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Flint schools bus
(MLive.com File Photo)
FLINT, MI – Flint schools and union officials want to find out who is working and who is getting paid in an effort to improve financial controls in the cash-strapped district.
"You (saw) our last audit – it was full of holes," said Jawun Nelson, the district's acting chief financial officer. "This is one of the steps we're taking to kind of true everything up."
Nelson didn’t know the last time the district did something like this or how often a person got paid who didn’t actually work for the district. He also didn’t know how much payroll errors may have cost the district.
“There have been cases where an employee received a check that shouldn’t have,” Nelson said. He said the paychecks picked up in person on payday -- Friday, Feb. 21 -- will root out those issues.
Flint has a $10.4 million deficit that it must erase by June 30, 2018. The district also owes the Genesee Intermediate School District $8.6 million in misspent county millage money that was meant for the Genesee Area Skill Center.
Employees will pick up their checks in person at Northwestern High School, G-2138 W. Carpenter Road, from 6:30 a.m. to noon or from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the administration building, 923 E. Kearsley St., according to a letter sent out to all workers in the district.
Individuals picking up checks also must bring government-issued identification such as a driver's license; an employee’s school ID won’t be accepted, the district said.
“I’ll be there at 6:30 in the morning to pick up my check and I will be depositing it in the bank at 6:35 a.m.,” said Amy Plumb, an elementary school teacher who has worked for the district for 19 years. “I don’t think they have enough money. That’s why I’m going early — to be one of the first people to get it and one of the first people to put it in the bank.”
Nelson said employees don’t have to worry about their checks bouncing and said the district has enough money to make payroll.
The district is moving to a new accounting system in April, Nelson said, so this week’s paycheck exercise will help the district ensure accurate records.
“I appreciate the administration’s going to this length to ensure that we know,” said school board President Isaiah Oliver. “I appreciate this level of detail because moving forward we start from a clean slate. That procedure should have been in place a long time ago.”
The United Teachers of Flint also will be there to verify its membership count when teachers come to pick up their checks.
UTF President Ethel Johnson said there is a discrepancy between the number of teachers in her union and the number of UTF members the school district has listed.
“We believe we have an accurate number,” she said. “We just want to confirm.”
The district’s administration and union leaders agreed to a memorandum of understanding that would reduce wages and compensation by 19 percent and eliminate some employees as part of a deficit elimination plan.
Those cuts also include selling the warehouse, outsourcing substitutes, secretaries and custodians, eliminating adult education and others.
The district is in the early stages of negotiations with both unions.
Dominic Adams is a reporter for The Flint Journal. Contact him at dadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.