NEW ROCHELLE, NY — In an exclusive interview with Jeffrey T. White, the Assistant Superintendent for Business and Administration told Talk of the Sound that barring any unforeseen events, he hopes to have completed a complete roll out of the Timepiece system, a high-tech version of a punch clock, by the end of the current school year. The system will be used to track hours for every employee except 12-month, salaried administrators and integrate that data into the payroll module of the district’s Finance Manager software.
The first step is for employees to be registered in the system — their name and pedigree information along with a finger-print. The second step is to began paying workers for hours tracked by the system.
The rollout began over the summer, as first reported by Talk of the Sound, with the contractural/salaried employees in Buildings & Grounds who were first registered and then tracked. By the end of October, White hopes to have added Hourly/Part-Time Buildings & Grounds employees and registered Security employees who will then be tracked before the end of November. After that other employee groups will be added to the system: Food Services, Cleaners, Monitors, Aides, Teacher Assistants and, finally, teachers.
The district spend $143,000 on the system with BOCES and another $32,000 wiring the system. The BOCES expenses are 40% reimbursable so that all-in cost will be $118,000. The district expects to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year as a result of the one-time investment in the TimePiece system [the District is working to calculate a more precise estimate].
White noted the advertised benefits of TimePiece to reduce administrative and personnel costs, collect accurate and reliable employee time and attendance, prevent payments for unauthorized jobs, realize greater personnel accountability, eliminate “buddy punching”, increase control with real-time reporting capabilities, reduce payroll errors while increasing productivity and monitor employees.
New Rochelle what’s in your wallet?
This is crazy,
These people wouldn’t last one day in the real world. Over the years I have ask at School Board Meetings why we can’t and haven’t implemented a time card system. Back in June 2014 I was told there would be no problem implementing a system quickly as the schools were in the process of upgrading the ID system for building access.
Back then and times before I said that we needed to go back and review the contracts and agreements to get on board sooner than later. If a corner store can have a computerized system, why can’t a multi-million dollar budget find a way to do this as it would save money and increase accountability. Even something of the most basic design even manual time punch system could have started saving the system and taxpayers money. Let’s see, buying something as simple as a manual time punch system even if it cost the School District $50,000 and that’s a lot, we could have begun saving tens of thousands of dollars and payed for the new Biometric Punch Clocks. But that makes fiscal sense and would once again prove the people that speak at the meetings are correct.
The district expects to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year as a result of the one-time investment which will reduce administrative and personnel costs, collect accurate and reliable employee time. Imagine if that saving was invested in some much needed infrastructure repair? Then we might not be facing the $50 million bonding to repair long-neglected schools throughout the School District and we wouldn’t be paying out the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will cost the taxpayers of New Rochelle for the disastrous Webster School Ceiling Collapse. This is a onetime investment/expense that we the taxpayers won’t get back. Once again we have more money that could have been put towards our failing infrastructure.
Every comment I heard during the meetings for the Daniel Webster move to Holy Family it was said so simply that we shouldn’t worry as the School District is paying for it and not the City of New Rochelle. Hey folks they are our tax dollars regardless of where they come from and School Taxes are 65-70% of our taxes. The taxpayer and the children are getting robbed as the School District looks the other way or passes the buck, OUR BUCK!!!
All of this is criminal and The New Rochelle School District and some staff should be going to jail for what has happened. Too often people are just let go or resign. It is time for someone to pay for these crimes. A child’s life could have been lost or even just hurt. Either way it’s criminal and shouldn’t happen when people have complained over the years about the conditions at some of our schools.
When only 2500 people vote for budgets and election in a city of about 45,000 register voters, it’s like stealing candy from a baby. No more all day suckers, it is time for New Rochelle Taxpayers to Wake Up!