EAST PROVIDENCE — One School Committee member easily defended the committee’s controversial decision last month to unilaterally change the health-care plan for teachers and other workers so the district could cut down its potential $3.3-million deficit.

The mid-contract switch — from one Healthmate Coast to Coast plan to another Healthmate Coast to Coast plan — increases fees for visits to medical specialists, urgent care, emergency rooms, eye exams and chiropractors. In one case, going to the hospital emergency room, the out-of-pocket expense rose to $100 from $50. The change also increases the price paid for prescription drugs by $2 and $5, depending on whether it is a generic or brand name drug.

In addition, there is a $250 deductible to sign up for health insurance. School officials say everything else is the same.

“There is a process called negotiation by which issues get resolved,” James P. Dwyer III, a teacher, wrote in a Nov. 29 e-mail to School Committee member Stephen A. DeCastro. It was titled, Democratic Society. DeCastro read it at the committee’s meeting last Tuesday. He read his two-page response aloud as well. “Unfortunately, you have chosen to violate this with the proposal and vote at the Nov. 13 School Committee meeting…. The place to discuss contract changes is at the bargaining table.”

The contract for the local teachers union — the largest union representing the city’s school staff — doesn’t expire until October 2008, but it agreed to meet early to help the district with its “financial difficulties.” Dwyer said the union’s negotiating team offered proposals that would have saved the department “a significant amount of money,” but they were refused.

“One must question to what degree the School Committee really wants to foster trust and positive working relations with the professional staff within the East Providence schools,” Dwyer wrote. “Especially after the [health care change] vote was taken against the advice of legal counsel! I am appalled by the lack of thoughtfulness and disregard for the professional staff in our School Department.”

Dwyer concluded, “In addition, the last I remember we were living in the United States of America.”

DeCastro — who proposed the change and therefore received the most criticism from teachers — started his response with stating Dwyer is correct, “We do live in the United States of America, where differing opinions are tolerated.”

He said a local ordinance mandates the city can’t annually raise the tax levy more than 3.5 percent and in addition, East Providence didn’t receive an increase in state aid this year. Despite school officials’ pleas, the City Council cut more from the district’s budget request. DeCastro said the council could have gone above the 3.5-percent cap with a super majority vote, but “not one person spoke out” and requested the levy to be adjusted for the department.

“That was the time for your outrage, not now,” DeCastro said. “We are simply faced with carrying out the law as it currently exists. By the way, since you are so concerned with me following the law and legal opinions, there is also a law stating that the School Department cannot deficit spend. So now what?”

He said if the district continues to spend and not cut, “no one will have any health care because at some point we won’t be able to pay Blue Cross. If we don’t pay Blue Cross, you won’t have any coverage. So I believe that a more cost effective health plan can be part of the solution.”

In addition, he said the proposals presented by the teachers union would not have save the department a “significant” amount of money. He also said the extra out-of-pocket expenses will probably be about $200 more a year and is “not so bad considering the East Providence school teachers remain the only teachers in the state of Rhode Island that don’t share in any health cost premiums.”

He concluded his response with, “I want to thank you for listening.”

apina@projo.com