Up to 2,000 HISD workers didn't get paid on time due to system-wide 'glitch,' school district says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The state's largest school district is blaming a technical glitch for delaying paychecks for some employees this week.

The video above is ABC13's 24/7 livestream.

ABC13 partners at the Houston Chronicle report some workers didn't get paid on time, and the Houston Independent School District says its IT and payroll departments are working to resolve the issue.

Just last week, some teachers were accidentally sent termination notices, which were also blamed on a technical problem.

This comes weeks into the state takeover of HISD.

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"To me, it actually shows that things were not as bad as they think they were or saying that they were. We didn't have these issues before. And it also says to me that before you come in and start making major moves, you need to see what's working first. It's like throwing out the baby with the bathwater," Jackie Anderson, Houston Federation of Teachers president, said.

The district also told the Chronicle the cause of the technical problem was unknown.

Workers were given the option to get a paper check on Wednesday or wait for the money to show up in their bank accounts on Thursday.

Houston ISD sent Eyewitness News the following statement:

HISD's first priority was to ensure that direct deposits and paper checks were processed today, July 5, 2023, for affected employees. We believe all employees will have access to their payroll deposits no later than tomorrow. The Payroll and Information Technology departments are working together to thoroughly investigate this error and establish safeguards to ensure this cannot happen again. At this time, we believe the error affected the July 5th payroll processing for up to 2,000 HISD employees.