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Payroll staff describe heavy workload after board criticism; union urges modernization and support
Summary
Payroll employees and the CSEA chapter president told the board that a three‑person payroll team worked long hours under manual processes, urged system modernization and asked trustees to avoid public blame; trustees responded that they would review staffing and processes.
Cynthia Navarro, president of the district chapter of the California School Employees Association, told the board that payroll is a department of three and described the group’s workload, manual timecards and compressed timelines. Navarro urged the board to view recent payroll errors in the context of staffing and processes rather than as carelessness.
"Payroll is currently a department of 3," Navarro said, adding that staff have worked evenings, weekends and holidays to ensure employees are paid. She asked the district to consider modernizing payroll systems used in neighboring districts and praised custodial staff and other classified employees for their service.
Payroll team member Alessa Espinosa described the department’s work in more detail, saying the team processes payroll for more than 1,200 permanent staff members and performs laborious checks on time sheets and exceptions. "We do magic every single month," Espinosa said. She said public criticisms from the prior board meeting left staff "reeling" and said the team had been asked to reprocess pay when directives changed, which created extra work.
Another public commenter who identified themself as a long‑time district employee and classified member reiterated concerns about leadership decisions that forced payroll to redo work and urged trustees to consider how administrative directives contributed to problems.
Several trustees publicly thanked CSEA and payroll staff, praised their work and said they would look at options including hiring an additional payroll technician and exploring payroll management systems. Trustees also noted a need for clearer communications and processes so changes in directives do not cause repeated re‑work.
The board voted on several personnel items that evening, including approval of hourly rate adjustments and amendments to executive agreements; those votes were procedural and separate from the public comment portion of the meeting.
