(Memphis) The drama continues for Shelby County Schools, but this time it’s the teachers, not the students, being impacted by the merger.
Today is payday, but many teachers say they went into a panic when they woke up and saw their bank accounts, because their direct deposits hadn’t gone through.
Shelby County Schools says their system was overwhelmed by the number of employees it had to send direct deposits.
They refuse to call it a glitch, but some people say this hiccup was totally avoidable.
Living paycheck to paycheck is stressful enough then add not getting paid when you expect to.
It’s exactly what happened to hundreds of Shelby County School employees Friday.
The teachers’ union spent the day answering panicked phone calls.
“The district has acknowledged that there are some glitches in the system that has not allowed for payroll checks to post as timely as they should because of the bandwidth of the new pay system that they have,” said Memphis Education Association President Keith Williams.
School Board Member Kenneth Whalum said he believes bad planning put teachers in a bad spot.
“I`m sure the administration will say, ‘Oh we’re working the kinks out,’ but isn’t it sad to realize that it didn’t have to be that way,” said Whalum.
The school district says some paychecks posted when banks opened instead of the usual time of midnight.
The district, still working out kinks two weeks into the school year, says it sent the deposits on time.
Whalum isn’t surprised.
“There is no way to have prepared adequately for this magnitude of transition without given an appropriate amount of time to do so,” said Whalum.
Whalum believes a federal judge forced the merger for no reason since the municipalities plan on breaking off and creating their own districts next year, and delays over court hearings slowed down the process.
