Teacher overpayment ruled an accident

The official report is in, and the overpayment of staff members by the Rockville Centre School District was an accident.

The district hired the firm Ingerman Smith, LLP to investigate the incident, in which 44 current and retired teachers were overpaid over the course of three years, costing the district nearly $250,000. The error was discovered by personnel in the business office and corrected before the first checks went out this year.

According to Ingerman Smith’s report, the error occurred in 2011 when a staff member incorrectly interpreted a provision of the teachers union contract. The person accidentally doubled the contractual percentage increase for the 44 teachers.

“Counsel found no indication of employee corruption or malfeasance,” the report reads. “No employee involved in the decision that resulted in the overpayment personally benefited from the salary change, and there was no scheme with the affected teachers’ bargaining unit members to provide the additional monies.”

Ingerman Smith also hired the services of Marcum, LLP, a forensic accounting firm, to go over the village’s books in detail and find out of the internal and external audit controls were adequate. That investigation found that the district’s auditors had performed two audits of the payroll during the time of the overpayment, and the mistake was not discovered.

The Board of Education has said it ended its contracts with its current auditors and is in the process of hiring new ones.

In addition, the district has restructured its business office in the hope of stopping this from happening again. Robert Bartels, the assistant superintendent of business, has implementd new practices to verify all changes made to the payroll system. The office is also doing away with a papery payroll system that was used with the district’s finance software. The investigation found that the paper system my have contributed to the continuation of the incorrect payment.

The district is also in the process of recouping the funds that were paid to the teachers. Under state law, it has to renegotiate the process with the teachers union. But the district expects the repayments to begin next school year.