State Auditors Find That School District Overpaid for Overtime

NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNaPoliAn audit of the Scarsdale School Districts overtime payments by the Office of the NY State Comptroller in the Spring of 2022 found that the district overpaid for overtime services for custodial services from July 1, 2020 to January 31, 2022.

At the Board of Education meeting on Monday December 18, 2022, Dr. Patrick explained that offices of municipalities are regularly audited every five years or so and the Scarsdale School district was last audited in 2016. In the spring of 2022 the State Comptroller focused on “Overtime” to “determine whether the Scarsdale Union Free School District (District) officials ensured overtime was properly approved, accurate and monitored”.

Dr. Patrick further explained that the audit looked at the period of time that fell during the Covid Pandemic when overtime was higher than usual. However, Dr. Patrick also admitted some mistakes were made as were highlighted in the Report of Examination.

As per the report, “Although overtime was properly approved, District officials did not monitor overtime to ensure it was accurate…In addition, District officials and department heads were not properly monitoring overtime charges. While the need for certain overtime can be difficult to anticipate, routine work for other events should be planned in a more cost-effective manner than using overtime. We found the District incurred overtime costs for the use of substitute staff, sporting events, cleaning and contractor visits, which could have been easily prevented with adequate planning and schedule adjustments.”

The report details a corrective plan of action which Dr. Patrick assures it is already in the works and should be wholly achieved by March 31st, 2023. For a look at the full report which could not be made public until Friday, December 16th, please click here:

The report explains:

"District officials did not properly monitor the use of overtime. During our audit period, the District paid approximately $1.23 million in overtime wages. We analyzed the overtime paid to 20 employees with the highest overtime charges for the audit period and reviewed all of their time records and payments totaling $524,934. Our review of the time records for these 20 employees found $447,485 (87 percent) of the overtime charges were for routine anticipated events that could have been avoided with scheduling adjustments (Figure 1). For example, had the District adjusted employee schedules, such as a Tuesday through Saturday work week or staggered work schedules, some of the overtime charges could have been avoided, and employees working on Saturday or after school hours could have been paid the regular rate. For example, we found that the District paid overtime, totaling $123,113 to six of the 20 employees in our sample to clean the school on Saturdays or after school hours, despite the District knowing that coverage would be needed ahead of time.

In addition, District officials and department heads were not properly monitoring overtime charges. While the need for certain overtime can be difficult to anticipate, routine work for other events should be planned in a more cost-effective manner than using overtime. We found the District incurred overtime costs for the use of substitute staff, sporting events, cleaning and contractor visits, which could have been easily prevented with adequate planning and schedule adjustments.

We determined that had the District adjusted employees’ schedules, some of these charges may have been avoided or paid at regular pay. As a result, the District could have saved over $155,516 in overtime expenses. District officials told us that the majority of overtime spending was due to custodial and maintenance staff overtime that was required to keep the buildings properly cleaned. However, the District did not perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether hiring additional staff or adjusted employees’ schedules could have reduced overtime expenses or the overall costs in wages paid. Because District officials did not ensure overtime was properly monitored and did not provide adequate review of time records, the District is spending more for overtime charges than necessary. Additionally, the increased overtime will also increase the amount owed by the District, annually to the State, for its share of the cost of the District’s employees’ retirement benefits."