BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — The Teachers Association of Baltimore County says many educators aren't getting paid what they're owed.
WATCH: Baltimore County educators call on school board to fix payroll issues
Now they're demanding immediate action from the county school board to fix it.
Payroll issues since the beginning of the school year had Baltimore County educators filling a county school board meeting Tuesday night.
Missing pay, inaccurate deductions, and confusion about sick leave are just some of the problems teachers are facing, according to the Teachers Association of Baltimore County.
"There was an issue on pay in September with deductions that impacted about 250 [people]," said TABCO President Kelly Olds.
Olds said the issues began after the district switched to a new payroll system—Oracle.
She told WMAR 2 News that it's been hard on the members ever since.
"It's been very stressful and frustrating for our members who have been impacted by this, particularly members who haven't received their full pay on time when those issues have occurred, in trying to contact the system, reach multiple offices to identify the issue, and also just being able to pay their bills."
Educator Helene Groves told WMAR 2 News even though she hasn't been affected by the pay issues, she still inspects each check very carefully.
"I don't think I've looked at it this thoroughly since my first couple of years teaching," Groves said.
She and other teachers came to the school board with one ask.
"[We're] asking for cooperation and collaboration with the school board in how we can work with them to make sure that everyone is being paid as they should be for the work that they're doing."
Baltimore County Public Schools released a statement saying,
"BCPS is implementing a new Oracle Cloud ERP system to support system automation and processes in order to adequately meet industry standards.
This critical project is providing us with a modern and comprehensive system that enables us to make data-driven decisions, streamline processes, and efficiently manage personnel and resources.
As with any large-scale project rollout, BCPS has experienced a small number of issues that staff from Staff Relations, Human Resources, Information Technology, and Fiscal Services have worked to address promptly.
To our knowledge, all concerns regarding payroll have been addressed. Less than two percent of our 20,000+ workforce have reported issues with payroll – issues that were not the result of technical issues with Oracle—and where there has been a verified error, we have corrected those issues.
It is important to note that BCPS previously utilized the CGI system and had many archaic and manual processes in place that created errors and challenges for both employees and fiscal services.
In the former CGI system, we were running payroll every week, and because of the manual nature of the system, there were significant errors that the new Oracle system is addressing.
BCPS will continue to work collaboratively with the leadership of the employee associations, and we remain ready to assist with any additional questions that may arise.
It remains a top priority to meet the needs of Team BCPS employees.
Olds said some issues have been resolved.
"Also, issues with 403 deductions being taken out of people's pay and not being fully deposited with the vendors that those are for. But like I said, those pieces seem to be resolved, so I'm cautiously optimistic."
But she told us there's still a long way to go before everything is fixed.
Board members heard her out during public comment on Tuesday, but did not immediately respond to her concerns.
