Nearly one-third of the Polk County school district’s employees did not see their semi-monthly pay deposited into their bank accounts as expected Friday morning.
Some employees might have received overdraft notices from their banks, though a school district official assured them that they would face no such fees.
The problem affected approximately 4,100 of the district’s roughly 14,000 employees, including teachers and other workers. Employees who are paid monthly were not affected, Polk County Public Schools staff said.
Jason Pitts, the district’s chief of staff, issued an email to employees Friday assuring them that all payments had been deposited to bank accounts by early Friday afternoon. Jason Geary, a district spokesperson, said Pitts had confirmed by mid-afternoon that all direct deposits had been made.
District staff noticed a problem Thursday night, Pitts said in an email.
“Late last evening, district staff were made aware of an issue with the file that was transmitted to banks for direct deposits for those on the semi-monthly payroll cycle,” he wrote. “We have worked with our payroll banking partner MidFlorida Credit Union this morning on a resolution. It is our understanding that all employees will see their direct deposit by 12:30 p.m. today (Friday).”
For employees who use other banks and incur overdraft fees because the deposit arrived late, Pitts wrote that the district was working on a letter that could be provided to the banks to have the fees erased.
“We will work with employees on this process to ensure no fees are charged, and employees are reimbursed if a bank does charge,” Pitts wrote.
Superintendent Frederick Heid also emailed employees, offering his “sincere apologies for the number of payroll issues we have had to date.”
“Please know that as a matter of transparency I have copied ALL of the individuals involved in this process so they can see what I am sharing with you and the assurances being made to prevent these types of issues from happening again,” Heid wrote.
The superintendent said that there is “simply no excuse” for the number of payroll errors that have occurred recently. He listed a series of “corrective action steps.”
Heid requested a full summary of why the issue arose, and he said he wanted to know whether the error was preventable. If it was an individual failure, it would be addressed accordingly, he wrote.
If district staff finds that a systems problem exists, he said the district will update its procedures and take steps to review the issues and sign off on payroll before it is processed.
District employees have encountered at least two problems with payments in the past seven months.
Hundreds of teachers did not receive full paychecks from December into February because of incorrect data entered in Polk County Public Schools’ payroll system.
The Polk Educators Association, which represents about 9,000 district employees, filed a class-action grievance on Feb. 1 over the pay discrepancies.
Polk teachers were supposed to receive the last of three rounds of $1,000 supplements at the end of May, but teachers learned in late April that the extra amount was not showing in the district’s payroll system, PEA President Stephanie Yocum said.
She said that the union and employees did not hear about the problem from district leaders but from a union member with access to the payroll system.
Yocum said she woke up at 6 a.m. Friday to a barrage of phone calls, text messages and emails about the latest problem with payments to union members. As of Friday afternoon, she said she had talked twice to Heid and had also called all seven School Board members, reaching three of them.
Yocum expressed frustration that the payroll issues have recurred.
“We continue to have issues that we shouldn’t be having, as a large employer,” Yocum said. “And it’s just one thing after another, to where employees don’t trust the employer to pay them correctly.”
Yocum said that many district employees live paycheck to paycheck and can’t handle a disruption in the timing of their direct deposits. She did praise Heid for “taking ownership” of the problem and pledging to ensure it isn’t repeated.
Polk County Public Schools used to pay employees monthly, but all employees hired since July 1, 2020, receive payment twice a month. Yocum said that employees hired before that date had the option of shifting to semi-monthly payments. The district requires direct deposit payments for all employees.