Last week, Vice-President Klein and I met with District CFO Scott Gainer and the Supervisor of Payroll, Sherice Kado, to resolve the numerous payroll problems brought to us by members. The meeting was productive and helped to clarify a number of the concerns. Listed below are the specific outcomes of our meeting:
1.Federal Withholding. Several employees had their federal withholding increased without their authorization or change in tax status. The explanation given by the employer was that a new payroll software system was implemented. We suggest that after you file your 2011 tax return, you should notify the Payroll Department at the Board if you would like to modify your withholding by changing the number of allowances declared or setting a specific dollar amount to be withheld.
2. City Income Tax. Some teachers who were transferred and had their building assignments changed from schools in Cleveland Heights Schools to schools in University Heights or vice-versa are having city income tax deducted from their pay based on the school to which they were assigned prior to their transfers instead of their current buildings. Please be sure to check your pay stub to verify that the correct city tax is deducted. If not, contact the Payroll Department at 320.2047 to complete the appropriate forms needed to make the correction.
3. Retroactive Pay. Teachers who have performed supplemental contract services since the opening of the school year, but who did not start receiving supplemental contract compensation until much later were having their retroactive pay divided up among the remaining pay periods. This will be corrected and retroactive pay is forthcoming.
4. December 30th Payroll Deductions. Several of our members did not have their authorized deductionfor our Committee on Political Education (COPE) fund in their December 30th pay. This will be corrected in the next payroll by doubling up. If you are a maximum contributor at $4 per check, your next check will have an $8 COPE deduction.
Commentary:
The recent payroll problems are largely due to the transition last summer to new payroll software, known as the “state software”, which is supposed to help the district comply and coordinate with reports that they are required to make to the state. By no means does this excuse the mistakes, but the new software has been a source of frustration to the payroll department as it does not accommodate the various payroll categories our district uses.
In Union,
Tom Schmida, President