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City Teachers Waiting For Overdue Pay

By JODIE MOZDZER

October 01, 2008

More than 90 teachers at the former Burns and Milner elementary schools are waiting to be paid for working an extra hour each day.

Under school redesigns implemented this year, the school hours were extended at the two elementary schools, which are now called the Academy for Latino Studies at Burns School and the Core Knowledge Academy at Milner School. The teachers' contracts, signed in July, outlined plans to pay each teacher for the extra hours at a rate based on their salaries.

But according to Andrea Johnson, the president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, the first two paychecks this school year contained no extra compensation. Guidance counselors are waiting for extra pay for five additional days they worked at the high school over the summer, Johnson said.

Nancy Benben, the interim chief communication officer for the Hartford public schools, said all the teachers and guidance counselors will be paid for the extra hours, but that it has taken longer to input payroll information because changes to the school system have made the payroll system "very complicated and individualized."

"We're working with a highly complex payment system, so complications happen," Benben said. "But we're working it out, and our teachers will be paid."

Freeman Burr, the acting executive director of human resources, sent a letter to the teachers and guidance counselors Monday, notifying them that the money would be in their Friday checks.

Johnson said the funds should have appeared in the first paycheck, because the district has known about the extra pay since the teacher contracts were filed on July 1.

According to Burr's letter, Friday's paycheck will include retroactive payments.