DeKalb schools completes employee verifications. Found overpayment of $47,500.
DeKalb schools released a statement this weekend about its call for all employees to show identification in person and sign a form to confirm:
The DeKalb County School District has completed an extensive Employee Verification process to ensure the accuracy and integrity of all School District personnel and payroll records.
Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Atkinson ordered the Employee Verification process in February in conjunction with an independent audit of Central Office and school-based personnel.
Through the process, approximately 15,000 employees at the Central Office, in all auxiliary departments and at the school level were directed to verify their employment with the School District. The School District halted payments to non-verified employees beginning with the April 13 pay period.
The Employee Verification process to date has identified 148 non-verified employees, most of them substitute teachers or part-time coaches.
The process also discovered seven discrepancies in payroll, including two employees who were no longer with the School District and five on leave that were not properly recorded.
These employees were overpaid by approximately $47,500 dollars. School District Legal Affairs has begun an investigation into each of these cases and will seek to recover any unearned funds.
Dr. Atkinson commissioned an audit of all Central Office and school-based personnel in November as part of a District-wide reorganization to right-size the Central Office, bring alignment to positions across departments and drive more resources to schools and classrooms. The audit was the first outside review of School District personnel and salaries in more than eight years.
“Audits and oversight like the Employee Verification process should be standard operating procedure for our School District,” Dr. Atkinson said. “Moving forward, Employee Verification will be an annual process to let the public know that our payroll and personnel records are accurate and up to date.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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64 comments Add your comment
KMM
April 25th, 2012
9:14 am
Where did Fred go?
Thanks Dekalbite…
Fred ™
April 25th, 2012
9:15 pm
I guess I missed what SHOULD BE a key fact in this article. How much was spent to find out about this paltry 48K?
Fred in DeKalb
April 26th, 2012
7:12 am
KMM, Fred is still here. Were any Central office positions eliminated? DeKalbite seems to think so despite the actual HR report I referenced showing Reduction in Force for Central office staffers. Did you see that for any teachers?
I can acknowledge that due to losing over 4000 students and increasing classroom sizes (as most school districts around the country are doing, Gwinnett and Cobb most recently again in the metro area) resulted in fewer teachers. The fact is that property tax revenues have shrunk and tough decisions were made that impacted the school district. That’s what happens when you have over $100 million dollars less to work with in your budget.
Fred in DeKalb
April 26th, 2012
8:39 am
Fred, hopefully this discovery was made within the realm of a regularly scheduled audit. Though a paltry amount, we should expect accuracy in these payouts. Hopefully these funds can also be recovered. As I’ve said, mistakes like this happens in all businesses. If this was a mistake and you find it, address it right away. If this was not a mistake, this can be a reason for termination. It should be noted that this is less the the amount the PTA official at Rivers Elementary School took and they knowing did that.
It is hard to have a moral debate if misinformation is consistently provided. I’ve heard that if a lie is told often enough without being challenged, it can become the truth. I won’t say that DeKalbite is lying because that would suggest they know the information is false yet still share it. I don’t know that. I will say they are misinformed regarding the Reduction in Force actions against Central Office employees.
Dekalbite@ Fred in DeKalb
April 26th, 2012
9:49 am
“I can acknowledge that due to losing over 4000 students and increasing classroom sizes (as most school districts around the country are doing, Gwinnett and Cobb most recently again in the metro area) resulted in fewer teachers”
When Eugene Walker introduced the motion and voted along with all of the other BOE members to approve the 2009-10 budget that eliminated 275 teaching positions, DCSS did not lose 4,000 students. Look at the wording of Dr. Lewis’s Executive Summary (directly quoted from the April 3, 2009 BOE meeting minutes):
“Further proposed reductions include an increase to class sizes. The increase in class size will still keep DeKalb Schools below the state maximum requirements, prior to the state’s increase. This action will save $18.1 million and will reduce the staffing needs by 275 teachers.”
Lewis says INCREASE in class size – not decrease or let class sizes stay the same. So Lewis and Walker and the BOE members used INCREASES in class sizes to pay for balancing the budget – along with suspending the Board contribution to the teachers’ TSA (Tax Sheltered Annuity), a budgetary arrangement set up in 1979 in lieu of the school system paying into Social Security (Do you need a weblink to that as well?)
