Payroll Update - February 20, 2023

Hello, employees.  At the Board of Education’s regular meeting this evening, I gave an update to the Board about our School Business Systems Modernization.

We continue to make progress on addressing issues related to our payroll system, and we would like to provide you with an update.  Below is a summary of the information that I shared with the Board of Education.  Please take a moment to review this information carefully.  

In recent months, the following “global” issues (issues affecting a group of employees) have been addressed and corrected:

• FICA deductions for EPI (Educational Partners International) teachers – the deductions have been refunded to the EPI teachers;
• Overtime pay for employees working in the ASPIRE after-school program – the employees affected by this issue have been paid for their overtime work; and
• Longevity payments for employees in July and August – the longevity payments for July and August have been paid to employees who were affected by this issue.

Addressing and correcting the following “global” issues is in progress:

• Compensatory or “comp” time pay rate – technical support is working on correcting this issue and reimbursing employees who have been affected;
• Multiple/excess deductions (see information below); and
• Retirement contributions (see information below).

Information about Multiple/Excess Deductions

We continue to make progress on correcting issues experienced by individual employees; these are issues that are unique to the employee.  We have made solid progress on identifying and refunding multiple/excess deductions, and we continue to work on this issue.  

Please know that working on individual issues is an on-going process; it is time-consuming as payroll personnel have to focus attention on addressing these issues one at a time instead of collectively.  

Information about Retirement Contributions

Files through September 2022 have been submitted to the ORBIT state retirement system; retirement contributions have been posted through August 2022.  We continue to work with the state retirement system to process each monthly file and correct file errors.

Interest on retirement contributions for the 2022 calendar year has been posted in the ORBIT state retirement system; the interest is calculated based on employee contributions for the 2021 calendar year.

Contributions to Empower 401(k) have been posted through January 2023, and contributions to the 457 and 403(b) retirement plans have been posted through December 2022.

Information about Form W-2

On January 28, 2023, ADP (a management services company that handles the direct deposit of payroll) mailed approximately 5,000 Form W-2s to current and former employees of Gaston County Schools.  We had to reprint and distribute via U.S. mail or internal courier 115 Form W-2s to individuals who did not receive an initial Form W-2 from ADP.  

We are working on preparing approximately 30 Form W-2Cs to correct information that was included on the original Form W-2.  The most common error was related to different amounts for the federal and state earnings.  Both amounts should be the same.

Additionally, there were 121 known overpayments to employees during 2022.  Employees who repaid the amount of the overpayment in 2022 did not see an impact on their year-to-date wages for 2022.  Employees who were not aware of an overpayment or were not able to repay the amount of the overpayment in 2022 had this amount included in their year-to-date earnings for 2022.  Federal and state taxes were withheld from the amount of the overpayment in 2022.  An employee’s repayment of the funds in 2023 will result in a reduction of the employee’s 2023 year-to-date earnings and the corresponding federal and state tax payments.

Information about Bi-Weekly and Monthly Pay Runs

In recent months, our bi-weekly and monthly payroll runs have experienced minimal issues or errors.  Having minimal issues is an indication of better system efficiency.

We hope this information is helpful.  We appreciate what you are doing for Gaston County Schools to give us a productive school year, and we are fortunate to have you as part of our school community.  Thank you.

Gary Hoskins, Chief Financial Officer