Employee and Retiree Service Center (ERSC): Timekeepers

9/26/2008

Effective with the July 1, 2008 MCEA negotiated agreement a new Class I Extracurricular Activity was created for the coordination of the outdoor education program. The Employee and Retiree Service Center (ERSC) and the Office of the Chief Operating Officer (OCOO) have been receiving questions regarding the new activity. Below you will find information that will assist you in the assignment of the activity and registration of the activity on Form 430-54: Extracurricular Activities Annual Plan -- Class I. The agreement states that the team member who organizes the Outdoor Education Program for their school shall be compensated at the stipend rate of $14.00 per hour for up to 40 hours for organizing and planning based on hours worked.

·The activity is registered using form 430-54: Extracurricular Activities Annual Plan -- Class I;

·The 40 hours allocated for this activity is not part of total hours the school has been allocated for Class I activities. The hours for coordination of outdoor education is in addition to the hours already allocated.

If you have questions regarding this activity please call the Employee and Retiree Service Center on 301-517-8100.

8/28/2008

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON TIME REPORTING FOR THE PAY PERIOD OF 8/16-8/29/2008:

Reminder:

PACS Attendance for the Pay Period 8/16-8/29/08 will be collected on Friday, August 29, 2008 by 4:00 pm. Please be sure your payroll has been posted and released by then. This is due to the accelerated payroll which we will be processing this weekend in order to pay our employees on September 5, 2008.

This information can be found on the 2008-2009 Schedule of Pay Periods and Pay Dates which was sent to all locations at the beginning of the fiscal year. This can also be found on our Employee and Retiree Service Center Web site.

The following information is some of the questions/answers and general information regarding transactions, time and attendance, voucher corrections, special check requests, etc that are in effect for the next several days.

Employees NOT ON PACS attendance screens:

Review your PACS attendance screen through Wednesday afternoon, 8/27/2008. If the employee is not on the screen please contact your staffer in the Office of Human Resources

Continue to check PACS attendance screen until 12:00 noon on Friday, 8/29/2008. If the employee is not on the screen by that time, RELEASE your payroll.

Professional, Supporting Services, Short Term Substitutes and Long Term substitutes- prepare a voucher correction for the hours to be reported and paid; forward it to ERSC. If a special check is to be requested, please attach a memorandum directed to Larry Bowers, Chief Operating Officer, attach it to the voucher correction and forward it to CESC, Room 149 to be reviewed for payment disposition.

Temporary Part Time, Summer Supplemental Employment, Extracurricular Activities and Workshops should be posted as PRIOR PAY PERIOD corrections during the pay period (8/30-9/12/2008)

Employees ON PACS attendance screens and are NO LONGER at the location:

Continue to check your PACS attendance screen until 12:00 noon on Friday, 8/29/2008. If the employee is still showing on the screen, report the hours scheduled as NPR (No Pay Reported) and RELEASE your payroll. It is imperative that these employees attendance be reported as NPR or they will be overpaid and owe MCPS a repayment of monies.

Employees with FTE changes for the same position:

Continue to check your PACS attendance screen until 12:00 noon on Friday, 8/29/2008. If the employee's FTE has not changed report the hours to be paid as follows:

1. FTE INCREASE

Professional Staff: Complete a voucher correction and forward it to ERSC for payment

Supporting Services Staff: Report the additional hours as OTR (Overtime Regular Rate)

2. FTE DECREASE

Professional and Supporting Services Staff: Report the number of hours not to be paid as NPR (No Pay Reported)

Employees who have TRANSFERRED locations:

If the employee has transferred from your location to a new location, report the hours as NPR (No Pay Reported)

DO NOT REPORT HOURS FOR THIS EMPLOYEE FOR TIME THAT WAS WORKED AT THEIR NEW LOCATION

If the employee is new to your location due to a transfer and they are not showing on your PACS attendance screen, follow the instructions as directed under "Employees NOT on PACS attendance screens:"

Employees With 2nd positions NOT ON PACS attendance screens:

DO NOT REPORT these hours on any other position. DO NOT REPORT these hours as OTR (Overtime Regular Rate) on their other position.

Follow the instructions as directed under "Employees NOT on PACS attendance screens"

Important Information To Remember:

Timekeeper Reporting Instructions for 10- and 11-month professional employees for the pay period 8/16-8/29/2008:

Timekeepers will NOT be able to select the No Pre-Fill option for the first pay period of the school year. All 10- and 11-month professional employees will have 1/10th of their scheduled biweekly hours pre-filled for each day of the pay period.

