Teachers in the Belen Consolidated School district — and other employees — might go without pay for nearly a month at the beginning of next school year.

The pay problem arose because two district calendars don’t quite sync up, with the academic calendar that sets teachers’ first contract day and the payroll schedule that sets check disbursements disadvantaging all 180-day employees with an extended gap between paychecks.

The employees last summertime check covers them through the first week in August, but they won’t receive the next one until September.

“Our problem is that right now the way the payroll schedule was set it does not allow for 180-day employees to get a check until September 4,” Bernice Montoya, a 180-day employee affected by the issue, told the board. “We’re asking for your help.”

Many employees, who work through the summer, will get paid on August 21. But because teacher contracts start on August 19, teachers will miss the August 18 payroll deadline for the August 21 check disbursement.

“We’re asking that you guys help us some way so we’ll be able to get a check at least by August 28 so we can make our mortgage payments on September 1,” Montoya told the board.

All 180-day employees were notified by email about the issue at 3:45pm on the last day of school, Montoya said, with a copy of the dated email in her hand. Teachers claim the district hasn’t fully informed them about what’s going on and whether or not they’re going to get paid.

“The biggest concern we have is that we’re finding things out little by little,” Montoya said, later adding, “As people are finding out about this, they’re coming forward because this affects all of us.”

Board members at last night’s regular meeting hesitated to jump into the issue, staring down a KOAT camera crew and saying none of the members knew the full details of the problem. Board Chairman Jamie Goldberg, whose wife is a 180-day employee, said he found out about it yesterday afternoon.

“We haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. We haven’t had an opportunity to even see if it’s right, if it’s wrong, if we can fix it,” he said.

Teachers and National Education Association representatives have begun meeting with school officials to work out a solution.

To press for a resolution, the head of the local American Federation of Teachers, Santiago Montoya, filed a grievance against the district, triggering a legal process requiring the district to formally respond.

At the end of the board’s discussion of the matter, Bernice Montoya distributed Payday candy bars to the board members, so board members “will remember how important it is that we get our payday,” she said.

“We understand the economic times we’re all in, and we understand the importance of paychecks,” Board Member Julian Luna said.

This page was published on June 10, 2009 at 2:25am and is filed under Archive.