Florida Educational Risk Management Association (FERMA) Best Practices Award Winner for 2009.

The Florida Educational Risk Management Association (FERMA) plans to annually assess the leadership qualities of its members and reward those who demonstrate exceptional outcomes. For 2009, the inaugural year of this award, an assessment was performed by a committee comprised of the FERMA Board and various vendors working in the field of Risk Management. The areas of concentration for this year’s award were Safety Management, Workers’ Compensation, General Liability, Automobile Liability, and Environmental Liability.

It was the unanimous decision of the committee to award the first “FERMA Best Practices Award” to Glen Lathers, Safety and Risk Manager for Hillsborough County Public Schools. According to several members on the committee, Mr. Lathers’ implementation of proactive insurance programs designed to provide adequate risk avoidance at the district were unmatched among the other Florida school districts assessed. Several of the best practices recognized were:

• Reduction in required reserves for the District’s self-insured programs
  • Workers’ Compensation and General Liability costs were reduced from $24,991,648 in 2005 to $15,178,515 in 2009
• Reduction of the annual State Self-insured Assessment Modification Factor for Workers' Comp.
  • Rate reduced from 1.19 in 2001 to .80 in 2009 ($500,000+ saved annually)
  • average Modification Factor for Florida School Districts is 1.67
• Effective management of all environmental risks to the District
• Student Athletic Insurance Program identified as a model program

* Demonstrate "best practices" in all aspects of safety including students, employees, visitors, facilities, transportation, and health

N/A

N/A