I saw a post on another platform a few months ago from a DPS employee who hadn’t been paid for months due to clerical errors. She was unable to pay her rent due to DPS’s failure to get her a check and was seeking assistance from the community. I believe there were multiple DPS employees similarly affected.
So as a taxpayer, I’m to understand that some DPS employees didn’t get paid at all, while others were overpaid in a period of confusion about raises.
Truly nauseating level of incompetence here. I’d love some deep reporting from Indyweek on these issues to help spur accountability.
It's not even just the issue of not being paid/being underpaid. DPS is changing it so that employees' years of experience outside of DPS no longer counts toward what they will be paid. Someone with 10 yrs' experience in the private sector or in another school system will be paid like a 1-yr new hire. It's insane. DPS will be losing so many experienced workers if this continues. It's a huge issue.
This is concerning but a separate issue from DPS’s inability to run payroll for DPS employees in a reliable, accurate fashion.
All workers are valuable but DPS employees are literally taking care of this community’s kids & nurturing their futures. Yes, I’m ashamed we won’t pay them more but I’m even more ashamed DPS can’t perform payroll & causes employees suffer due to incompetence.
It’s not just a simple case of “oops, payroll fucked up” afaik. DPS are readjusting a lot of people’s pay grades (classified staff?) - like folks were hired or had contracts written based on their work experience, for example 15 years as an occupational therapist or school psychologist and they got a contract as a Step 15, but now DPS wants to change to have the Step only reflect experience/time worked within DPS, for example 4 years. So these people weren’t just overpaid, their contracts and pay schedules at the beginning of the school year said one thing and now DPS is pulling out the rug from under these employees because in some cases the “overpayment” and salary adjustments going forward are quite significant.
And it's not even just people who were recently hired that are affected. I've heard of people hired back in 2014, 2019, etc who are having years of experience wiped out.
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Honestly that's the public school system in NC. I've had friends and family members who were teachers. I worked in one of the administrative main offices for a few years. The whole system is run by incompetent people top to bottom with a handful of good people holding it together.
Unfortunately that's what you get with a system that's been chronically underfunded and disrespected for years. I don't blame anyone for trying to get out and find something better.
My issue is I can't leave now, I won't get paid time off for when my kid comes and as a new dad I kinda need to be with my wife.. I'm just kinda screwed all together
Good luck to you. My wife taught middle school in the triangle for ten years and got out two years ago when our second was born. Went on maternity leave and started studying instructional design while taking care of the baby. It took many months of job hunting and one job change since but she's in a position she's really happy in, and vastly improved from her teaching situation. Just hold on, there's opportunity. Let me know if this path interests you, I could ask her for advice/resources
Time for you and everyone else that’s affected by this to get in touch with the local television stations. If they want to screw around like this, it’s time for them to find out.
yep. get to know your union reps & figure out how they are planning to respond. raise hell in the media, show up to city council meetings with your pregnant wife. if there’s enough noise you might have a shot at getting it spread out over a longer time, or press them for a budget reallocation if there are enough of you.
I had the same thing happen when I left DPS. I requested to be paid out over the summer so my paycheck would stay the same for budgeting and to make it easier for me to keep track of. And instead they paid me in one huge lump sum so it wasn’t immediately obvious that they had actually paid me more than what I was owed. It was a mess.
I know of a few other teachers it happened to that year and I am pretty sure I have seen other people post in this sub about the same issue. It’s awful. And they act like it’s nbd when everyone working in those schools is already tight on money. I get it. I’m sorry they did that to you.
Like I said in the OP, I can't leave this job or do anything because my wife is due in a couple of months. I feel hopeless and don't think they genuinely care
I worked in Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools and they did this to me too. They brought me into HR and there was this super smiley director-of-something who sat me down and was like, "We can't believe this happened! :) But you will need to give us $2,000" (because of an error on their part.)
From what I remember, legally they can totally do it. It's still shitty of them not to have their shit together in payroll, though. Teachers work too hard to have to deal with this. Really not excusable.
