by the Tharrington Smith law firm earlier this month. The report stated that the raises would put the district $9 million over budget, and blamed the pay confusion on miscalculations and poor communication.<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to the comptroller\u2019s presentation, though, the mistakes began in fall of 2022, when former DPS superintendent Pascal Mubenga engaged HIL Consultants to complete a salary study in hopes of bringing DPS\u2019 lowest-paid employees up to market rate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat study was completed in January 2023 and presented to the school board by Hank Hurd and Frank R. Lopes of the HIL group. Hurd, one of the group\u2019s founding partners, served as DPS\u2019 Chief Operating Officer and later superintendent in 2009. Hurd and Lopes recommended raises that totaled $10.8 million, a figure they described as a \u201crough\u201d number based on \u201cfirst perusal.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThen in February 2023, then-CFO Paul LeSieur learned that the raises could cost substantially more \u2014 as much as $21 million \u2014 depending on how the district measured workers\u2019 prior experience. The CFO nevertheless continued to use the lower $10.8 million figure in communications with the superintendent and the board. The CFO informed the superintendent of the budget shortfall in November 2023. The school board was not informed until January 2024.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut LeSieur\u2019s miscalculations and lack of clear communication were not the sole causes of the chaos that followed, the comptroller\u2019s presentation suggests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDespite providing \u201cexcellent data on market-based pay in the Durham area,\u201d the HIL study recommended unaffordable raises, the presentation says. The cost of implementing the raises would not have been feasible using either the $10.8 million or $21 million figure, it states. <\/span><\/p>\nI<\/span>n a response to Crutchfield\u2019s report, the HIL group blamed that error on DPS leadership, saying \u201cdistrict leadership confirmed in writing our estimate of $10.8 million was within DPS\u2019 budget for the 2024 fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\nBefore the salary study, classified pay levels increased by increments, or \u201csteps,\u201d of 0.85%. The HIL study increased those step increments\u00a0 to 1.5%. That difference, the comptroller says, is like \u201ctrying to force a square peg into a round hole.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThough the DPS raises were intended to bring workers\u2019 pay up to market rate, the effects were uneven. Some with more than 20 years of experience received pay increases between 25% and 35%, putting their salaries above market rate, the presentation states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn its response, the HIL group defended the larger increments that its study recommended, saying the steps were within pay ranges approved by the state and were in line with those of other districts.<\/p>\n
The comptroller\u2019s report also critiques the timing of the implementation. Employees were given raises in October, with the school year already underway. By that point, the numbers in the study were already outdated. <\/span><\/p>\nIn a statement,<\/a> the HIL group noted that it was not contracted to implement the study, and that implementation was instead left up to the school district.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMoving forward, the comptroller recommends that the board implement an 11% pay raise for all classified workers through the end of the fiscal year in June, in order to stay within budget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHe also recommended that the school system establish next school year\u2019s pay rates as soon as possible, and that employees be notified of new pay amounts before the end of this school year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe school board is set to vote tonight on pay rates for the remainder of the year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nEditor’s note: This story has been updated to incorporate the HIL group’s responses following the comptroller’s presentation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The payroll chaos that has embroiled Durham Public Schools has been blamed on various things, including calculation errors by the former CFO and communication failures…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
'The result was inevitable': Comptroller says payroll chaos was rooted in flawed pay study - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n