Is Taylor Cleaning House????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like every single chief position, in addition to the general counsel position, is suddenly posted on the careers section of the MCPS website as of today.

Wonderful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s paring down. He told the principals today that student enrollment has gone down but they’ve greatly expanded central office positions, when the one type of job that’s actually under-staffed is special ed. So everyone at and above the director level has to reapply for their jobs. I think this is a good thing, and I’m impressed that he’s doing it mid year. He wants staff in schools, not 11 bloated layers of bureaucracy. The principals are happy, from what I can tell.

Yay!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is going to take at least a decade to overcome the disastrous anti-student, anti-teacher practices implemented by Moran, Edwards, Key and Williams. Our tax payers paid these 4 central office administrators a million dollars at year ($250k per) to ruin lives for students, staff and families, while obliterating public trust in our once prestigious MCPS.

The mismanagement by these 4 yielded a payout of over $1 million dollars to McKnight, and decimated the local school system. The fact that they have to reapply for their jobs instead of facing accountability (and prosecution for fraud) that is expected of tax funded positions is the real head-scratcher.

Every MCPS stakeholder would benefit from each of these individuals not being affiliated with our public education.

The boe needs to be held accountable.

True. Lynne and the Fiscal Management Committee were really asleep at the wheel.

Oh yeah, I'm sure Montoya is practically an actuary and will be able to double-check all the estimates next time...

You mad, Lynne? Better luck in your next gig.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

Hiring consultants to do all this is financially a huge waste. MCPS has staff attorneys and financial folks to do it. Enough with the outsourcing. That money needs to go to students. MCPS should make changes to benefits as its not sustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

Hiring consultants to do all this is financially a huge waste. MCPS has staff attorneys and financial folks to do it. Enough with the outsourcing. That money needs to go to students. MCPS should make changes to benefits as its not sustainable.

Attorneys and "financial folks" do not have the expertise neeeded to estimate health care costs.

MCPS probably shouldn't self-insure, it would almost certainly cost more to have the insurance companies assume the risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

Hiring consultants to do all this is financially a huge waste. MCPS has staff attorneys and financial folks to do it. Enough with the outsourcing. That money needs to go to students. MCPS should make changes to benefits as its not sustainable.

Attorneys and "financial folks" do not have the expertise neeeded to estimate health care costs.

MCPS probably shouldn't self-insure, it would almost certainly cost more to have the insurance companies assume the risk.

I'm not sure I get your last point. Is it that even though MCPS shouldn't self-insure, that it would be more expensive to do have the insurance companies assume the risk and therefore it's not likely to happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

Hiring consultants to do all this is financially a huge waste. MCPS has staff attorneys and financial folks to do it. Enough with the outsourcing. That money needs to go to students. MCPS should make changes to benefits as its not sustainable.

Education financial folk do not have the expertise to fully forecast future insurance cost. And many agree that MCPS has to make changes to the benefits. MCPS has already stated this needs to happen. However they don’t get to do that in a vacuum. They have to negotiate with the union partners and as already been mentioned worry about staff retention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

Hiring consultants to do all this is financially a huge waste. MCPS has staff attorneys and financial folks to do it. Enough with the outsourcing. That money needs to go to students. MCPS should make changes to benefits as its not sustainable.

Attorneys and "financial folks" do not have the expertise neeeded to estimate health care costs.

MCPS probably shouldn't self-insure, it would almost certainly cost more to have the insurance companies assume the risk.

They need their attorneys to administer board such as this dcum

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Anonymous wrote:I'm an admin and couldn't be happier with our new superintendent. He was very clear that offices aren't speaking to one another and there needs to be an overhaul. He's walking the talk by having all of these people reapply for their positions. We're drowning in school buildings while some central office people still Zoom into meetings from home.

This is what I'm hearing from other administrators as well. They are happy with Taylor, and very happy with the reorg.

At a certain point, there are elements on this board and in the broader community who are just never going to be happy. They will snipe and they will harass and they will mock, and some of it is just trolling and some of it is bad feelings from a job they lost a decade ago, but the rest of us need to ignore the noise and listen to folks like PP who have actual skin at the game at this point.

The insiders who know all the names of the people at the CO and follow know all the semi-true drama aren't all that credible. They're always looking to find fault and discover conspiracies that don't exist.

Then let’s just focus on the disasters that do exist. No need to secrets. The MCPS health insurance system is crashing. That’s a fact, not a secret. MCPS is in financial trouble on multiple fronts. What is Superintendent Taylor doing about these known disasters?

The health insurance system isn’t crashing, BUT its financial stability does need to be constrained. And MCPS needs to have some very real and frank conversations with current staff, retirees, the county and state about this. They also need to get real clear with their insurance company about what they can eliminate to help while still making the insurance comparable to other jobs. Because this is having a big impact on the larger available budget.

I think you're exaggerating the problem. Healthcare is a mess overall in this country, but MCPS mostly just needs to donate couple things. They need to slightly reduce the employer share of premiums to be closer to other government jobs. And they need to get rid of whatever corrupt entity low-balled the medical costs in order to keep employee-premiums artificially low. Related to that, rhey need to change their practices so there's a carryover fund to make up for differences between the expected and actual health cRe costs, and adjust premiums to refill that fund when there's a shortfall in previous years.

