HOUSTON -- Many Houston Independent School District workers are upset that some employees are getting thousands of dollars in bonuses while others cannot afford their health insurance, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

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List Of HISD's Performance Pay Bonuses

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One man has cleaned Sharpstown Middle School for the past 18 years. He said the increasing costs for health insurance are too much for him to handle.

"The insurance, less is better for me," Oswaldo Pineda said. "High, I can't pay."

Pineda said health insurance would cost him $444 per paycheck, leaving him $310 to take home every two weeks.

"I need to pay bills," Pineda said. "I can't pay every paycheck."

Pineda got into trouble when he had to spend two days in a hospital. He got a bill for just under $8,500. He pays the hospital $50 per month.

Pineda said he believes the school district can do more to reduce health care costs. The pleas come as HISD handed out bonuses to principals, including $5,260 to the principal of the school he cleans after the students go home. Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra received a $67,250 bonus.

"There's a better way to spend the money," said Orell Fitzsimmons, spokesman for Service Employees International Local 100.

Fitzsimmons said that more than 67 percent of HISD's non-teacher employees cannot afford health insurance.

"Put that money in a pool and make the insurance policy in the district affordable for all the workers," Fitzsimmons said.

A HISD spokesman said the district has one of the most affordable and best-run health care programs and premiums have not increased in two years. He said the union has made similar claims before and it is not true.

The union is circulating a petition to lower costs and it plans to present it to the school board next month.