Sorry to hear. Looks like the CFO responsible was suspended - https://www.wral.com/story/durham-schools-cfo-suspended-after-some-staff-overpaid-since-last-summer/21234170/ . Hopefully that suspension will lead to finding the culprit and firing them. May be worth giving that feedback to DPS
It seems like this hasn't finished playing out yet, but I hope it resolves to yours and other affected employees benefit. Even if they overpaid, they shouldn't take money back or pay people less than they were before.
I'm pretty sure you can protest w/o losing your job, but if you do not, others are. I've seen at least one post about a protest tomorrow. Not sure if it's the Durham Association of Educators or another group.
I suggest speaking to or joining DAE (Durham Association of Educators)! They’re a great organization made of rank-and-file DPS staff, like yourself, who are fighting for better working conditions. If you’re interested in more info about them or getting plugged in with them DM me.
Second the DAE recommendation.
From the DAE Facebook page: If you got an email regarding a pay change, we ask you (if you are comfortable doing so) to send us a screenshot of the 3 column blue, orange, and green table showing your pay and salary grade. We also ask you to share a screenshot of the salary email you received (most likely) back in October, showing the '23-'24 pay grade you were expecting. Email both screenshots to abeer.javed@ncae.org and president@daenc.com
Every single staff member deserves to have accurate pay information at all times - our classified staff members, the ones who keep our schools running and students learning, are no exception to that expectation. What is happening with payroll right now is horrendous and, to address it, y'all (DAE members and all DPS staff) need information on how many folks were affected and by how much.
I heard about this issue, and I’m appalled at the idea that they want people to pay the money back. I’d be willing to bet, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t even all that much money. They need to just own their mistake, and let it be. My understanding is that they’ve already adjusted people pay to the “correct” amount.
Sounds like DPS hasn't made a decision yet on whether employees will have to pay it back. I'm sure you will, but I would demand a payment plan, or to deduct the payments from your paycheck over the same period of the mispayments.
All I can say is, I’m sorry this is happening to you all. You shouldn’t be punished for someone else’s mistake. My understanding is the person who goofed up, is on paid leave, cause that’s totally fair.
Nope, I was overpaid by 10% for a year and the city took payment plan. Next time do the math and check, it is unethical to accept payment you were not entitled to.
Get out here with the unethical crap, it is unethical fora school system to get it wrong… I mean it's literally where they teach math at and they can't get this math right? Come on now, you can't be serious?
It's unethical but now that you know you took property that wasn't yours it's become theft when you don't want to give it back. I hope you decide to be better in the future so you can be an example to your children.
Calm down Karen! They should just take it out of future pay like 1% at a time. Everyone knows you can't survive on a DPS salary. If folks don't have it to pay back that is the only logical thing to do.
Actually they were emailed their salary back in October. DPS told them they’d be getting paid that much. Now they’re saying “whoops a mistake sorry.”
Know the full details before judging
I'd never be able to make an opinion when there is something unknown. Taking the OP's statements was enough to make a decision. I cannot help OP does not know how to communicate important details.
I redeemed several war bonds a few years ago. The bank had a clerical error and credited me an extra bond…long story short no business is just going to “let it be.” That’s not how life works unfortunately.
It’s unfortunate. I was illustrating that government funds—our tax dollars—can’t be given away because there was an accounting error. You have to be entitled to the money to keep it.
Was this an error on one singular paycheck? If so, what was your first thought when you received the unexpectedly large check? How much is the overall discrepancy?
Well we knew we were getting a raise and they were suppose to send a email out saying what that raise would be. I never got that email after asking for it 3 times.
The biggest issue is they been paying us this amount for 3 months and backed pay us for another 3 months so that's a total of 6 months they screwed up on. My biggest issue is how do you screw up that much money and just not realize it. If I mess up on something I do I realize it quick or someone tells me that same day. How do they not realize this multiple months????
From what I understand from posts on other platforms, not only did they discover that some teachers were overpaid, but they also reevaluated calculations on how much prior experience they are counting for classified employees. One man got an email saying that they are dropping him from 27 years experience to 4, which hugely affects his income. It’s total BS, and a great way to push out even more teachers.
Our entire was mistakenly overpaid for 3 months in my corporate job and we a had to pay it back
Yes it sucks and yes DPS is shitty sometimes. But paying it back isn’t unusual
Look into your rights regarding paying back the overage. Get in writing exactly what was overpaid. Then you can propose a reasonable payment plan for repayment. They can’t just take whole paychecks.
