Where does professionalism stand in a company? We, the employees of United Families Inc. in El Centro, have not received pay. Our payday was Feb. 20, and it is now Feb. 27, and our boss has not even bothered to send out a letter or give a call explaining why our paycheck is being held. We are now working without pay, and when we ask a reason on why this is happening, they seem to not know or beat around the bush. We have families to take care of, bills to pay, among many other things. We politely ask for answers to our questions but receive no answers. We hope you can help us figure out why this is happening and why they haven’t alerted United Families teachers, aides and maintenance people about this situation. — Unpaid, El Centro
That officially makes it six Probe questions about this in two days.
Frankly, we didn’t expect United Families Inc. officials to be so forthcoming with us, but after speaking with executive director Bertha Barcena Franco, we believe she is as sick about this as any of her 110 unpaid employees.
Thankfully, an hour after we got off the phone with Barcena Franco, she called to say the check United Families was waiting for had arrived.
United Families is a nonprofit preschool system that depends on payments from the state to make payroll, rent and utilities. The food it serves the 700 children under its care comes from a different funding source.
Barcena Franco said she hasn’t been able to make her payroll, rent or utilities because the state has been late paying. Although payday was Feb. 20, she said the funding was supposed to be paid to United Families on Feb. 16. She has been requesting payment ever since, and was finally told Tuesday that a check had been sent out Monday.
At the moment, United Families is in pretty bad shape financially. In fiscal 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown began to raid the reserves on all state-funded preschools, she said.
Still, she said she was able to make due and overcome late payments from the state to cover her 65 to 75 employees, who worked among 11 United Families preschools caring for 500 children.
However, since October it has become more difficult.
Barcena Franco said that in October, Campesinos Unidos Inc. decided to get out of the preschool business, and told the state it no longer wanted the funding. On a Friday, she said, a representative from the state came to her and asked if she would take over four Campesinos facilities.
Three days later, on a Monday, she did, and without any financial incentive or start-up funding.
“They asked me to do it for the kids and the families,” Barcena Franco said.
Those four sites — in El Centro, Calexico, Indio and Coachella — were bigger than any one of the 11 United Families already have, adding 35 to 40 employees and 200 more children.
She said that made it impossible to cover payroll, rent and utilities when the state was late this time. She said she was expecting a check for about $400,000, to cover two payroll cycles and the rent and utilities on all the facilities.
Barcena Franco said she has worked in early childhood education for 39 years, founding United Families in 1996.
“We don’t have fancy buildings or fancy furniture; I haven’t gotten paid either,” she said.
“We work hard and we provide a good service, and our children start school prepared,” she said.
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