Grayslake teachers overpaid by $92,106

Grayslake Elementary District 46 overpaid 13 teachers and classroom assistants a combined $92,106 over the last two academic years, but officials say new controls should prevent a repeat of such errors.

Ellen Correll, superintendent of District 46, said taxpayers won't be out the money because nine teachers have either repaid or will return a combined $60,682 they shouldn't have received.

Three classroom assistants are compensating District 46 by performing extra work under a union settlement agreement struck in May, Correll said.

As part of the deal, a fourth assistant resigned after collecting enough overpayments that she reached her entire salary midway through the just-ended academic year.

Correll said complex recalculations of salaries after a new employee contract led to the errors. She said the mistakes weren't obvious in the checks for most of the 13 workers involved, which made it difficult when she told them the money had to be repaid.

"I had a lot of tears," Correll said this week. "A lot of tears. I felt absolutely terrible. That is no way to run a district."

To prevent future errors, Correll said, at least three employees are reviewing the payroll before it is released.

In addition, she said, all teachers and assistants will receive a letter noting their exact pay when the new academic season starts. An accounting firm soon will be hired to perform a special audit.

Documents show the overpaid classroom assistant who resigned was on pace to collect $39,466 -- double her $19,733 annual salary -- until the error was caught in January. Correll said the employee in question "should have been professional" and alerted officials about the noticeable discrepancy.

All four assistants were overpaid by $31,424 through roughly five months of the last academic year, according to District 46 documents obtained by the Daily Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Finance Coordinator Mary Lou Wilbois said she discovered too much money was going to the assistants when she happened to examine the payroll in January.

"No one wants to make a mistake, no matter what kind of job you have," Wilbois said.

Under the District 46 school board's agreement with the Lake County Federation of Teachers' Grayslake union, the three remaining assistants got to keep the overpayments in exchange for performing duties without compensation.

Wilbois said the nine teachers were overpaid the collective $60,682 in the 2006-07 academic year. Documents show the individual overpayments ranged from $385 to $8,846 for teachers who received raises after they indicated an intent to retire.

One teacher has repaid District 46 and another is expected to have extra earnings withheld if the money isn't returned in full by month's end. Five have had extra cash deducted from their checks, while the district is working on a reimbursement plan for two others, Correll said.

Wilbois said the mistakes in the teachers' checks were found in a review of District 46's payroll in July 2007.

District 46 board President Michael Linder said that in a school system with about 350 employees, it was surprising to learn a second payroll gaffe was discovered in January.

Linder said he'll be more comfortable with the financial controls now in place after the audit's findings.

"We'll find what we find," he said. "What we'll do is make sure this (darn) thing is resolved."