‘We’ve been more than patient.’ NC district sued over missing teacher paychecks
Gaston County educators are suing the district’s school board over ongoing payroll issues.
The problem has left some without money to pay their bills and support their families, according to the North Carolina Association of Educators.
Hundreds of Gaston County teachers, administrators and education support personnel — who are paid monthly — said they experienced repeated, ongoing discrepancies with compensation since the district adopted a new payroll system in January 2022. With nearly 4,000 employees across 56 schools, the district, according to NCAE, owes more than $25,000 in monetary damages.
Some were underpaid, some were overpaid and some were paid too early, which pulled from medical coverage or summer salaries. Some are missing retirement funds.
It’s gone on too long, according to NCAE.
Jeffery Booker, Gaston County Schools Superintendent apologized for the incorrect and missing paychecks during a September town hall meeting, according to WFAE and WCNC.
The following month the district had an on-site payroll specialist from Oracle working to correct the outstanding issues, a spokesperson told WBTV.
The lawsuit was filed March 8 in the Gaston County Courthouse.
An internal email included in the lawsuit revealed test runs of Oracle — the new, problematic payroll system meant to be implemented statewide — showed more than 2,000 errors before school officials approved its adoption.
Gaston County Schools went against the recommendations of both the state’s Department of Public Instruction and CherryRoad Technologies, Oracle’s vendor, and intentionally processed payrolls known to be wrong, according to the lawsuit.
For at least two plaintiffs, their bank accounts haven’t seen correct compensation for more than a year, according to NCAE.
Elisabeth Haywood, who has worked for the district for 18 years, was subject to “essentially an involuntary, forced loan” when Gaston County Schools processed nearly $17,000 into her paycheck, according to the lawsuit.
It showed up as taxable income on her annual W2 IRS form. Haywood explained her issue to administrators and payroll employees three times, eventually entering it for a third time in a Google form. She has not seen any resolution.
Gaston County Schools formed a customer service team largely composed of non-payroll employees like coaches and athletic directors, according to the lawsuit.
She believes teachers’ inherent good nature has been taken advantage of, according to the lawsuit. The most significant fruits of her teaching labors – steady reliable compensation – had been taken by the government.
In June, Gaston County Schools simply failed to pay Bobbie Cavnar — a former Teacher of the Year who has taught with the district for nearly two decades — for an entire month, according to the lawsuit. He later received compensation in July, along with a $200 overpayment.
The issues continued into fall, according to the lawsuit, and Cavnar no longer knows which deposits are overpayments he could be taxed on and which ones are rightful reimbursements.
The NCAE is suing the school district on three counts of negligence, taking property without just compensation and infringement of the inalienable right to earn a living. It requests that it respond to notifications of improper compensation within five days and resolve the issues within ten days.
“The district had more than a year to figure out a solution and make the hardworking employees of Gaston County Public Schools whole,” said Tamika Walker Kelly, NCAE’s president. “We know with new systems come quirks, and we feel we’ve given them enough time to resolve this issue. We’ve been more than patient.”
The issue can be traced back to 2016, when the state’s General Assembly passed the School Business System Modernization Act, setting up a system that would provide “large amounts of state funding” to schools that voluntarily adopted new technology — such as payroll systems, according to the lawsuit.
It took effect in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, and has been a headache for Gaston County School employees since it adopted Oracle.
The NCAE is concerned about the “increasing the likelihood of similar payroll issues occurring in other communities in the coming years,” according to its news release.
