SFUSD meeting dominated by worker accounts of missed pay, board directs staff to fix payroll

Dozens of SFUSD employees, parents and union leaders used the district’s public-comment period to press the board for immediate fixes after months of payroll errors tied to the district’s new ‘Empower’ system.

“A coworker at my site has not been paid at all,” said Aisling Pranj, a teacher who described multiple colleagues at Roosevelt Middle School with missing pay and unresolved help tickets. SEIU Local 1021 chapter president Rafael Picazo told the board: “The district has found good money after bad to the tune of $16,500,000 now on a flawed payroll system that has resulted in the district’s lowest paid employees being shorted over and over again.”

Superintendent Dr. Wayne acknowledged the scale of the problem and said district staff are taking emergency steps to redress pay issues. “It is not okay for people to not be paid,” he said, and described efforts to streamline redress for employees who have received no pay. Wayne said the district has engaged Alvarez & Marshall to provide human-resources and technical expertise to stabilize payroll and will combine that assistance with salary savings and temporary staffing to address vacancies in HR, payroll and technology.

Public commenters — custodians, nutrition staff, timekeepers and classroom teachers — described late or missing checks, unpaid overtime and disrupted benefits. A custodian said two checks remain unpaid and that 32 hours of overtime were not paid. Nutrition staff said they serve 37,000 meals a day and said schedule reductions and unpaid time have real household impacts.

Union and community speakers asked the board either to return to the prior payroll system if Empower cannot be fixed or to make staff whole immediately. Picazo said the payroll disruption had not only financial consequences but also harmed workers’ health and access to medication.

Board members responded by thanking speakers and by describing a mix of short-term and longer-term responses. Superintendent Wayne told the board he expects staff to bring further operational details and follow-up to affected employees. The board voted on other agenda items that followed the public comment; no formal board vote was taken at the conclusion of public comment specifically to direct a change in payroll vendor.

The district said it will continue follow-up with individuals who report missing pay and will proceed with the Alvarez & Marshall contract to augment technical and HR capacity.

Next steps: the superintendent and staff said they will continue direct outreach to unpaid employees and report further operational details to the board as fixes proceed.