Review of teacher payroll error leads to disciplinary action against personnel

 

March 25, 2011 - Following the completion of an internal review into the payroll error that resulted in the overpayment of more than 1,400 teachers, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Alan J. Ingram today took disciplinary action against school district personnel whose mistakes were found to have caused the problem.

 

“Due to statutory exemptions under Massachusetts General Law, I cannot disclose specific references concerning this disciplinary matter, but I will say that we made an aggressive investigation and traced back every step involved in the calculation of teacher payroll to pinpoint where the error occurred,” said Ingram. “Those responsible for the mistake have been held accountable for it.”

 

The internal review was led by Melissa Shea, the executive director of human resources, and was conducted from February 17 - March 14. The investigative report was reviewed by the City of Springfield Law Department.  The city Law Department determined the overpayment involved “human error with no suggestion of malicious intent … It appears that the mistake was caused as a result of the complexity of the calculations required by the new contract.”

 

“We deeply regret the hardship this error has caused to our teachers, and we are working closely with the teachers’ union to arrange for the money to be repaid in a way that least disrupts the personal family budgets of those teachers,” Ingram said. “We want to establish a process to repay this money that is transparent and fair to our teachers; but also safeguards the taxpayers’ money.”

 

Ingram added that he has called for a full review of payroll practices. He has directed the Finance and Human Resources Department to review every contract and salary schedule to make sure they are aligned. District wide, there are 11 different collective bargaining units and each has its own salary schedule.  “We are looking at our past practices down to the penny, and at the same time we are putting new processes and procedures in place for moving forward,” said Ingram. New measures include creating a segregation of duties involving the business department, human resources and payroll; a system of checks and balances; and written procedures that are to be followed.