Pay attention

Re “L.A. schools’ pay errors continue,” Oct. 5

Supt. David L. Brewer continues to add his own spin to the Los Angeles Unified School District payroll fiasco. He fails to demonstrate leadership when month after month he downsizes the number of underpaid and unpaid employees.

He also fails to demonstrate any comprehension of the problem when he claims that $53 million has been overpaid. The district sent incorrect statements to employees in which the overpayments were indicated. The errors in these reports were noted in an accompanying letter. My payroll history stated that I had been overpaid an amount equal to the three checks I had to wait for when I was not paid. On three occasions, I had to go to the district headquarters to request my paychecks. It is ludicrous to claim that such checks were overpayments.

Brewer needs to get in touch with the reality of the problem if he wants to be an effective leader of the district.

Donna Madden

Redondo Beach

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Re “Teachers union is warned against pay protests,” Oct. 4

The warning by the Los Angeles Unified School District to the teachers union that any job action to protest the ongoing pay problems would violate labor agreements is specious at best. The ongoing failure of the district to pay teachers on a timely basis is a violation of the labor contract in itself. If the district were a private employer with the same sorry record of failure to pay employees wages they were owed, the company would certainly be prosecuted. It’s time to start bringing indictments against the school board and district bureaucrats.

Mel Frohman

Los Angeles