San Francisco teachers say they're not getting paid correctly after payroll change

SFUSD teachers demand answers after payroll system errors

Payroll problems are plaguing the SFUSD system again after hundreds of complaints that paychecks were missing thousands of dollars in wages.

SAN FRANCISCO - Some San Francisco teachers say they're not getting paid correctly – a month after the school district changed its payroll system in hopes of solving pay problems.

Short paychecks leave educators in financial bind

What they're saying:

"My paycheck was very short, it didn't reflect my current salary. It didn't reflect my extra hours," said Patricia Ross, an SFUSD special education teacher.

Ross said she was missing about $3,000 from her paycheck, and it was money she needed.

"It has impacted me with paying my bills on time," she said.

Martha Schendorf-Klinger said she worked over the summer and found her paycheck was short by $6,000.

"I've had to borrow money from a family account in order to pay rent and some bills," she said.

Union members representing those teachers said they're going through déjà vu trauma.

Some teachers have experienced pay problems for years, whether that means getting short-changed on paychecks, getting paychecks late, or the system messing with their health benefits.

San Francisco district leaders opted out of the old payroll system called Empower and brought in a new $20-million system called Frontline, saying it was reliable because a majority of districts in California use it.

Officials said they expected some hiccups, which would naturally happen with executing a new system.

However, United Educators of San Francisco said para-educators are once again going without pay. And it seems many of the glitches the district hoped to get rid of are still there.

This time around, the system is affecting the pay of about 200 para-educators and summer school substitute teachers, about 3% of union membership.

"We are raising the alarm that this new transfer to Frontline is actually full of errors," Union Executive Vice President Frank Lara said. "And many of the errors have to do with the same problems of the past, which are the lack of protocols, the lack of coordination with internal staff, the lack of accountability."

School district ironing out kinks

Dig deeper:

SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su said more than 97% of the paychecks were issued correctly this summer under the new rollout, but she says she understands the teachers' concerns and is working to make sure there are no errors. 

"We are working really quickly to address concerns and on day one we opened a call center," Su said. "As of last night, there were 750 tickets, and we have resolved 650 of them."

Su said the majority of school districts across California use the pay system.

"It is a system that is used by over 60% of school districts up and down the state of California. The problem is transition," Su said, noting that many of the problems are due to insufficient training of teachers in how to enter data correctly. Su said that is something she hopes to rectify quickly as teachers come back to school.

The district is posting updates on the Frontline roll-out nearly every day. In its most recent update, the district said:

"If there are problems with employee pay, we are acting fast—investigating, making corrections, and issuing payments as needed. To support staff, we’ve also created a website with information, frequent updates, and a way to report any payroll concerns."

Board President Phil Kim was not available for comments on camera, but offered the following statement to KTVU:

"Any discrepancies in paychecks can be alarming, especially given the history of our payroll challenges. It’s critically important that issues get resolved quickly. Implementation of any new software will have its challenges, but I’m encouraged to hear that over 97% of the paychecks issued as of today have been accurate. We owe it to our all of our staff to ensure their pay is on whole and on time. EmPower was a disaster. We will get Frontline right."

The union filed a complaint with the state labor board and is planning a protest Tuesday night ahead of the school board meeting.