An administrative agreement has been reached with the Virtual Public School (VPS) of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to ensure that the school’s laid-off teachers will remain employed and provide instruction as scheduled to thousands of online students.
VPS had notified 220 educators last week that they could not teach classes in the fall semester, which begins next week, to satisfy a required break in service for temporary employees. A tentative agreement was reached following a Tuesday afternoon meeting between representatives of DPI, the Office of State Human Resources (OSHR), the Governor’s Office and legislators who were considering modifying an existing bill to resolve the situation.
DPI will manage and pay the teachers directly through the state’s Integrated HR-Payroll System, also known as BEACON, instead of using Temporary Solutions, the OSHR division that provides payroll administration for temporary state agency employees. The Office of the State Controller, which implements the BEACON system, today confirmed that it can accommodate the transition of VPS teachers from Temporary Solutions to DPI.
“The Office of State Human Resources will continue to provide support and guidance during this transition,” said OSHR Communications Director Jill Warren Lucas. “No teacher will miss a paycheck and students should prepare for their classes to start as scheduled.”
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