Hundreds of DeKalb County teachers not paid, left off payroll

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - Hundreds of DeKalb County teachers and staff say they haven’t been paid since they started working about a month ago. 

New Lithonia High School Social Studies teacher Devin Gainer says after teaching in Florida for three years, he moved to Georgia to teach at DeKalb County Schools for better pay. 

"Georgia teachers, within the profession, are known for having a higher pay scale, at least in the Southeast," Gainer said. 

But so far, he hasn’t gotten to enjoy the pay bump because he, along with around 300 other DeKalb teachers and staff, haven’t been paid for their first month on the job. 

"The money that I was expecting to get today is being held up," Gainer said. 

We got calls and emails from several teachers and staff that this had happened. When FOX 5’s Eric Mock got to the district’s administration building, he saw dozens of teachers and staff waiting to get paper checks, before he was asked to leave the property by DeKalb County School Police. 

The DeKalb County School District told FOX 5 in a statement, "Approximately 300 new staff were inadvertently not included in the first run of this morning's payroll." 

Teachers with the DeKalb County School District wait inside the district's administration building, looking for their paychecks (FOX 5).

So hundreds of staff showed up at the admin building to get paper checks printed out. 

Gainer says he and the other teachers can’t afford to go without pay, nor should they have to. 

"I've heard people in there saying that they can't even get food for their children until they get the check… me personally? My last two meals, I had to scrape up the quarters that I use to wash my clothes to buy a rotisserie chicken from Walmart just to call it a meal," Gainer said. 

What’s worse is, Gainer says he was warned by veteran DeKalb teachers that this might happen. 

"They had warned me that you possibly could not get paid. [They said] there have been instances of people upset with the County because they had worked extra hours and they didn't receive that compensation in a timely fashion or at all. So they said it was pretty much just ‘be ready for it. Welcome to DeKalb, that’s their calling card,’" Gainer said. 

The district told us in their statement, "we've already processed payments for approximately 165 of these employees, and our payroll team is actively finalizing payments for the remaining staff, which is expected to be completed later today."

Gainer says teachers put up with a lot in their profession, but he draws the line at not getting paid. 

Teachers with the DeKalb County School District wait inside the district's administration building, looking for their paychecks (FOX 5).

"There's so much that can be acceptable, this isn't one of those times," he said. 

Gainer later reported that he didn’t get his check until about 9 pm. And he said there were still other teachers waiting there for a check even after he got his. 

The district said no one was available for an interview Friday evening.