of district technology by signing an annual acknowledgement. Among other things, these acknowledgements confirm our responsibility for district issued technology when taking it off USD 259 property.

Remember, if you are not clocked in and required to be traveling somewhere off property with technology, you are responsible for the loss or damage of that technology. The most common loss where staff are liable for the technology is theft from personal vehicles. Please help yourself and the district by not leaving your technology in any vehicle while unsupervised. Additionally, traveling with the technology on your personal time can also lead to liability of damages or loss.

A helpful tip for anyone who experiences damages or loss at no fault of their own, is to submit a claim through auto insurance or other coverages (i.e. renters insurance). There is no guarantee this will cover expenses you incur, but some may be able to financially protect themselves with such methods. We hope no one experiences this situation but we hope this reminder will help you feel more prepared.

2022 has been our first year with the Bind health plan option. Bind has some valuable maternity resources that may be of interest to you as a current member or if you are considering enrolling in the plan for 2023. Having a baby can be a joyous occasion but can also be an expensive one! Bind helps you know what to expect in the way of expenses so you can plan ahead for you and your growing family.

Check out this tutorial at Bind to further explore maternity benefits under their plan:

The Bind guide to maternity (yourbind.com)

Below is a real-life example of a current employee's maternity benefits under Bind. The example breaks down the costs before insurance, discounts given by providers, and then the bottom line you want to know: how much would this have cost me on average on each plan offered with the district?

Employee Benefits shared several e-mail reminders leading up to the close of the school year regarding COVID leave reinstatements. For those eligible, reinstatement requests were due no later than May 31, 2022. This process would allow the return of leave hours to your bank if utilized because of COVID situations. If the COVID situation put you into deduct, the process is to return the hours and then in turn pay you an off-cycle check for time missed.

Employee Health has been actively working on these reinstatement requests since the school year rolled down. The vast majority of these should have processing complete by early July; however, or goal is to have the entirety of these completed by the end of July in preparation for the return of school.

Once your reinstatement is processed, you will be notified by district e-mail of the completion and exact dates.

We truly appreciate your patience as we work through these!

Our EAP (Employee Assistance Program) with ComPsych offers helpful resources in all areas of your life. You can access all of these services by creating an account at www.guidanceresources.com. Use the code USD259 when prompted.

With us having just celebrated June as Pride Month, it was timely to share the specific LGBTQ+ specific resources that can be found at the ComPsych website. The below link will take you to the guide but will require you to sign in first (or set up an account if you have not done so already).

LGBTQ+ Resource Page on ComPsych

Articles that can be found here include the following topics:

• Coming Out (At Work, To Kids, As Transgender)
• Youth Resources (Supporting an LGBTQ Child, Tips for Parents, Safe Social Media)
• Relationship Resources (Setting Boundaries, Dealing with Stress in a Relationship)
• Understanding Your Rights (Adoption Guide, Court Rulings)

Source:

www.guidanceresources.com

Manager of Employee Benefits

HR/Employee Benefits & Insurance Management

Email: employeebenefits@usd259.net
Website: http://www.usd259.org/HumanResources
Location: 903 South Edgemoor Street, Wichita, KS, USA
Phone: 316-973-4581