With schools hurting due to the tough economy and state education cuts, a reckoning may be fast approaching for the Northeast Pennsylvania School Districts Health Trust, the group of area public school entities pooled together to increase health care bargaining power.

In a cost-saving effort, at least three school districts within the trust are signaling their intent to pull out next year, and more are considering it. Some school administrators complain that because the 11 members all have different health care requirements for their employees, the trust is not able to accurately calculate premiums, forcing some members to pay more than they spend and forcing some taxpayers to subsidize districts outside their own.

They also say that because the unions are happy with their current health care arrangement and have equal voting power with management on the trust's board, the trust has little motivation to find a better deal, which would in turn save taxpayers money.

"It's like an onion," said Jim McGovern, Lake-Lehman School District superintendent. "There are so many layers you have to get through to make change."

Seeking more autonomy and saying it could save $1 million, Lake-Lehman announced its intent to leave the trust last week. Administrators from Hanover Area and Northwest Area school districts have also said they will give their one-year notice, pending school board approval. And Hal Bloss, the executive director of the Luzerne Intermediate Unit 18, said the Kingston-based LIU may also submit its notice, but won't do so without union approval.

The goal for some of the members is not necessarily to leave, but rather to put pressure on the trust to more aggressively negotiate for better rates while still keeping the door open for a departure, administrators from those schools say.

"The best case scenario is that we stay in," Northwest Area Superintendent Ronald Grevera said.

Andy Marko, executive director of the trust and former superintendent of the Wyoming Valley West school district, denied claims the trust wasn't already searching for the best rates.

"It has worked for them. It has always worked for them," Marko said.

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Fractured health care trust reeling