When some 140 paraprofessionals at Fort Bend Independent School District’s Special Education Department open today’s summer school paychecks, they’ll find they’re light by $2 an hour.
But the compensation error “has been resolved,” a district spokeswoman said, and each employee shorted in his or her regular paycheck will receive a second check containing the difference.
Those checks can be picked up beginning Friday through next Wednesday, FBISD Chief Communications Officer Mary Ann Simpson said. Checks not picked up by next Wednesday (Aug. 5) will be mailed.
The error was the result of a mistake by the Special Education Department. That department “originally posted the paraprofessional postions for summer school at a rate of $12 an hour,” Simpson said. “It was an oversight by the department that the rate had been increased to $14 per hour.”
The error irritated officials at the Fort Bend Employee Federation, an American Federation of Teachers affiliate that says it represents about 2,000 FBISD employees.
“We’re not here to point fingers; we’re happy the disttrict is getting it right,” said federation organizer Anthony Lacsamana. “But why can’t they get it right from the beginning?”
He said the paraprofessionals “were told from the beginning it was a $14-an-hour position,” in June.
The Special Education Department became aware of the error last Friday, at which point department records were changed to reflect the higher per-hour pay, Simpson said.
On Monday, the department sent representatives to those district campuses holding summer school, “to advise the paraprofessionals of the discrepancy,” Simpson said, “and to let them know they would be compensated at the $14-per-hour rate.”
However, several paraprofessionals complained that they were not told during those meetings when checks containing the additional compensation owed to them would be made available.
Simpson clarified that point late Wednesday afternoon.
And, she added, “It is important to know that this error was not a result of any technology issue, it was a human error. The district truly regrets that this happened but is acting as quickly as possible to correct it and compensate these employees.”
Summer school compensation for district paraprofessionals has become a sensitive subject. Lacsamana said there have been summer school pay snafus “for years.” Over the past two years, some payroll problems have been blamed on the district’s software system.
In 2008, pay raises and salary adjustments approved by the FBISD Board of Trustees in August didn’t appear in employees’ paychecks for several weeks, due to what the head of human resources called an “extremely detailed and time-consuming” pay adjustment “process.”
This spring, spurred by complaints about FBISD pay problems, state Rep. Dora Olivo (D-Missouri City) introduced a bill that would have opened school districts to lawsuits if they fail to pay employees according to Texas Labor Code.
The bill died without a Texas House vote, but not before Republican state Rep. Fred Brown roasted the FBISD administration during a hearing of the House Technology, Economic Development & Workforce Committee in May.
Teacher and Fort Bend Employee Federation member Rosie Williams testified to Brown and other committee memebers that FBISD hasn’t been paying summer school employees on time, and that some received their last 2008 summer school check as much as 60 days late.
“I think the best way to handle this is that all the people in the administration that have this attitude – lets just hold up on their paychecks for 60 days and lets see how they like it,” Brown said at the hearing. “You start messing with people’s pay – that’s just wrong.”
Lacsamana said the $2 per hour that wasn’t included in Thursday paychecks represents a lot of money to hourly employees – sometime the difference between being able to buy their kids school clothing or not.
“Just because they’re in the driver’s seat doesn’t mean they have to run all over everyone,” he said of the school district. “And that’s what they did in this situation.”
And these bozos will have the nerve to say that they will use the 3.5 tax increase to fund teachers pay at the Tax meeting next Monday. BULL! they will use it to fund the Global “Science” Center for their vendors, while FBISD classrooms have 30+ students in the average class. What a twisted lot! God bless America!
Will these FBISD employees standup to find good honest leadership in FBISD and state, if they want to say something about their pay check? Voters and FBISD employees have fail to standup strong in 2009 and previous elections!
How convenient.
LOTS of bills die every session…
I wonder if they paid the superintendent this way if he would continue to work for the district?
I wonder if they paid the board paid the senior administrators this way would they continue to work for the district? I wonder why Charlie Howard wasn’t leading this charge to get these people paid on time? Aren’t many of the districts employees in his jurisdiction? I hope someone runs against him this time.
FBISD paying late to employee, thence intrest needs tobe include to late employees pay checks!! Just like late tax
payment fees, include intrest penalty feeswhen payments are late!
It’s very important for the lowest pais educators in FBISD to be paid correctly. Ever tried to raise your family on $$16.00 perhour and $$14 in summer.
When is somebody (anybody) at the FBISD Administration actually do something beside spread fertilizer.
Nobody gives a “tinkers damn” about their BS excuses, just pay the employees on time and the right amount. That ought to be the least they could do.
When are the administrators going to get the job done right the first time !!!???
This is why Dora Olivo’s bill should have been passed, put some teeth into the bite and maybe they could do their job.
Mistakes are inevitable. Each year I try to make “NEW” mistakes. Has the district repeatedly made “overpayment” mistakes to anyone, especially to the lesser compensated employees.
I think the professional staff would call for someone to lose their jobs if this were to happen to them…annually.
Is the interest from the mistakes being passed on to the paraprofessional staff? If not, the district may be earning income from these repeated mishaps.
Teachers…if it is happening to them, it is happening to you.
“The bill died without a Texas House vote.” Why did this bill die?
Did the bill die because of high friends in high places?
So…not only do these folks have to wait for their first summer school paycheck…summer school started mid-June…this is 6 weeks later, but they get shorted $2 an hour to boot? At $12 or even $14 an hour, that’s the difference between putting gas in your car or food on your table or not. Ridiculous! Ft. Bend collects my taxes on time every year… can’t they pay their employess ON TIME and correctly?? In any new job, I’ve only had to wait a max of 3 weeks for a paycheck… ridiculous that those already on the payroll have to wait 6 weeks for just their first check and very SHAMEFUL that it’s wrong by so much!!
Paraprofessionals can very least afford these “repeated” pay problems. I was astonished the first time this happened and now that it is a vile pattern of abuse,
I can say to myself … “at least we have a Global Science Center in the works!”
Shame and bulloney.