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The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District is delaying $6.6 million in end-of-the-school-year teacher payments because of financial constraints, in what is thought to be a first for the suburban Milwaukee district.

West Allis-West Milwaukee, which has been digging itself out of a $14 million deficit over the past year, alerted teachers in an email last week that those who normally take their summer pay in a lump sum in June would receive just a fourth of their expected paychecks Thursday, with the balance to come a week later.

Business manager Andy Chromy said the district had no choice, given its financial troubles and the resulting limits imposed by auditors on the type of short-term borrowing it would have traditionally done to cover such payments.

But teachers and their union representatives are calling foul, saying the delay will cause a true hardship for some.

"The payment schedule is published the spring before. Everybody counts on it. They expect it," said one teacher who asked not to be identified out of fear of reprisal from the administration.

"I know one couple. They're both teachers. They live paycheck to paycheck and are trying to buy a house. That changes their approach."

She said many teachers were blindsided by the news, which was buried in a "budget update" emailed to district employees June 9, the last day of school.

"By that point, we don't have any recourse. They don't even have to face us," she said.

Steve Cupery, the Wisconsin Education Association Council representative for West Allis-West Milwaukee teachers, said the district has agreed to work with individual teachers who can demonstrate a hardship.

But he blasted the delay as a byproduct of Act 10, the 2011 state law that eroded the bargaining rights of public employee unions.

"It's just one more example of the consequences of Act 10, how it hurts people and will dissuade people from going into the profession," Cupery said.

All staff received their regular payments Thursday, and teachers who are paid on a 12-month cycle are unaffected by delay.

Historically, teacher contracts in Wisconsin have allowed them to spread their payments over 12 months or take their end-of-the-year salary payments in a lump sum in June.

Since the passage of Act 10, he said, at least one district tried to impose a 12-month payment cycle. But the union objected, citing a state law that requires payment for services already rendered to be made within 31 days unless there is a voluntary agreement to do otherwise.

West Allis-West Milwaukee's issues appear to stem from a series of costly financial decisions made under then-Superintendent Kurt Wachholz, who retired unexpectedly in the summer of 2014. Among them, according to Chromy: the purchase and renovation of a new building, cost overruns on staffing and benefits, and several facilities projects.

The largest piece of that — about $5 million — was for a debt payment related to a yearslong lawsuit over a risky investment scheme that cost West Allis-West Milwaukee and four other districts a total of $200 million a decade ago, Chromy said.

"Since the verdict had come, there was some anticipation by our legal team that that payment would come in ... to offset that cost," but that didn't happen, Chromy said.

According to an audit released late last year, the district had overspent its 2013-'14 and 2014-'15 budgets by a total of $14 million, wiping out its entire reserves.

Chromy, who arrived midyear 2014, said the district has made significant cuts to address the shortfalls and expects to begin the next school year $2 million in the black. But cash flow problems persist, he said, forcing the decision to delay the teacher payments.

As of June 9, according to the email to staff, the district had a cash balance of $3.9 million and expected a $1.1 million state payment on the 13th. But that would not have been enough to cover its regular payroll obligations plus the end-of-year payment to teachers.

Chromy said he could see around June 3 or 4 that the district wasn't going to have sufficient cash flow to cover the payments. So the decision was made to delay the final teacher payments until June 21, a day after it is scheduled to receive a $16.7 million check from the state — the final third of its general aid payment for the 2015-'16 school year.

"This was our last option," he said.