For many SMCISD monthly payday employees there were two indications that something had gone amiss with their paychecks on Friday: there was no notice of funds transferred and many had received an email from SMCISD Chief Financial Officer Denise Gonzalez-Garcia alerting them that there was an important matter regarding the disbursement of salaries.
In that email provided to the Daily Record, Gonzalez-Garcia apologized to staff for the paycheck delay, acknowledging the hardship associated for those who were expecting a usual and timely payment. She stated that there was “an unforeseen delay in processing the salaries.”
In her correspondence with employees, she shared, that at that time, it was likely employees would receive their paychecks on Monday, Sept. 25.
Later Friday, in response to a request for clarification of this payment delay, SMCISD Chief of Communications Andrew Fernandez said he had reached out to all of the affected monthly payday employees with an update of the situation.
He said district staff had worked throughout the day to “navigate the pay schedule delay.” According to Fernandez, by Friday afternoon, approximately “75% of our staff has received their paychecks.”
Fernandez articulated that what lead to the delay was a submission on Thursday of 1,200 individual payroll files to the district’s bank provider. He said this submission occurred prior to the bank’s 6 p.m. deadline for the upload of files. But as the staff attempted to upload the files, they encountered “multiple time limit errors due to the file size,” he said. Eventually the file was accepted but at 6:10 p.m., which was technically after the bank’s deadline.
“This is the issue that caused the delay in payment that we are experiencing across the district,” Fernandez said.
Also on Friday, he said the district’s bank had released pay files to each employee's bank, but, “unfortunately, some banks have processed paychecks and some have not.”
He said for those who did not receive a paycheck on Friday, they would get their funds on the next business day, Monday.
“Again, we apologize for this major issue and we will fix our systems to avoid this interruption to pay in the future,” he said.
The San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District has called a special meeting of its Board of Trustees for Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. in the Criminal Justice Classroom, 11, at San Marcos High School, 2601 Rattler Road. The agenda for the meeting was published Friday afternoon.
In addition to public comment, on the agenda is discussion and possible action by the board in “regard to the delay of issuance of district paychecks,” and matters related to that delay.
Financial problems of this nature, the kind associated with large amounts of data for ever-growing staffs, is not uncommon in the county in recent months. For example, the Hays County Commissioners Court has wrestled at its meetings throughout the summer with various financial issues associated with how its staff is paid and how to best assign who is responsible at the end of the day for the records associated with accounting of employee salaries and benefits–especially when those in charge of these policies and protocols move on and someone new comes in to take over the reins.
