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Lincoln staff warns North Newton board that switching to 21 pay periods could squeeze hourly workers' take‑home pay
Summary
A Lincoln school employee told the North Newton School Corporation board that a proposed shift from 26 to 21 pay periods could create payroll timing problems and reduce take‑home pay for hourly staff, while the superintendent said payroll review shows no bottom‑line wage impact but acknowledged communication failures.
Jennifer Holder, a Lincoln school employee who was listed on the meeting sign‑up, told the North Newton School Corporation board on June 17 that a proposed move from 26 pay periods to 21 would hurt hourly, noncertified staff.
"I punch in. I punch out," Holder said. "If I leave at 2:00, the following day I may stay until 4. I make up my time. ... If I have to take a day, then that's a lost time day." She said changing the pay schedule would shift when taxes and insurance are deducted and could leave employees with less take‑home pay in some paychecks. "We all live paycheck to paycheck," she said, urging the board to consider the effect on paras and other hourly workers.
Superintendent Dr. Raizer framed the discussion as a transparency issue for the board rather than a savings measure and said district payroll staff reviewed the situation. He said roughly nine employees were affected by the specific tracking problem and that nearly 100 employees do not currently realize an advantage from 26 pays; "all the research that I've done shows no bottom line impact to any of our employees," he said, while noting overtime and payroll‑period timing create administrative burdens.
Board members said the district should have communicated more clearly with the impacted staff and apologized for the confusion. "This is not about saving money. This is about correctly paying our employees," the chair said, and pledged to meet with affected employees to explain the proposal and its effects.
The discussion was listed as a nonaction item; no change was approved at the meeting. The superintendent warned of a state payroll audit that makes accurate payroll reporting a priority and said the board would continue the conversation in upcoming meetings.
What happens next: Board members asked payroll and HR staff to meet with affected employees for one‑on‑one explanations and to return with clarifying details for a future action item.
Direct quotes and attributions in this article come from meeting remarks recorded in the June 17, 2026 North Newton School Corporation meeting transcript.
