After learning the Broward school district has been overspending thousands in overtime payments, School Board members wanted to know Tuesday how they could put a stop to it.

The answer didn't make them too happy: There might be a solution, but it will take some time.

It will take a team of school system administrators until the end of February to look at how much it will cost to alter the district's computer payroll software, school administrators estimated. It is unknown how long it would take after that to implement a new system.

``To make it easy for ourselves, we're just paying money out when with a little work and maybe a tweak to our program we could have saved a lot of money,'' School Board member Ann Murray lamented.

The method the school system has been using ``is the simplest, but costliest overtime payment method,'' Lynn Strong, the district's associate superintendent for human resources, wrote in response to a June report from district auditors.

The problem happens when a schools employee has two jobs within the district. If they get paid overtime, they automaticly get paid 1 ½ times the hourly rate at their primary job, even if the overtime work was done in the lesser-paying position.

About 1,800 schools employees have lower-paid second jobs in the district -- for example, driving an activities bus in the afternoons after doing clerical work in a school during the day.

Auditors found the district has been paying those employees overtime for their second jobs at the higher hourly rate the workers would earn for their primary jobs. In some cases, employees didn't have an hourly rate assigned for their second job. For example, the report found that a person with a second job as a bus driver could get $26.56 to $48.03 per hour in overtime based on the employee's primary position.

BUDGET WOES

The report came after budget woes over the summer forced layoffs and cuts to school funding -- and amid cries of district waste from the Broward Teachers Union, which has been told there is no money for teachers raises. Payroll makes up the largest chunk of the Broward school system's budget.

The review also identified other concerns about how overtime is reported. Employee pay stubs don't identify the dates when the person worked overtime, and overtime is not always filed in the same pay period as when the employee performs the extra work.

Auditors recommended changing the district's payroll system to stop paying a primary job's hourly rate for the second job. They also said an employee's overtime rate should be set before the person is hired and recommended establishing an hourly pay for all positions -- a suggestion made in an April 2003 payroll audit.

And auditors said the district could reduce overtime in general by hiring more people and eliminating some second jobs, which could also address worries about fatigue.

Some board members were concerned that reducing overtime would hurt employees hit by budget cuts who are trying to make ends meet.

``The people that I'm speaking of can't necessarily live on three hours a day [of work],'' Robin Bartleman said.

DEFAULT PAY

Patrick Reilly, the district's chief auditor, said those decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis. The important part is that the district stop using the hourly rate for the primary job as the default overtime pay, he added.

Strong, the human resources superintendent, said there are alternative overtime pay methods. For example, under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the district could blend the hourly rates for the employee's two jobs and use that number for overtime pay. Or employees could agree for their overtime pay to be set at the hourly rate for their second job. Either way, the changes would require a switch to the district's payroll system -- and possibly contract negotiations with employee unions.

Between now and July, the district will spend time creating an overtime rules manual and setting standards for how overtime should be paid.

``What we found out was that we really didn't have any established rules,'' Strong recently told The Miami Herald.

In September, members of the district's watchdog audit committee -- who do not work for the school system -- had urged schools administrators to act quickly on the overtime report's recommendations.

``It didn't happen overnight,'' Strong said. ``We're not going to fix it overnight.''