State told school district not to implement new payroll system

Gaston County Schools went live with its troublesome payroll system against state recommendations, according to state officials.

Rep. Kelly Hastings, R-Gaston, said in a statement that he was contacted hundreds of times about the payroll issues in Gaston County, which have plagued the district since the new system was implemented in January.

Gaston County was the first district to implement the system, which was provided by Oracle, but it will eventually be used throughout the state.

Hastings shared emails with the Gazette from Fiscal Research Division staff of the North Carolina General Assembly, who said that Gaston County was advised not to proceed with the new payroll system.

Fiscal Analyst Eric Moore wrote that the new system was created as part of the School Business System Modernization project that the General Assembly enacted into law and began funding in the 2017 budget.

The state developed the specs for what a school business IT platform should look like and is paying the costs of the transition for the school districts that implement the new system.

The program is not mandatory, however, and Gaston County chose to go live with the new system "against the recommendations" of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

In a follow-up email, Fiscal Analyst Stephen Bailey told Hastings that the Fiscal Research Division received an email from Dr. Vanessa Wrenn, chief information officer of the Department of Public Instruction, that stated, "Gaston was advised by DPI not to go live."

Gaston County Schools Superintendent Jeff Booker and district spokesman Todd Hagans did not return emails requesting comment.

However, Booker defended the school district in comments to staff on Monday evening and said that district staff are working with the state to fix the payroll problems.

At a meeting on Tuesday night, Gaston County Schools Superintendent Jeff Booker said that Gaston County Schools' previous payroll system was around 30 years old, and school district leaders didn't want to be "having a conversation about how we didn't do anything."

"And so what we've encountered is like any business system conversion. There are likely to be issues," Booker said.

The problems with the Oracle payroll system started in January, and since then, at least one teacher has quit because her paycheck did not come on time. Other teachers have expressed that there have been problems with their paychecks. Gaston County was the first district to implement the system, which was provided by Oracle, but it will eventually be used throughout the state.

A teacher, Diane Gibson, asked Booker if the issue was a Gaston County problem, or whether it had to do with the support from CherryRoad Technologies, an online support vendor who is aiding in the transition.

Booker dodged the question, instead saying that he is focusing on solving the problem, not pointing at who is responsible.

"What I know is that at 2:30 in the morning, 4:30 in the morning, on those calls. I see CherryRoad representatives, I see county representatives, I may see state representatives, all trying to work to try and get the files corrected," he said. "So, for me, this is about solving problems, not about trying to say who hasn't done what, because if we don't work together, it's not going to cause anything positive for anyone."

Gibson asked if outstanding issues have been corrected since the last payroll cycle.

"We are continuing to work on outstanding issues," Booker said.

"OK, so that would be no?" Gibson said.

Gibson asked if there is a timeline for when the problems with payroll might be resolved.

"Yeah, our timeline would be immediate," Booker said, adding that each problem is different and updates to the software can cause additional problems.

"And I understand that if I'm the person that's owed $1, I don't understand that answer, but I can say that the resources are being put to try and do it the best that they can," Booker said.

Booker also said that the district is working to transfer staff money to the state retirement system. Although money had been withheld from employee paychecks, starting in April, the money had not gone into the state system, causing some teachers to worry about their retirement.

The file for April the district tried to upload to the state system had errors and the file was rejected numerous times, the district has said.

However, the April file has finally been accepted, and May has been submitted, Booker said.  Once that file is accepted, the district will submit payments for June, July and August, which will make it current.

"It's our understanding in talking with the administrators of the fund that you're not losing interest during that time because the state doesn't post that interest but on an annual basis," Booker said.

Pam Miller, president of the Gaston County branch of the N.C. Association of Educators, said that the Gaston County NCAE was not satisfied by some of Booker's responses.

She said that knowing that Gaston County was advised by state officials not to go live with the new system has made them wonder why the system was implemented at all.

"If they told you that you're not ready, then why did we go through with this?" She said.

They also want to know why the issues with the new system have persisted.

"We just want to know why we're having all of these issues and it's taken this many months, and we're still not fixed," she said. "We still don't like not having, you know, an approximate end date for all of this. I know that they can't give us an exact date, … I understand that, but like, you're bound to have an estimate as to how long it's going to take to fix. We weren't really satisfied with that answer either."

She said that the fact that Gaston County was able to upload the file from April into the state retirement system is a good sign, but she feels Gaston County Schools has not been transparent enough.

"The miscommunication and no communication has gone on throughout this whole fiasco. So I just feel like, the more information, factual information people have, the easier it is to feel like we're getting the truth from our employers," she said.

"Yeah, we feel like that there is an issue with transparency. I don't know that any other system has been in this situation. Hiding things from your employees doesn't really help the relationship there, no matter what business you're in."

Still, she said she was grateful Booker attended the meeting.

"I do appreciate our superintendent's willingness to be on that call. He knew what the questions were that we were going to ask him, but he wasn't sure what kind of situation he was stepping into," she said. "I really appreciate his willingness to even meet with us."

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 704-869-1850 or at kfohner@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing here.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Payroll system for teachers was introduced, despite state guidance