Oakland teachers unpaid due to processing glitch

Hundreds of teachers and employees with Oakland Unified School District did not receive their deferred paychecks due to “a delay in processing one of two payrolls” Thursday morning, according to district officials.

The payroll delay affected up to 1,700 employees within the district, OUSD spokesperson Ericka Doolittle said in a statement Thursday morning.

Some teachers shared their frustrations with the school district on social media.

“If you know an OUSD teacher, check in on them today. Many of us did not get paid due to some kind of payroll issue,” Erin Ronhovde wrote Thursday on Nextdoor.

Keith Brown, president of the Oakland Education Association, which represents about 2,700 educators, said several upset educators alerted the union of the delay Thursday morning. OUSD teachers and employees can defer part of their salaries to receive paychecks during the summer break, said Brown.

“These are educators who depend on being paid to pay mortgage and rent and support their families,” Brown said Thursday. “We have a teacher retention crisis where we have educators living paycheck-to-paycheck, so this is not what we need at this time.”

Doolittle said district officials submitted payrolls to Union Bank, which approves the district’s payroll checks, on time, “but the transfer to associated banks was delayed.”

Payroll director Nicole Caldwell “has been in contact with Union Bank ... since early this morning,” said Doolittle, adding that employees who bank with Union Bank received their paychecks on time.

“It is anticipated that deposits to other banking institutions will be posted today; however, we are unable to confirm the exact timing by bank,” Doolittle said.