Orange school board delays health insurance vote fearing legal action

Orlando Sentinel | By: Steven Walker | October 20, 2026

The Orange County School Board on Wednesday delayed a hearing on the ongoing health insurance dispute between the district and its teachers union, but there was still hours of fiery debate on an issue that has roiled the school system for months.

A special magistrate proposed a compromise late last week that would have hiked employee costs, but not as much as Orange County Public Schools proposed. OCPS rejected that on Tuesday, one day after the local teachers union had accepted it.

The two sides were to present their arguments to the school board at Wednesday’s impasse hearing, but the school board delayed saying it feared legal retribution from the union if it proceeded. The union said Wednesday’s hearing did not provide the legally required amount of time between the magistrate issuing his opinion and the board holding a hearing, and suggested it could sue the district for unfair labor practices.

Mark Richard, the union’s attorney, said union leaders appeared at Wednesday’s hearing only because they feared if they did not the district might further cut employees salaries and benefits.

“We had a gun put to our head,” he said.

The board will re-convene Nov. 13.

School Board General Counsel John Palmerini said if the board didn’t delay its hearing, and the union sued, the state could rule that holding the hearing was a violation of fair labor practices. The state also could overrule the board’s decision on health insurance and force OCPS to pay more than $120 million in refunded health insurance payments, he said.

The crux of the dispute is about money, with OCPS saying teachers must pay more for health insurance because the district’s self-insured health fund is losing $20 million a month.

Orange County School Board Chair Teresa Jacobs speaks with teacher union attorney Mark Richard during a special impasse hearing on the health insurance bargaining standstill between OCPS and the teachers union at the OCPS administration building in Orlando on Wednesday, October 21, 2026.

Facing either a $20 million cost for delaying a month or a $120 million lawsuit, board Chair Teresa Jacobs called the district’s financial situation “dire.”

Angie Gallo, who will take over as the board’s chair in late November, said OCPS is already “bare bones,” so cutting $20 million to make up for the health insurance loss won’t be easy to find.

“There are no more vacant positions that we can remove off the books. It’s just jobs and people,” Gallo said.

In a statement issued after the hearing, union leaders said OCPS is trying to make teachers pay for the district’s mismanagement of health insurance through “higher premiums, higher out-of-pocket costs, and reduced claims when employees skip care they can no longer afford.”

The union added that “our educators did not manage this trust, yet they and their families are being asked to bear the consequences.”

OCPS currently operates a self-insured employee benefits trust and contributes part of its budget to provide health benefits to employees. Last spring, the district proposed hiking premium and deductible costs for employees due to rising healthcare costs nationwide, which OCPS says are making its current healthcare plan unsustainable.

The union has denounced the district’s proposal as far too burdensome for employees and their families and said it would amount to a pay cut for OCPS’ more than 13,000 teachers.

On Friday, a state-appointed magistrate handed down a recommendation that said the OCPS proposal would “create undue financial hardship” and recommended the compromise.

The union argued that it should’ve had 20 days from Friday’s ruling to prepare for a hearing. Wednesday’s hearing came less than five days after the magistrate weighed in.

Wednesday’s hearing was originally scheduled under the assumption that the magistrate would have weighed in by Sept. 15, but the recommendations were more than a month late.

The district rejected the magistrate’s recommendation late Tuesday, citing a $105.1 million price tag.

Health insurance cost increases compound the district’s current financial struggles, driven largely by declining enrollment. In the last two years, OCPS has lost more than 12,000 students and closed seven school campuses. School districts are funded by the state on a per-pupil basis, meaning fewer students equates to less money for Orange County schools.

Because of declining enrollment, OCPS has slashed jobs and department budgets to save money. Last spring, OCPS cut 200 district-level positions. At the start of this school year, the district cut nearly 100 first-year teachers from classrooms.