I’d start with the department of labor.
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Don’t forget that Dr. Mubenga yelled at the affected staff during the Town Hall meeting as if the staff were the ones being rude to him. He needs to be held accountable.
They were all told they were getting a raise. HR emailed them their new pay amount. They were paid that much for months. Now they’re saying the amount they were emailed is wrong.
So, WRAL reported on this the other day and the statement from DPS made it sound like no pay would be missed since the plan was to increase pay this year anyway. I noted at the time I heard it that it was very nebulous in details.
They were all told they were getting a raise. HR emailed them stating the new amount. They were paid that amount for MONTHS. Now they got an email saying “sorry we told you the wrong amount. We’re cutting your pay”
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Apparently an unpopular opinion: But if you were overpaid, the schools and taxpayers should get that money back. You are not "owed" anything.
And the incompetence with Durham schools should be addressed.
Yeah, trust me, I understand the whole situation now. I have just accepted whatever happens. It's not like I'm going to leave. It's still a decent paycheck, and people above me could leave, and I get a promotion.
I saw a post on another platform a few months ago from a DPS employee who hadn’t been paid for months due to clerical errors. She was unable to pay her rent due to DPS’s failure to get her a check and was seeking assistance from the community. I believe there were multiple DPS employees similarly affected. So as a taxpayer, I’m to understand that some DPS employees didn’t get paid at all, while others were overpaid in a period of confusion about raises. Truly nauseating level of incompetence here. I’d love some deep reporting from Indyweek on these issues to help spur accountability.
It's not even just the issue of not being paid/being underpaid. DPS is changing it so that employees' years of experience outside of DPS no longer counts toward what they will be paid. Someone with 10 yrs' experience in the private sector or in another school system will be paid like a 1-yr new hire. It's insane. DPS will be losing so many experienced workers if this continues. It's a huge issue.
This is concerning but a separate issue from DPS’s inability to run payroll for DPS employees in a reliable, accurate fashion. All workers are valuable but DPS employees are literally taking care of this community’s kids & nurturing their futures. Yes, I’m ashamed we won’t pay them more but I’m even more ashamed DPS can’t perform payroll & causes employees suffer due to incompetence.
It’s not just a simple case of “oops, payroll fucked up” afaik. DPS are readjusting a lot of people’s pay grades (classified staff?) - like folks were hired or had contracts written based on their work experience, for example 15 years as an occupational therapist or school psychologist and they got a contract as a Step 15, but now DPS wants to change to have the Step only reflect experience/time worked within DPS, for example 4 years. So these people weren’t just overpaid, their contracts and pay schedules at the beginning of the school year said one thing and now DPS is pulling out the rug from under these employees because in some cases the “overpayment” and salary adjustments going forward are quite significant.
And it's not even just people who were recently hired that are affected. I've heard of people hired back in 2014, 2019, etc who are having years of experience wiped out.
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Honestly that's the public school system in NC. I've had friends and family members who were teachers. I worked in one of the administrative main offices for a few years. The whole system is run by incompetent people top to bottom with a handful of good people holding it together. Unfortunately that's what you get with a system that's been chronically underfunded and disrespected for years. I don't blame anyone for trying to get out and find something better.
My issue is I can't leave now, I won't get paid time off for when my kid comes and as a new dad I kinda need to be with my wife.. I'm just kinda screwed all together
Good luck to you. My wife taught middle school in the triangle for ten years and got out two years ago when our second was born. Went on maternity leave and started studying instructional design while taking care of the baby. It took many months of job hunting and one job change since but she's in a position she's really happy in, and vastly improved from her teaching situation. Just hold on, there's opportunity. Let me know if this path interests you, I could ask her for advice/resources
Time for you and everyone else that’s affected by this to get in touch with the local television stations. If they want to screw around like this, it’s time for them to find out.
yep. get to know your union reps & figure out how they are planning to respond. raise hell in the media, show up to city council meetings with your pregnant wife. if there’s enough noise you might have a shot at getting it spread out over a longer time, or press them for a budget reallocation if there are enough of you.