Posters need to look at the real numbers of students lost from school year 2008-09 to school year 2009-10. April 13, 2009 (school year 2008-09) was when Lewis proposed to increase class sizes and eliminate 275 teaching positions (and eliminate the teacher’s Social Security alternative) in order to balance the budget for the upcoming school year 2009-10.
In 2008-09 DeKalb had 96,907 students.
Please click below (Georgia DOE website reported by DCSS to the state) to see those figures:
http://archives.gadoe.org/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2009
In 2009-10 DeKalb had 96,678 students.
Please click below (Georgia DOE website reported by DCSS to the state) to see those figures:
http://archives.gadoe.org/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2010
96,907 minus 96,678 = 229 students (not 4,000)
….using a calculator to arrive at these figures.
The sad thing is that the Stimulus Bill kicked in big time in school year 2009-10. DCSS went from $77,000,000+ in federal funding from school year 2008-09 to $128,000,000+ in school year 2009-10. So DeKalb Schools received around $50,000,000+ MORE in federal funding during the 2009-10 school year.
http://app3.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fin_pack_revenue.entry_form
Many school systems used that Stimulus money to preserve teaching positions and keep class sizes manageable for students. DeKalb did not. They used the money for Hollywood trips ($380,000 – see link below), adding non teaching personnel such as Coaches and Parent Center Coordinators (well in excess of $10,000,000), purchasing expensive and ineffective scripted learning programs such as America’s Choice (around $10,000,000), etc.
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/140437/3/Dekalb-Educators-on-38000-Trip-to-Hollywood
Do you have some links or quotes from DeKalb BOE minutes or the state DOE websites that posters can view? Data from reliable sources – e.g. state websites that require legal reporting of facts and figures and legally required minutes that must comply with the Open Meetings law such as BOE meeting minutes are what we have used.
The information is just quotes from government websites – DeKalb Schools and the state of Georgia. If DeKalb or Georgia is not publishing the correct information, taxpayers have an even bigger problem of credibility and the school systems’ compliance with state open meetings, open records and statistical reporting laws. Since there is a legal requirement to submit accurate information, the assumption is that the information is – well – accurate. If you know otherwise, you might want to ask DeKalb and the state of Georgia to correct the data.
Fred in DeKalb
April 26th, 2012
9:29 pm
Dekalbite, did you read the agenda for the Called Board meeting on 4/27, Item #13? If approved, it looks like 182 employees will lose their jobs. More than likely they are all Central Office employees. I believe this will not be over 400 Central office employees reduced from the Central Office cost center since 2010. Too bad you can’t acknowledge those already let go.
An interesting post you should read from the Budgets and Middle School sports you should read,
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/04/26/with-budgets-shrinking-should-middle-schools-cast-off-sports/#comment-195272
Seems like everyone knows what is going on with Education but you…..
Dekalbite@Fred in DeKalb
April 26th, 2012
10:43 pm
“An interesting post you should read from the Budgets and Middle School sports you should read,”
If you had bothered to read the comments on the weblink you referred me to, you would see I already posted there earlier in the day.
You need to link to credible sources that support your data.
Posters need to look at this data (see link below – Ms. Tyson’s proposed 2010 budget that was approved by the BOE) to see the personnel Ms. Tyson cut. Regarding the “Central Office” employees let go by Tyson, those were lower level employees, many of them actually school based personnel moved into the Central Office cost center before termination. Actually, most of the budget cuts were “Eliminate….Points” (Points were teachers), Continued suspension of the BTSA (the alternative to social security for teachers), and Increase class sizes. Clearly, Ms. Tyson balanced the budget on the backs of the members of the classroom (the teachers and students):
http://dekalbparent.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/20102011budgetrecommendations.png
Data, data, data – find it, analyze it, evaluate it, explain your analysis and evaluation, and link to it so other readers and posters can form their own opinions based on as many facts as you can give them.
How about posting a link to the Board Agenda you refer to? That would be a start in the right direction. Make it easy for blog readers to see where your assertions come from.
Fred in DeKalb
April 27th, 2012
7:46 am
DeKalbite, which meeting agenda should one look at for the summary you mentioned? I looked at the meeting agenda for 5/4/2009 however the minutes for the 4/23 meeting made no mention of what you said above. Perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place.