You think the entity low-balled the medical costs on their own? They were likely instructed to do so by their MCPS counterparts. The entity in question is AON, btw. And they were likely instructed to lowball by Brian Hull, who feigned surprised and shock when the bill came due.

Or just stop what the crackpot ideas. AON recommend 9-13% which MCPS accounted for and the actual came in much higher. Further, they didn’t have a large reserve to draw from because the county council made them include it as part of the budget for last year instead of it being a reserve. Even further, as was already mentioned, healthcare as been part of staff retention so moving the premiums 15% to where they probably need to be creates additional challenges.

What you’re witnessing is school systems near breaking point from the weight of a whole bunch of constraints that leave them very little room to maneuver.

Cute story, but it was very clear that AON and MCPS Ops/Finance misforecast in a way that was and should have been anticipated. Hull admitted as much and they told the council that they were having conversations with Aon about better management/forecasting.

Your desperation to blame everyone and everything but the system is pathetic.

First I didn’t blame anyone. Second you are misconstruing what Hill admitted. He admitted that the AON forecast was a miss because clearly cost were coming in higher than expected. What else would you call it at the point other than a miss? And because the difference was so high and causing so many problems and this was the 2nd time that AON’s forecast was a miss, that is why they were having serious conversations with them. It’s not so much that MCPS FinanceOps should have anticipated it. There only way they have to anticipate it is to create a reserve in case of a loss likely by including an upwards swag to the recommended guidance. But that would also have to be explained and agreed upon. You can’t just say oh AON recommended 9-13% but we want to swag it 20% just in case and pass the 13% into premiums and the other 7% into reserve from MCPS. Anyone with a brain would ask why and for overwhelming evidence that course of action was needed.

When you hire a service provider like AON, it's MCPS's job to scrutinize and oversee AON's work. It was very clear in that meeting that the Council felt that MCPS had given AON too much latitude and trust and could have and should have foreseen the issues AON was causing if MCPS's Operations/Finance team were doing their jobs better. I'm not sure how or why you're missing that piece.

lol. Okay. MCPS is going to be able scrutinize the work of an actuary that specializes in healthcare and benefits. There’s a reason you hire a consultant for some things.

Hiring consultants to do all this is financially a huge waste. MCPS has staff attorneys and financial folks to do it. Enough with the outsourcing. That money needs to go to students. MCPS should make changes to benefits as its not sustainable.

Attorneys and "financial folks" do not have the expertise neeeded to estimate health care costs.

MCPS probably shouldn't self-insure, it would almost certainly cost more to have the insurance companies assume the risk.

I'm not sure I get your last point. Is it that even though MCPS shouldn't self-insure, that it would be more expensive to do have the insurance companies assume the risk and therefore it's not likely to happen?

There should have been a "but" between the clauses.

As it stands, MCPS and taxpayers bear the risk and associated cost of underestimating insurance costs. When health care costs go above projections, MCPS needs to make up the difference.

If MCPS didn't self insure, then the health insurance provider would take on that risk.

But they're going to charge more money on premiums if they do that.

[Anonymous]

So who is not planning to reapply for their position?

[Anonymous]

Some info about these chief positions, including that Taylor will share more about his vision on Dec. 5th.

https://moco360.media/2024/11/26/mcps-to-reshape-leadership-structure/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some info about these chief positions, including that Taylor will share more about his vision on Dec. 5th.

https://moco360.media/2024/11/26/mcps-to-reshape-leadership-structure/

I am wondering how these executive-level positions are the same number as McKnight had.

I am not a big fan of making people reapply for their jobs. If someone isn't doing what you want, show that person the door. Otherwise, making a team of people fear for their jobs by having to reapply for the jobs weakens the moral of the team as well as that of the overall organization. What a dumb move. I'm beginning to wonder whether Taylor is up to the job.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Some info about these chief positions, including that Taylor will share more about his vision on Dec. 5th.

https://moco360.media/2024/11/26/mcps-to-reshape-leadership-structure/

I am wondering how these executive-level positions are the same number as McKnight had.

I am not a big fan of making people reapply for their jobs. If someone isn't doing what you want, show that person the door. Otherwise, making a team of people fear for their jobs by having to reapply for the jobs weakens the moral of the team as well as that of the overall organization. What a dumb move. I'm beginning to wonder whether Taylor is up to the job.

Agreed. Either get rid of the ones you don’t want or just keep them and change their roles and responsibilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some info about these chief positions, including that Taylor will share more about his vision on Dec. 5th.

https://moco360.media/2024/11/26/mcps-to-reshape-leadership-structure/

I am wondering how these executive-level positions are the same number as McKnight had.

I am not a big fan of making people reapply for their jobs. If someone isn't doing what you want, show that person the door. Otherwise, making a team of people fear for their jobs by having to reapply for the jobs weakens the moral of the team as well as that of the overall organization. What a dumb move. I'm beginning to wonder whether Taylor is up to the job.

Agreed. Either get rid of the ones you don’t want or just keep them and change their roles and responsibilities.

+100. FAANG companies do this and it has the exact effect you speak of. Sure people who are retained move past it enough to keep working but it is certainly a contributing factor in turnover and burnout.