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[‘Checking the Record’ is a recurring analysis column that checks the record on some of the claims made in Sudbury’s civic discourse.]
After news that Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) is being sued over alleged late payments to three employees, community members have asked who is responsible for school payroll: SPS, the School Committee, or the Town of Sudbury’s finance staff?
A community member offered this answer on social media:
“Payroll processing is operational and, therefore, not within the purview of SPSC. The SC would only know there was an an issue with timing if someone informed them of it. I think the Framingham Unfiltered post said the SPSC was notified of the late payments by one of the complainants in May 2025? The issuing of payroll (and all accounts payable) payments is handled by the Town’s accounting office.”
The comment makes two checkable claims:
- Payroll is outside the School Committee’s purview.
- The Town’s accounting office issues payroll payments.
To check both, we asked the Town to explain the payroll process. Assistant Town Manager and Finance Director Victor Garofalo provided detailed comments in response.
Claim 1: Is payroll outside the School Committee’s purview?
Not according to the Town’s account. Every school payroll is authorized by a payroll warrant, the document that approves the payments for a given pay period. Garofalo said SPS payroll warrants have historically been signed by two people: the SPS Director of Business and Human Resources and a School Committee member. Since around June 2025, the committee member’s approval has been given by email.
Sign-off comes from one member, not a vote of the full committee, and the committee doesn’t handle day-to-day processing. But a committee member absolutely approves school payroll. That is a formal oversight role, and it’s spelled out in SPS policy DGA. (Policy Manual HERE)
Claim 2: Does the Town’s accounting office issue payroll payments?
Partly. According to Garofalo, the Town converted its payroll from Munis to a system called Harpers in January 2023. SPS also uses Harpers, but administers its own payroll through a separate Harpers portal.
According to Garofalo, the School Department is responsible for:
- entering and reconciling employees’ hours, salaries, deductions and tax information, and
- overseeing the payroll approval process, which is run by the Director of Business and Human Resources under the Superintendent’s oversight.
SPS payroll also follows its own schedule. Depending on their contract and their own election, school employees receive either 21 or 26 paychecks a year:
- Employees on the 21-pay schedule are paid every two weeks from the first payroll in September, generally through the first payroll in June.
- Employees on the 26-pay schedule are paid every two weeks all year.
The responsibility for preparing, reconciling, and approving School Department payroll remains with SPS.
Victor Garofalo, Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director – Town of Sudbury
The Town’s role comes at the end of the process. Once SPS has entered and reconciled its payroll, it sends the Town Accountant’s Office a pre-process payroll register, so the related accounts payable vouchers can be processed on time. The Town typically receives the signed payroll warrant the day before paychecks are issued, according to Garofalo. The Town Accountant then processes the school’s vouchers, and the Town Treasurer processes the payroll payments.
So the Town does issue the payments, through the Treasurer as well as the accounting office. But it issues them from a payroll SPS has already prepared and approved. In Garofalo’s words: “The responsibility for preparing, reconciling, and approving School Department payroll remains with SPS.”
Direct Deposit Changes
The 2025 phishing incident showed the same division of labor. Public records from that incident indicate that SPS business office staff processed changes to employees’ direct deposit accounts. After the incident, SPS required employees to request payroll account changes in person at SPS Central Office, as the district-wide email below announced.
The Town does not set school employees’ wages or pay schedules. Those come from contracts the School Committee negotiates and from employees’ own pay elections made through the SPS Business Office.
The Bottom Line: Mostly false
- Claim 1 (payroll is outside the committee’s purview): False. Payroll is operational, but a School Committee member approves every school payroll warrant.
- Claim 2 (the Town’s accounting office issues payments): Partly true, but misleading. The Town Accountant and Treasurer do process the payments, as confirmed by Garofalo. But they do so only after SPS has prepared, reconciled and approved the payroll. The claim implies that because the Town issues the payments, the Town is responsible for SPS payroll from soup to nuts. That is not the case according to Garofalo.
The Town merely executes the transaction; SPS decides what goes into it.
Garofalo’s full comments on payroll are below.
“The Town converted to Harpers Payroll in January 2023. Prior to that, payroll was processed through Munis.
Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) administers its own payroll through a separate Harpers portal. The School Department is responsible for entering and reconciling employees’ hours, salaries, deductions, and tax information, as well as overseeing the payroll approval process. Payroll is approved by the School’s Director of Business and Human Resources under the Superintendent’s oversight, with additional approval from a School Committee member. School employees have the option of receiving either 21 or 26 pays, depending on their applicable contract and employee election. Employees on the 21-pay schedule are paid biweekly beginning with the first payroll in September and generally ending with the first payroll in June. Employees on the 26-pay schedule are paid biweekly throughout the year.
Once the School Department has entered and reconciled its payroll, it provides the Town Accountant’s Office with a pre-process payroll register so that the related accounts payable vouchers can be processed in a timely manner. The Town typically receives the signed payroll warrant the day before paychecks are issued. Historically, the warrant was signed by both the School’s Director of Business and Human Resources and a School Committee member. Beginning around June 2025, the School Committee member’s approval has been provided by email. Following the School Department’s payroll approval, payroll information is submitted through Harpers. The Town Accountant processes the related school vouchers, and the Town Treasurer processes the payroll payments. The responsibility for preparing, reconciling, and approving School Department payroll remains with SPS.”