The Lawrence school district’s tradition of offering to pay individual health insurance policies for eligible employees will cost $916,000 more next school year, officials said Wednesday.

A projected 19 percent increase in medical and dental rates comes at a bad time for the cash-strapped district.

The board has been trying to identify $4 million in possible budget cuts.

“This is ugly,” said Sandra Walker, a physical education teacher at Hillcrest School.

Walker, a member of the district’s fringe benefits committee, outlined the bad news to teachers and administrators negotiating a 2003-2004 contract for Lawrence public school educators.

Members of the benefits committee would prefer the district, not employees, cover the increased cost of insurance, she said.

There are 1,568 employees signed up to receive a “single” policy at district expense, including 1,208 people who just have individual coverage. The other 360 people apply their subsidy to the cost of a family plan.

Negotiators may consider requiring policyholders to pay the $48.70 monthly cost increase of an individual policy, she said.

“We’re at one of the few districts left within a 35- to 40-mile radius still … paying for a single,” Walker said.

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Sue Lewis, a West Junior High School teacher and fringe benefits committee member, said the premium for a family policy in the district would increase dramatically because a “reserve fund” used to mitigate past rate increases had been depleted. This year, each family plan participant received $109 a month from that reserve account.

“Now we don’t have that,” Lewis said.

Members of Lawrence Education Assn. and representatives of the school board agreed to ask the fringe benefits committee to study options for trimming premiums.