VIRGINIA BEACH — A lawsuit filed Wednesday by more than 100 Virginia Beach school district employees against Superintendent Donald R. Robertson Jr. alleges he intentionally hid soaring health insurance costs from them until after they signed annual contracts.
The lawsuit, filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the workers, as well as an injunction preventing the higher premiums from going into effect until after the case is resolved. The group’s attorney, Tim Anderson, also filed a motion asking the court to allow the employees to remain anonymous because they fear retaliation from school officials.
Of the 112 employees participating in the complaint, about half are teachers, Anderson said. The rest are school bus drivers, counselors, therapists, a school nurse, custodians, cafeteria workers, and several office, teaching, and bus assistants.
The employees received a 3% raise this year, but it will be “eviscerated” by the increased premiums, Anderson said.
A spokesperson for the district didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent late Wednesday afternoon by The Pilot.
Employees received an Aug. 7 email from the Virginia Beach Consolidated Benefits Office announcing that, effective Jan. 1, insurance premiums would increase by amounts ranging from $2.04 to $210.97 per pay period, depending on the plan they had, according to the complaint. Retirees were informed their payments could rise up to $445.25 a month.
The lawsuit claims the increase was not caused by natural health cost inflation, but is the result of Robertson’s decision to end subsidies to employee health insurance costs this school year, something the district had provided the last two school years at a total cost of $19 million.
“By failing to budget for the subsidization of health insurance premium for this fiscal year, the Defendant knew, as early as March 2025, that premiums would at least double for Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit said. “Despite this knowledge, Defendant intentionally concealed the impending insurance premium increases from Plaintiffs while negotiating and executing the 2025–2026 contracts. No disclosures or warnings were given to employees. Instead, Plaintiffs were led to believe (and reasonably believed) that their health insurance would remain similarly priced or subject only to ordinary increases.”
At a school board meeting held several days after the email was sent, Robertson conceded that the district knew health care costs would be increasing, but said officials decided to wait to see how the costs “would evolve” before making an announcement, the lawsuit said.
“This explanation revealed that the District had pre-existing knowledge of the premium increases but deliberately delayed disclosure until after contracts were executed,” according to the complaint. “Plaintiffs allege that Defendant’s concealment of the premium increases was not an act of good-faith budgetary uncertainty but an intentional act to mislead employees.”
Anderson held a Zoom meeting with school employees Tuesday night, with about 270 participating. He told the group that if they’re successful, he will seek to have all Virginia Beach schools employees included, and not just the ones who signed on to the lawsuit.
Anderson also said that if they win, it will only apply to the current school year. After that, the employees will have to decide whether they want to continue working with the school system. Anderson also pledged to not seek attorney’s fees from the employees, or the school system, unless the case went into an appeals process, and then he would seek fees from Virginia Beach schools.
Jane Harper, [email protected]
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