SF teachers face payroll problems as new school year approaches

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — With just six days until the start of the school year in San Francisco, teachers are calling out the district for continuing problems with their payroll system.  

As you may remember, there were so many errors in the past, the district was forced to bring in a new system in July. 

As San Francisco school teachers begin setting up their classrooms days before the first day of school, the teachers’ union is calling out the district and raising a red flag.

“What we’re raising the alarm as a union is a crisis in the new payroll system,” said United Educators of San Francisco Vice President Frank Lara.

The issue is the district’s new frontline payroll system. It replaced a previous system in July that was put out to pasture after thousands were unpaid or improperly paid. Now, teachers say they are already having issues with the new system.

“Paraeducators are missing anywhere from 500 to $1,000 for benefits they should have been processed over summer,” Lara said. “And our other certified staff, these are like after-school summer programming staff, are missing thousands of dollars, anywhere from two to $3,000 for work over the summer.”

“It is extremely important to me and highest priority to ensure that we pay our employees accurately and on time, we will not have the same debacle that we had last year,” said SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Maria Su.

Su said the new system has been accurate 97% of the time, and more than 650 of the 750 complaint tickets have been resolved. Still, she says, she will not be satisfied until there are no errors in the payroll system.

“The problem that we’re experiencing is the transition from the old system into this new system,” Su said. “I firmly believe, as we the school district employees get better trained at using the system and at using the system, our error rates are going to continue to drop.”

But the teachers’ union says the school district has been dismissive and they have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board.

“We’re using this opportunity to escalate the matter that it gets resolved as quickly as possible, so that we can all really focus on what matters most, which is educating our children,” Lara said.

The first day of instruction is scheduled to get underway in San Francisco on Monday.