Dear Board Members, Superintendents and Finance Officers (for whom we have e-mail addresses):
Unfortunately, the General Assembly did not address the technical correction on the prepayment of teachers’ issue which had been requested by the NC School Boards Association (NCSBA), NC Association of School Administrators (NCASA) and NCAE. It was placed in a conference report with other items. There was some objection to one of the other items so the report was not considered. We have been told that the issue will hopefully be dealt with at the February special session.
I have attached two documents to this e-mail. One is the technical correction itself. Great thanks goes to DPI for helping us draft this and making sure that all the issues that have been raised have been addressed. Additionally, I have attached a Q and A based upon the technical correction passing. Please note that the last part of the technical correction allows local boards of education to delay the implementation of the provision for an additional year, if the board so chooses.
I would suggest that you come up with Plan A based upon the technical correction passing. As an LEA you will have the four options that have been laid out previously. There may be other options out there but these are the ones we have heard about. They are:
Option 1: Change the pay date to the end of the first month(not calendar month) of employment - If a teacher reports to work on August 16 their first pay date would be on September 15 and on the 15th of each of the following 9 months; if the employee elects to be paid over 12 months, which will still be allowed, the last pay date would be August 15.
Option 2: Partial Payment at end of August and full payment at the end of September – LEAs can keep the pay date at the end of the month and make a partial payment in August and make a full payment in the subsequent month.
Option 3: Convert to semi-monthly or bi-weekly payment – This will allow teachers to receive either 2 checks a month or payment every 2 weeks. While some districts have expressed interest in this, many do not have the staffing capacity to do this.
Option 4: Semi-monthly-end of month – Teachers would receive semi-monthly payments until the end of September and then receive end of the calendar month payments for the rest of the year.
Note: Under no version of this legislation can the first payment be delayed until the end of September.
It is important that the board chair and/or superintendent request that your legislative delegation support the technical correction that is being supported by NCSBA, NCASA and NCAE and that the General Assembly pass it the next time they reconvene and not wait until May.
If this technical correction does not pass and the law remains the way it was passed last year, then the new language will control any statutory conflicts thus resulting in the only option being Option 2 and no authority to delay implementation for another year.
Sincerely,
Leanne E. Winner
Director of Governmental Relations
NC School Boards Association
Attachment 1 - Proposed AmendmentsAttachment 2 - Questions