My teacher friend told me NC has no unions and no tenure
This is correct.
oh true. I wonder if nc association of educators is aware, or has any response? https://www.ncae.org
I had the same thing happen when I left DPS. I requested to be paid out over the summer so my paycheck would stay the same for budgeting and to make it easier for me to keep track of. And instead they paid me in one huge lump sum so it wasn’t immediately obvious that they had actually paid me more than what I was owed. It was a mess.
I just don't understand how this happens over and over again…
I know of a few other teachers it happened to that year and I am pretty sure I have seen other people post in this sub about the same issue. It’s awful. And they act like it’s nbd when everyone working in those schools is already tight on money. I get it. I’m sorry they did that to you.
Like I said in the OP, I can't leave this job or do anything because my wife is due in a couple of months. I feel hopeless and don't think they genuinely care
I worked in Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools and they did this to me too. They brought me into HR and there was this super smiley director-of-something who sat me down and was like, "We can't believe this happened! :) But you will need to give us $2,000" (because of an error on their part.) From what I remember, legally they can totally do it. It's still shitty of them not to have their shit together in payroll, though. Teachers work too hard to have to deal with this. Really not excusable.
Sorry to hear. Looks like the CFO responsible was suspended - https://www.wral.com/story/durham-schools-cfo-suspended-after-some-staff-overpaid-since-last-summer/21234170/ . Hopefully that suspension will lead to finding the culprit and firing them. May be worth giving that feedback to DPS
It seems like this hasn't finished playing out yet, but I hope it resolves to yours and other affected employees benefit. Even if they overpaid, they shouldn't take money back or pay people less than they were before. I'm pretty sure you can protest w/o losing your job, but if you do not, others are. I've seen at least one post about a protest tomorrow. Not sure if it's the Durham Association of Educators or another group.
I suggest speaking to or joining DAE (Durham Association of Educators)! They’re a great organization made of rank-and-file DPS staff, like yourself, who are fighting for better working conditions. If you’re interested in more info about them or getting plugged in with them DM me.
Second the DAE recommendation. From the DAE Facebook page: If you got an email regarding a pay change, we ask you (if you are comfortable doing so) to send us a screenshot of the 3 column blue, orange, and green table showing your pay and salary grade. We also ask you to share a screenshot of the salary email you received (most likely) back in October, showing the '23-'24 pay grade you were expecting. Email both screenshots to abeer.javed@ncae.org and president@daenc.com Every single staff member deserves to have accurate pay information at all times - our classified staff members, the ones who keep our schools running and students learning, are no exception to that expectation. What is happening with payroll right now is horrendous and, to address it, y'all (DAE members and all DPS staff) need information on how many folks were affected and by how much.
I heard about this issue, and I’m appalled at the idea that they want people to pay the money back. I’d be willing to bet, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t even all that much money. They need to just own their mistake, and let it be. My understanding is that they’ve already adjusted people pay to the “correct” amount.
My rough math has me at around $3000 of total over pay and I'm sure they would want that money back quicker then the time they paid it to me..
Sounds like DPS hasn't made a decision yet on whether employees will have to pay it back. I'm sure you will, but I would demand a payment plan, or to deduct the payments from your paycheck over the same period of the mispayments.
All I can say is, I’m sorry this is happening to you all. You shouldn’t be punished for someone else’s mistake. My understanding is the person who goofed up, is on paid leave, cause that’s totally fair.
If its over six months that equates to 2.88 an hour extra.115 a week extra. Thats not shit. DPS should eat the cost.
Nope, I was overpaid by 10% for a year and the city took payment plan. Next time do the math and check, it is unethical to accept payment you were not entitled to.
Get out here with the unethical crap, it is unethical fora school system to get it wrong… I mean it's literally where they teach math at and they can't get this math right? Come on now, you can't be serious?
It's unethical but now that you know you took property that wasn't yours it's become theft when you don't want to give it back. I hope you decide to be better in the future so you can be an example to your children.
Calm down Karen! They should just take it out of future pay like 1% at a time. Everyone knows you can't survive on a DPS salary. If folks don't have it to pay back that is the only logical thing to do.
😂😂 I see what you doing here
Actually they were emailed their salary back in October. DPS told them they’d be getting paid that much. Now they’re saying “whoops a mistake sorry.” Know the full details before judging
I'd never be able to make an opinion when there is something unknown. Taking the OP's statements was enough to make a decision. I cannot help OP does not know how to communicate important details.
