The Black Informant

The next time you see a commercial about schoolchildren who are forced to use outdated schoolbooks because of a lack of funding, I want you to keep stories like this in the back of your head.

LAUSD Tolls Might Surpass $210 Million

New Payroll System, Previous Errors Account For Charges

LOS ANGELES — The state’s largest school district might end up spending more than $210 million to roll out a new payroll system, and fix the thousands of errors that have bedeviled the project, it was reported Sunday.

“There’s going to be a judgment day when all of this is over,” said school board member, Richard Valdovic.

The Los Angeles Daily News said Sunday that the system’s original $95 million cost has ballooned to at least $132.5 million, and officials said they don’t know what the final cost to the district will be.

At least $6 million in overpayments to teachers, police officers and other district employees may have to be forgiven, because of the accounting nightmare that has developed. Some employees face paying income tax on supposed overpayments, but have no accurate accounting on what their actual pay should have been.

[snip]

But LAUSD may have overpaid its employees by as much as $53 million during a five-month period of upheaval that saw some people put into financial duress due to underpayments, and others with overpayments that they could not calculate.

About 60 percent of the people who were overpaid have agreed to reimburse the district a total of $14 million, the Daily News reported. About $15 million in claims are currently outstanding, officials said. (more…)

When I first heard about the $95 million-dollar figure, I knew someone was getting broke off big time. Yesterday was the first time I heard about the figure going above $200 million. The information in this next article came to my attention via local talk radio.

LAUSD’s payroll fouled up: Questions raised on choice of new system, contractor

By Naush Boghossian

LA Daily News

Roiled by glitches in a new $95 million computerized payroll system that have left thousands of employees without checks, Los Angeles school officials said Wednesday that they will review the contracting process that led to the deal and might consider taking legal action against the suppliers.

Problems with the system have left more than 10,000 employees without paychecks for two weeks, and Los Angeles Unified School District officials expect similar problems next month.

And questions have been raised on the district’s choice of SAP Public Services for the system despite a history of problems at other schools, a more-expensive software bid and a potential political connection to the LAUSD.

The lobbying firm Rose & Kindel represents SAP and also has a contract with the district for consulting and lobbying in Sacramento. It lobbied in 2005 for state legislation that allowed the district to use a less-stringent bidding process for major technology purchases.

“One of the things we always do when a system is rolled out is … look for lessons learned. We have to go back and look at the history of procurement, certainly. … We’ll do our due diligence to see if it was a good deal,” said Superintendent David Brewer III.

District officials have defended the contract award and say instead that the suppliers may have failed to adequately prepare for implementation.

But some also are questioning the timing of legislation that allowed the LAUSD to award the contract to SAP. (more…)

One of the school board members for LAUSD was on the radio yesterday afternoon and she just talked about the level of bureaucracy covering this issue. According to her, there was very little oversight for this project. She mentioned how she knocked down one proposal where a contractor offered to help fix the payroll system at $25,000 A WEEK!!