Anne Arundel County auditor Teresa Sutherland is investigating how and when the school system plans to pay for a payroll system not approved by the county.
She said Monday that she was unsure of where the money for the $4 million system is coming from, which could spell the difference between balanced books and legal action.
Schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell said he was buying the payroll system in a letter sent to the Anne Arundel County Council last month, a day after the council did not approve funds for the payroll system.
The school system was in jeopardy of being overbudgeted if it did not have the $3 million for the first payment of the new payroll system in fiscal 2007, which ended June 30.
The school system has until Sunday to verify that it has not overspent in any of its budget categories.
If the school system did so, legal ramifications could be in store, Sutherland said.
Assistant Schools Superintendent Greg Nourse said the school board is still working out a contract with the payroll system vendor, but funding would come from fiscal 2007.
“We don?t intend to put ourselves in the red,” he said. “We might have to make some adjustments depending on how things settle out.”
If the payment was made on or after July 1, the funding could come through a shuffling of $13 million that goes before the council Monday. The $13 million would come from the fiscal 2008 school budget.
The school system has not revealed where those funds would go.
The council wanted the school system to wait on the purchase of the new payroll system to see whether it could save money by using the same payroll system in other departments.
The current payroll system is no longer made or maintained by the developer.
