A significant number of educators in the Waco Independent School District expressed concern about lengthening school days between 15 and 30 minutes this coming school year, but not one made a defiant, over-my-dead-body stand about it at the school board meeting Thursday night. Even the Texas State Teachers Association leader was tepid in his objections.

No doubt, teachers grasp the grim realities of this new era of austerity. After all, they saw themselves cruelly stereotyped and public education shortchanged by state leaders this year. They watched as 181 of their number were laid off by the school board (though most have been rehired). They know that things can get worse.

In short, teachers get it. So does a school board facing a $3.2 million budget deficit. Times have changed, maybe forever. What has transformed jobs in the private sector is coming to pass for public employees too.

Well, at least for some.

All this is in sharp contrast to business at the McLennan County Courthouse. Two weeks ago county commissioners reversed course on a more efficient pay schedule because it inconvenienced some county employees (many of whom, one official said, make less than $40,000). To accommodate them, they’ve allotted up to $58,000 more to redo an expensive new software program.

In short, because these employees didn’t want smaller paychecks (even if there were more of them), sympathetic commissioners junked a 26-week pay schedule they embraced in May. So what if that 26-week system would guarantee far more accountability with taxpayer money?

Most of us can’t imagine how screwed up the county’s old (and now revived) 24-week pay schedule is. It embraces what County Auditor Stan Chambers insists is an antiquated system that deems all county employees salaried, yet must abide by federal labor laws and pay some employees overtime based on hourly rates in pay periods that vary widely with one another in terms of actual workdays. And this is only the start of how confusing things get. 

For instance, county employees — paid the middle and end of each month — got paychecks Friday because the pay period ends this weekend. If a road crew must run out and clear a county road because a tree falls across it this weekend, that isn’t figured into the paychecks because the time cards aren’t turned in till next Thursday.

That’s right — time cards for the pay period just past come in late this week, well after the checks have gone out. And if you think that’s efficient, I can get you work with the federal government.

Matters can get trickier when someone quits, gets canned or is docked some pay during a pay period under the 24-week pay schedule. Full checks still go out because no time cards have come in. Then someone must go through the misery of getting the disgruntled or dismissed employee to pay the county back. I’m told that some cases wind up in small-claims court.

In one case where an employee was paid too much, officials tried to do a “reverse direct deposit.” While that was in the works, they cut the employee a paycheck for the correct amount. So the employee briefly wound up with an extra check as well as a deposit including hours not worked.

Commissioner Kelly Snell, who along with Joe Mashek fought vigorously but without success to keep the 26-week pay schedule on track, slams the unwieldy 24-week system because of the “voodoo bookkeeping needed just to keep track of information on 800 county employees.”

It’s a particularly strange move for the county when so many controversial and questionable costs have arisen about everything from the new jail to renovation of the courthouse dome. Nor has this latest stink gone unnoticed by outraged citizen watchdogs, including businessman Eddie Pribyl, one of several to show up at commissioners court last week to blast county officials for “blatant waste of taxpayer money.”

“I understand this may be an inconvenience,” Pribyl told the court. “We as taxpayers suffer inconveniences every day. Not everything works exactly the way we want it to. But if the few have to give a little bit for the good of the county and the rest of us taxpayers, so be it. I’m sorry. We make adjustments every day of our lives.”