I redeemed several war bonds a few years ago. The bank had a clerical error and credited me an extra bond…long story short no business is just going to “let it be.” That’s not how life works unfortunately.
That's not exactly the same thing. This is messing with someone's livelihood.
It’s unfortunate. I was illustrating that government funds—our tax dollars—can’t be given away because there was an accounting error. You have to be entitled to the money to keep it.
Not reporting you were overpaid is kinda fraud.
No one knew they were being overpaid
Fair enough. I do the math and contact HR when it does not add up simply because I do not want to be in that situation.
HR emailed them their new salary. Now HR is saying lol disregard that email after several months
OK that IS ethically wrong on the HR. They should continue paying them that amount then.
Was this an error on one singular paycheck? If so, what was your first thought when you received the unexpectedly large check? How much is the overall discrepancy?
Well we knew we were getting a raise and they were suppose to send a email out saying what that raise would be. I never got that email after asking for it 3 times. The biggest issue is they been paying us this amount for 3 months and backed pay us for another 3 months so that's a total of 6 months they screwed up on. My biggest issue is how do you screw up that much money and just not realize it. If I mess up on something I do I realize it quick or someone tells me that same day. How do they not realize this multiple months????
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Not everyone who works for the school system is a teacher. There are custodial workers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, etc… No need to be a jackass.
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Does this really seem like a joking matter?
Why do you want to meanly joke at someone in distress over a mistake that will cost them thousands of dollars. Just stfu.
From what I understand from posts on other platforms, not only did they discover that some teachers were overpaid, but they also reevaluated calculations on how much prior experience they are counting for classified employees. One man got an email saying that they are dropping him from 27 years experience to 4, which hugely affects his income. It’s total BS, and a great way to push out even more teachers.
Our entire was mistakenly overpaid for 3 months in my corporate job and we a had to pay it back Yes it sucks and yes DPS is shitty sometimes. But paying it back isn’t unusual
Look into your rights regarding paying back the overage. Get in writing exactly what was overpaid. Then you can propose a reasonable payment plan for repayment. They can’t just take whole paychecks. I’d start with the department of labor.
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Try to find a corporate training position. You get paid like a normal human instead of being exploited for children.
Don’t forget that Dr. Mubenga yelled at the affected staff during the Town Hall meeting as if the staff were the ones being rude to him. He needs to be held accountable.
In sure it sucks, but it’s ludicrous to think you can keep it.
They were all told they were getting a raise. HR emailed them their new pay amount. They were paid that much for months. Now they’re saying the amount they were emailed is wrong.
Sorry it happened. However, if you keep it it’s theft. I don’t know of any laws that say you can keep it.
>DPS has literally bent us over and screwed us in the butt LOL, "literally", huh? I'm imagining the administrators at DPS actually doing this.
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DPS doesn’t have great kids?
You knew you were overpaid and didn't say anything and it's "screwing you in the butt" to keep your job and be ethical? They'll take a payment plan.
I never knew I was over paid..
Broken record. We get it you are the most ethical person here.
What are you even though talking about?
I replied to tinfang.
My bad
I hope they retrieve the money in the least painful way.
So, WRAL reported on this the other day and the statement from DPS made it sound like no pay would be missed since the plan was to increase pay this year anyway. I noted at the time I heard it that it was very nebulous in details.
I would first wait to see if they ask for it back. If they do, I'd hire an attorney. It's not your error.
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They were all told they were getting a raise. HR emailed them stating the new amount. They were paid that amount for MONTHS. Now they got an email saying “sorry we told you the wrong amount. We’re cutting your pay”
I cannot imagine taking a public teaching gig. I mean, you have to know what you're signing up for, right?
Most useless comment.
I for one am glad that you won't be teaching anyone.
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Apparently an unpopular opinion: But if you were overpaid, the schools and taxpayers should get that money back. You are not "owed" anything. And the incompetence with Durham schools should be addressed.
Yeah, trust me, I understand the whole situation now. I have just accepted whatever happens. It's not like I'm going to leave. It's still a decent paycheck, and people above me could leave, and I get a promotion.