SFUSD consultants say payroll backlog affects about 3,400 employees; district to publish KPIs and follow up in two weeks

The San Francisco Unified School District’s payroll problems remain acute, outside consultants told the Board of Education on Tuesday, detailing thousands of outstanding help-desk tickets and an early plan to measure progress.

“Right now we see 14,000 tickets in the system; when we distill those to payroll-related issues, it’s about 8,500,” Erin Covington of Alvarez & Marsal said, summarizing the firm’s triage analysis. She said roughly 2,000 of those tickets show no activity in at least 90 days, and that recent activity suggests almost 3,400 distinct employees are affected by current Empower-related incidents.

Why it matters: District staff and teachers said the payroll failures have caused missed paychecks, delayed health coverage and significant stress for educators. The superintendent, Dr. Matt Wayne, said the district had begun temporary reassignments and in-person payroll clinics and had brought in A&M to help triage and reduce the backlog.

A&M described its work as a four-week triage phase. Covington said the firm is embedded with SFUSD payroll, HR and technology teams, reviewing Zendesk error logs and the district’s internal tracking spreadsheets to separate urgent fixes from long-term corrections. “We’re in a triage phase to identify where we need to work to address the major issues preventing us from stabilizing the system,” she said.

District response and next steps: Wayne and A&M said they will publish key performance indicators within two weeks to track progress: reductions in the number of open payroll tickets, quicker closure times, and fewer newly opened tickets. The superintendent acknowledged continued frustration from staff and said the district will broaden on-site, school-by-school remediation where possible.

Voices from schools: Multiple teachers and building reps told the board they have lost faith in the district’s ability to repair payroll errors quickly, urged immediate on-site help rather than centrally scheduled clinics and described personal harm — missed insurance coverage, incorrect deductions and delayed retirement contributions. “We need you to come to our schools and sit with us one-on-one to help us go through our paychecks and figure out what is wrong,” one teacher said during public comment.

What the consultants recommended: A&M recommended sorting tickets by age and type to prioritize critical staff payments and retainers; assigning more staff to close older tickets; and setting measurable KPIs to show progress. The firm indicated it will return with a more comprehensive plan after the triage period.

What’s next: The board and superintendent said the district will post the data used in A&M’s slide deck for public review and return to the board in roughly two weeks with performance measures and a detailed remediation plan. The district emphasized it is working to keep educators teaching while payroll staff and consultants address the backlog.