An independent investigation found the El Paso Independent School District did not steal wages from several speech language pathologists as alleged by union leaders, according to a report released Wednesday.
In a sweeping rebuke of the claims by the El Paso Federation of Teachers, El Paso attorney Patricia Palafox ruled that Deputy Superintendent Administration Vince Sheffield and his staff gave appropriate wage increases to the pathologists. She also said union President Ross Moore filed the grievance weeks after the deadline had passed.
“The grievant does not contend that, and has not shown any evidence that the Board approved a 10% minimum increase for the SLP’s when the Board approved the pay grade raise,” the report states.
EPISD officials said the independent review cost about $38,000.
“A thorough independent hearing and investigation found that accusations made by El Paso AFT were unsubstantiated. Vince Sheffield is an upstanding educational leader who has dutifully served the district in a variety of capacities for more than 30 years,” EPISD Communications Director Pablo Villa said in a statement.
Moore said the investigation was designed to absolve Sheffield and was “standard EPISD HR practice.” He didn’t elaborate to support his claim.
Ross Moore, a retired Army officer and teacher, is president of the El Paso Federation of Teachers. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Moore said he is waiting on two open records requests before the federation decides if they will take further action.
The collective grievance, filed by Moore in early January, alleged that several speech language pathologists — or SLPs — were promised a larger pay increase than what they were given after the EPISD board approved district-wide raises in June 2023.
This included giving all staff a 2% raise and moving SLPs up a pay scale.
Moore claimed the pay schedule increase should have resulted in a 10% raise for SLPs under the district’s compensation guidelines, which outline pay increases for position upgrades. The grievance asked the district to correct the raises with back pay and was not seeking any disciplinary action against Sheffield.
The guidelines state that staff who get position upgrades will be given at least a 10% raise.
Palafox ruled that the policy only applies to employees who got position upgrades based “an evaluation of duties that have been approved to be at a higher level based on this evaluation of duties.” In this case, the upgrade was made to better align EPISD with neighboring districts.
Investigators found that Moore also failed to submit the grievance in the appropriate time frame under district policy, which requires grievants to start the process by requesting an informal conference within 10 business days of the incident they are complaining about.
The raises approved by the board in 2023 went into effect in September of that year. The El Paso AFT did not start the grievance process until November, according to the report.
According to EPISD’s grievance process, the superintendent or a designee has 10 days from the day the complaint was submitted to hold a hearing and another 10 days to respond. If they are unable to resolve the grievance or the time for a response has expired, the federation can bring the complaint to the school board.
The decision can be appealed to the school board.
The post EPISD investigation rejects claims of wage theft appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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