District says Oracle payroll transition left dozens unpaid; leaders promise fixes

Dozens of Rochester City School District employees remained unpaid or received incorrect deductions after the district transitioned to the Oracle Fusion ROCk12 payroll system, district leaders told the board Thursday.

CFO Robert McDowell said the district initially received 242 self-reports of missing pay but narrowed that to about 46 confirmed claims; he said the number of unpaid employees fell again to about 33 after the district issued several paper checks. "About 242 staff had indicated that they had not been paid. ... that number actually was about 46 individuals or so. Of those 46, 35 of them remain unpaid. Actually that number is 33 because we had we issued a couple of checks earlier today," McDowell said.

Why it matters: payroll and retirement deductions affect employees’ paychecks and retirement records and, in some cases, bank deposits. Superintendent Doctor Rosser told the board the district is working daily with banks and the New York State Retirement System and communicating with unions while issuing paper checks where needed. "Be rest assured that, you're not gonna lose your tier," Rosser said about employees' state retirement status.

Board members pressed for more complete data. Commissioner LeBron asked for a comprehensive accounting of employees impacted and the types of errors—missing pay, incorrect amounts, withheld retirement contributions or wrong deductions—and requested written confirmation from the state that employees’ retirement standing would not be harmed. "I would like to see a breakdown of total impacted employees, and that includes everything: if their deductions were wrong, if their New York State retirements weren't paid, if it's incorrect pay," LeBron said.

District officials described causes, remedies and short-term protections: - Causes cited: residual configuration defects in the Oracle implementation, issues with split/dual assignments and time-entry errors, and some bank-related transaction problems affecting employees who bank at M&T Bank. McDowell said a portion of early reports also reflected M&T processing errors rather than system-wide payroll calculation failures. "Some of this is related to M and T. Some of it's related to time slips and entry, and a few other things," McDowell said. - Current status and short-term actions: the district is issuing paper checks for unresolved cases, running multiple payroll validation runs before the next finalized payroll, expanding help-desk capacity and continuing training for staff on time submission. Rosser said the district will continue weekly communications with collective bargaining units and will pursue a corrective-action plan with Oracle partners. "We're gonna maintain our weekly communications with the union so that we can share as much information as possible," McDowell said. - External coordination: district staff are on daily calls with the New York State Retirement System to resolve improperly posted retirement contributions and to ensure no employee loses credited service. Rosser emphasized the state has been told the district has attempted to send required monies. "We have been on the phone with them every day to make sure that these are getting addressed and resolved," he said.

Officials gave several timeline points at the meeting: McDowell said most summer-resolution payroll issues are largely resolved (he reported 94% of those were complete) and that the remaining, active backlog had been reduced from the higher initial counts to the low dozens. Rosser said the next paycheck is scheduled for next Friday and the district will perform multiple pre-payroll runs to catch errors before employees are paid.

Board reaction and follow-up: commissioners expressed frustration and demanded a written, itemized accounting of impacted employees and pay periods, which the district said it would provide. Commissioner Lebron also asked that the district obtain written confirmation from the retirement system for affected employees. McDowell and Rosser said they will provide a more detailed written report, including a pay-period breakdown, and will return with a corrective-action plan and regular updates to the board.

Ending: district leaders said they will continue issuing paper checks while Oracle-related configuration defects are resolved, expand staffing or vendor support for the help desk, and consult other districts using Oracle to learn fixes that have succeeded elsewhere. The district emphasized the priority of restoring correct pay and retirement records as quickly as possible.