Continuing educators hired prior to 8/19/2008 can be paid for 9 days of their scheduled biweekly hours. The PACS attendance will be pre-screened as 9 days REG and 1 day NPS. Report the hours as No Pay Reported (NPR) if the employee did not work their full schedule.

New educators with a hire date of 8/19/2008 can be paid for 9 days of their scheduled biweekly hours. The PACS attendance will be pre-screened as 9 days REG and 1 day NPS. Report the hours as No Pay Reported (NPR) if the employee did not work their full schedule.

11-month employees are eligible to be paid for 9 days of their scheduled biweekly hours. The PACS attendance will be pre-screened as 9 days REG and 1 day NPS. Report the hours as No Pay Reported (NPR) if the employee did not work their full schedule.

If you continue to have questions that are not answered within this e-mail, please direct your inquiries by calling ERSC at (301) 517-8100. Please remember when calling ERSC that due to the high volume of calls staff wait time may increase.

8/15/2008

Timesheets for the pay period 8/16-8/29/08 will not be sent to locations until the middle of next week. This change is to allow our office to get as many of the new hires, transfers, and FTE changes into the system so that when the timesheets are printed, they will reflect the new changes.

If, when you receive your timesheets, you find that you have some employees who do not have a preprinted timesheet, please do not call our office. Instead, please have the employee(s) fill out blank timesheets. These can be found on the MCPS website.

We thank you for your patience during this very busy time.

8/12/2008

The Athletics Unit and the Employee and Retiree Service Center, both of the Office of the Chief Operating Officer, are pleased to announce the on-line version of the Extracurricular Activities (ECA) Handbook. The ECA Handbook can be found on the Staff tab of the MCPS web site (Tools and Resources). The handbook is a PDF document and is fully searchable. The ECA handbook will no longer be printed and delivered to schools. The forms related to the extracurricular activities have also been revised to assist school staff in tracking their total hours and to improve the approval process for supporting service employees. Please note that all old forms that may be in your building should be destroyed. The old forms will no longer take advantage of the supporting service approval process.

The revised forms have a new section for supporting service employees employed in Class 1 and/or Class 3 activities. The principal must complete this section and attest to the following:

the school sought teacher-level applicants;

the employee volunteered to take the assignment and;

The employee is full-time but the stipend requires work in another capacity than his/her normal work. The Fair Labor Standards Act considers anything instructional to be similar work. Therefore, the regular work of an employee must not be instructionally related. In general, significant contact with students is considered to be instructionally related. Employees in such positions as paraeducators, media assistants, and career information coordinators are considered instructional under this limitation and may not work in a stipended activity if it would require work beyond 8 hours a day on 40 hours a week.

You are no longer required to obtain permission from the Chief Operating Officer to employ the supporting service staff once the above section has been completed.

In the next few weeks the handbook will also be deployed to a SharePoint site providing you even more flexibility. We will keep you informed as these changes occur.

The revised forms for the ECA activities are listed below. Please take a look. We believe you’ll like what you see. If you have questions please call the Employee and Retiree Service Center on 301-517-8100.

430-54 Extracurricular Activities Annual Plan—Class 1
430-57 High School Extracurricular Activities Annual Plan
430-58 Change to Annual Plan for Extracurricular Activities
430-60 Middle School Extracurricular Activities Annual Plan
430-84 Elementary School Extracurricular Activities Annual Plan

7/2/2008

The holiday hours would be reported on the PACS attendance screen using the pay code HLN (Holiday Pay Non-Accruable). The hours for the holiday will not fill automatically in the PACS system.

Questions regarding holiday pay should be directed to ERSC at 301 517-8100 or via E-mail to ERSC@mcpsmd.org. Examples of substantially similar positions are as follows:

Substantially similar:
Ten month school secretary/summer school secretary
Bus driver/temporary bus driver
Security assistant/ summer school security assistant
Ten month school secretary/clerical assistant
Fiscal assistant/clerical assistant
Special ed paraeducator/paraeducator
Media assistant/clerical assistant
Cafeteria manager/cafeteria worker

Not substantially similar:
Bus driver/bus attendant
Security assistant/warehouse helper
Paraeducator/clerical assistant
Media assistant/paraeducator

Please share this information with the individual(s) in your school and office responsible for reporting time and attendance.

Important Information:

For those of you that report workshops using the Professional Workshop screen:

For the split pay period 06/21/08 – 07/04/08, it is very important to correctly enter the workshop dates in order for the workshop to be expensed to the proper fiscal year. If the workshop was held prior to July 1 and/or is to be expensed to FY08, be sure that the workshop dates reflect this and the workshop end date is prior to July 1, 2008. If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk. Thank you.