Take a look at the 7/12/2010 meeting agenda at,
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/ViewMeetingOrder.aspx?S=4054&MID=14116
Action Item #3 is the HR Report. Open it at go to at least page 14 for the listing of Reduction in Force. Those were the Para’s and Library clerks that were let go, the 10 month employees.
Take a look at the 8/2/2010 meeting agenda,
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/ViewMeetingOrder.aspx?S=4054&MID=14118
Action Item #4 is the HR Report.Open it at go to at least page 5 for the listing of Reduction in Force. These were many of the Central office employees.
As I mentioned to you before, I got the change in 4,000 students by looking at the numbers post Katrina (about 104K) to 2009 (about 98K). I understood that they did not reduce the number of teachers at the same rate they lost students. I will acknowledge I don’t have anything to back that up as I can’t find the numbers of teachers for 2005.
Dekalbite@Fred in DeKalb
April 27th, 2012
5:05 pm
“I looked at the meeting agenda for 5/4/2009 however the minutes for the 4/23 meeting made no mention of what you said above. ”
The Executive Summary is an attachment, not the minutes. The Executive Summary dated April 3, 2009:
DeKalb County School System
Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Budget
Executive Summary
“BOe meeting 4-13-09
The budget for the 2009-2010 school year (FY2010), as recommended by Superintendent Dr. Crawford Lewis, is summarized within this document. A detailed version of this proposed budget will be available for public review at the DeKalb County School System, Board of Education offices located at 3770 North Decatur Road, Decatur, Georgia 30032 and online at http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us.
…….
Further proposed reductions include an increase to class sizes. The increase in class size will still keep DeKalb Schools below the state maximum requirements, prior to the state’s increase. This action will save $18.1 million and will reduce the staffing needs by 275 teachers.”
Not sure why you are bring Katrina into this.
The data clearly show very little decrease in students from 2008-09 school year to 2009-10 school year, yet 275 teaching positions were eliminated and as Lewis says himself in the Executive Summary, ” include an increase to class sizes.”
Not sure how clearer it can be.
Fred in DeKalb
April 28th, 2012
3:19 pm
DeKalbite, I will do something you have a problem with doing. I will admit I was wrong. Seems like the initial positions that will be eliminated are school based, not central office as I thought, I will not be surprised if some 12 month positions are eliminated also before June 30.
If you read the AJC article about the reductions, you will see that graduation coaches were initially funded by the state however when that funding ended, the school district picked it up. That was the same logic I used regarding the over 4,000 students. The district staffed up but did not eliminate many of those positions until 2009. Interesting the article mentioned this is not unique to DeKalb. Not sure how clearer that can be.
Dekalbite@Fred in DeKalb
April 29th, 2012
6:46 pm
No data. No links to credible sources.
Meanwhile, Ms. Tyson asked for and the BOE approved up to 36 students in high school math, science, social studies, and language arts classes while many students come into high school 3 and 4 years below grade level in math and reading. Preserving non teaching positions has a price, and the students are paying the price.
Fred in DeKalb
April 30th, 2012
9:53 am
Dekalbite, I guess you purposely missed the links I supplied above to the HR reports that listed Central Office employees being RIF’d. Whereas you have NOT provided links to that SHOW the number of teachers eliminated. Common sense tells me that some were due to the increase in class size but the fact remains you can’t provide the same kind of data that I did. You said Central office positions were preserved over teachers despite the documented facts I continue to provide.
I provided a link to the report along with the page number above that lists the names of the individuals along with their positions. Can you do the same? I don’t think so. My suppositions of the teacher staffing levels are the same as yours.
Everyone is on to you that your data cannot be substantiated while mine can.
Dekalbite@Fred in DeKalb
April 30th, 2012
2:04 pm
Please provide all links and explanations again.
Here are is my link again. Read the entire article and see every piece of data has a link to DCSS legal documents which detail the exact number of teaching positions eliminated.
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/11/where-have-all-our-teachers-gone.html
Fred in DeKalb
May 1st, 2012
11:23 am
My links are immediately above in my post at 7:46 am on April 27th.
Again, it goes to show how disingenuous you are by leaving out this key statement from the budget:
**The increase in class size will still keep DeKalb Schools below the state maximum requirements, prior to the state’s increase. **
Tsk tsk tsk….