The Portland school district has hired accounting firm BerryDunn for $500,000 to investigate and solve its outstanding retirement payment issues.

The school board approved the contract in a unanimous vote Tuesday night, with member Benjamin Grant (who was on Tuesday’s ballot as a City Council candidate) absent.

Portland Public Schools experienced a payroll crisis in 2022, when employees were paid late or incorrectly because the district’s system broke down.

The district has since been rebuilding its payroll systems and correcting payment errors, but one outstanding issue remains with contributions into employee public retirement accounts, known as MainePERS. At a September board meeting, Superintendent Ryan Scallon said the work of reconciling the issues was more than district finance staff could handle alone, and introduced the contract with BerryDunn.

On Tuesday night, Scallon explained that BerryDunn took a preliminary look at MainePERS contributions and discovered reporting issues outside of the window of time impacted by the payroll crisis. They determined it would be necessary to switch its approach and review each individual employee account for their entire time with the district.

The firm will review all employees who worked at the district between April 1, 1996, and Dec. 31, 2023. That includes about 10,700 individuals, who may have worked at the district for a few months or for decades, Scallon said.

BerryDunn has already looked at four batches of employees, and in each one, the majority of accounts had errors. They ranged from $50 to $12,000, with both over and underreporting, Scallon said.

The board tabled a vote on the contract at its Oct. 15 meeting for several reasons, including to hear a district finance update. Board members later that month heard a presentation from Helene DiBartolomeo, the district’s finance director, about how it could afford the unbudgeted cost of the audit. She said the district had savings from two budgeted programs that were ultimately funded by grants, and from staff vacancies.

“So with those three items, we are able to maintain the funding on the instructional level while also being able to transfer our budget in order to bring in that contract for $500,000,” DiBartolomeo said last month.

That number only includes the contract. It’s currently unknown how much it will cost to fix the issues, if anything.

“The contract will allow a streamlined process, it will also allow our finance team to focus on other things,” Scallon said.

BerryDunn’s work is expected to take at least two years. Scallon said the firm will begin by reviewing employees who recently retired that are still awaiting their final retirement amounts, then current employees who are close to retirement, followed by other affected staff. The firm will provide quarterly updates to the board.

At the school board meeting Tuesday, members also heard a presentation about staffing data. Human resources staff said Portland has a higher teacher retention rate than the state average.

The district hired about 200 new employees this school year, but presenters said education technician and special education roles still need to be filled. Sixteen percent of staff are people of color, a number that has been generally trending upward. Student diversity is also trending upward, and 52% of the student body this year are students of color, according to the most recent district data.