Angela Lawler, president of the Hillside Education Association, told the Board of Education on Oct. 30 that many district employees did not receive their scheduled payroll deposits that morning and that she filed a grievance to protect members and the contract.

"I had people crying that they didn't know how they were gonna pay their bills," Lawler said, identifying school staff as among those affected and saying the association represents about 400 members. She said some staff could not travel to work because they lacked funds to purchase train tickets and that members living paycheck to paycheck faced immediate hardship.

Superintendent Erskine Glover acknowledged the problem, apologized publicly and said he began receiving calls and was "heated" at the situation. He told the board deposits began to post to employee accounts around 11 a.m. and that district staff would be assisted if any members remained impacted.

No formal vote was recorded on payroll at the meeting. Lawler said she filed a grievance "this morning"; the transcript does not include details of the grievance's content or next legal steps. The superintendent said the district is responsible for the institutional error and pledged to remedy outstanding cases.

The board did not announce a timeline for completing any payroll audit or for follow-up reports to staff. Lawler said individual staff members will likely learn the full impact in the days following the deposit outage.