Austin ISD teachers asked to pay back $2,000 bonus after district accidentally overpaid some employees

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AUSTIN (KXAN) – Email records show some Austin Independent School District teachers are being asked to pay back a $2,000 retention stipend after district officials said they accidentally paid them out to the wrong employees.

According to a district email sent to teachers, the retention stipend was a recruitment tool meant for newly hired staff who agreed to be assigned to hard-to-staff positions. The email from the Chief Human Capital Officer said a processing error led to the bonus also going to returning employees.

The district has not said the exact number of people who inadvertently received the stipend.

The district said in the email to teachers those returning employees should have received their stipend in November and March.

In another email from July 5, the district told employees the $2,000 stipend could either be paid back in one lump sum or over four pay periods.

“I want to express my sincere apologies for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. We understand the importance of accurate and fair compensation and are taking immediate action to rectify the situation,” Chief Human Capital Officer Brandi Hosack said in an email to AISD staff.

This isn’t the first payroll issue to impact AISD employees.

In November 2022, KXAN uncovered records showing at the start of the school year – delays in onboarding an unprecedented number of new hires led to some Austin ISD teachers not being paid on time, and missing stipend money on their checks.

“There is no excuse for it. Even this far, this many weeks out, we have already started to clean the system so that we are not back in the same situation,” Hosack told KXAN in November 2022.

Hosack told KXAN in November her office planned to launch a new employee management system -- automating the onboarding process.

In the most recent email to employees, Hosack said her office was putting additional validation steps in place to prevent errors. Hosack also said the district would launch a new system in July to streamline the stipend payment process.

“Staff have been working evenings, weekends and even holidays for months to transition to the new payroll system, which is designed to prevent these kinds of issues. We're making this investment to give staff greater confidence that they'll receive exactly what they've earned when they're expecting it," AISD spokesperson Anne Drabicky said.

"We regret any frustration this may have caused. We contacted staff as soon as we discovered the issue, with options for returning the over-payment in a manner that works best for them."