By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

POLAND – School officials say a new health insurance plan will cost Union 29 less and offer teachers the same kind of coverage they’ve been used to.

Teachers say it’s a poor substitute.

Now the two sides have asked insurance experts – who also can’t agree – to battle it out for them.

A clause in a three-year contract signed last year gave school officials the right to seek out a new, cheaper insurance plan and present it to teachers at any time. If the teachers agreed that the new plan was comparable to their old one, they could switch mid-contract.

Union 29 officials found a cheaper plan and offered it to employees, but teachers refused to accept it. They said the benefits weren’t equivalent.

Under the clause, a three-member panel can resolve the dispute. School officials appointed their expert to the panel and teachers appointed theirs. But the two experts have not been able to agree on a third, impartial person, school officials said.

“We’re still trying to get names to put on the table,” said Assistant Superintendent William Doughty.

Until the dispute is resolved, teachers will continue to use the Anthem health insurance plan approved in the contract last year.

“Teachers are happy with Anthem, and that’s what they want to stay with,” said Emily Patek, president of the Poland high school teachers’ union.

While teachers and school officials argue over health insurance plans, a planned mediation session between elementary and middle school support staff and the school system was canceled Thursday. The two sides were expected to discuss a new contract, but an illness in the mediator’s family forced the meeting to be canceled, Doughty said,

The mediation will be rescheduled.