Seabrook teachers almost didn't get paid: SAU 21 blames board for 'not doing their job'

SEABROOK — Teachers in the Seabrook School District almost didn't receive their paychecks this week, with SAU 21 officials blaming the town School Board for dragging its feet to sign payroll.

SAU 21 Finance Director Matt Ferreira said the School Board was three months behind in getting a quorum of signatures needed to approve the school district's payroll and accounts payable. On Monday, the school district treasurer stated that they would not allow further delays and that future payments would be withheld until the board signed off.

Ferreira said he sent emails to the board members Monday and still received no response. On Wednesday, the deadline for payroll, he sent out an email to staff members alerting them they might not be paid Friday due to inaction from the School Board.

“The School Board has not fulfilled its statutory responsibility to approve accounts payable and payroll,” Ferreira wrote in the letter. “Unfortunately, until we receive board approval, we are not authorized to send out payments."

Ferreira said School Board member Kelli Hueber responded late Wednesday to sign the payroll document so teachers would get their paychecks. It was a close call, though, he said, and he remains concerned the accounts payable are still unsigned by the board.

“We’re still at risk there, which is unfortunate for the district,” Ferreira said.

Hueber could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Seabrook School Board Chair Maria Brown, who was elected to the board March 12, said the board met Wednesday’s deadline to sign off on payroll and called the letter sent out to teachers "unnecessary."

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Ferreira said the administration has historically given some leeway to board members in getting payroll signed. He said that sometimes members can sign the day after payroll gets sent. The same goes for accounts payable, through which a number of school district expenses are paid.

Ferreira said it had become apparent, however, that the board was getting further behind in having the necessary three members sign off on either payroll or accounts payable.

“If they approve it a day late, no big deal,” Ferreira said. “But they had not caught up, so that’s problematic.”

Ferreira said he learned that at least one board member refrained from signing because they had questions on expenses found in both the payroll and accounts payable. He said the one in payroll was regarding a staff member receiving additional pay for working as a bus monitor to deter inappropriate behavior. The one in accounts payable was to pay someone to translate documents like kindergarten registration for families that don’t speak English.

“We spend a couple hundred bucks to get it translated,” Ferreira said.

Ferreira said Hueber signed the payroll but did not sign for accounts payable.

Ferreira said the delay in accounts payable will lead to payments being delayed to recipients like contractors.

“Right now, we have checks sitting in our office that we can’t mail out because the board hasn’t approved them yet,” Ferreira said. “We’re still at risk there, which is unfortunate for the district.”

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School Board chair calls letter to teachers a 'travesty'

Brown said the School Board would never have let teachers go unpaid.

“My board would never do anything to compromise payroll,” Brown said. “To have it sent to our staff and upset them, to think that they were not getting paid, is a travesty.”

Brown said she was aware the signatures were withheld because board members had questions about the spending. She said in the past, board members have been allowed to request a certain item be pulled without preventing the rest of the invoices from being processed. She said that has not been afforded to board members recently.

“I don’t think that choice was ever given to them,” Brown said.

Ferreira said otherwise. He said it has been made clear to board members that they can request any item be held for further consideration while the rest of the checks are approved for payment.

“I have that in emails to them that they can always pull a check,” Ferreira said.

Brown believes the letter to teachers may have been politically driven because some board members want to see the Seabrook School District break away from SAU 21.

Ferreira denied that the letter had anything to do with politics. He said sending out the letter to staff members was critical in case their pay was withheld.

“When it comes to people’s livelihoods and their pay, there’s nothing political about that,” Ferreira said. “The notion that it’s political is outlandish because it was simply the board not doing their job and not fulfilling their statutory responsibility.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook teachers almost didn't get paid: SAU 21 blames School Board